Latest update April 19th, 2024 12:59 AM
Nov 05, 2014 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon
Why would any independent analyst believe that Mr. Nandlall’s announcement of the higher caste to which he belongs was just an ephemeral wind that passed through his mind as he spoke in the taped conversation with KN journalist Leonard Gildarie?
Why would any political observer believe that there is no other politician in the PPP hierarchy that thinks like Anil Nandlall? There are, and they go right into the hierarchy of the PPP’s leadership. If Nandlall and others in the PPP leadership accept that Indians in Guyana belong to a caste ladder, then where does that leave African Guyanese?
Here is something that I did not tell my lawyers when the trial of the Jagdeo libel writ against me began. I have never put it in print. I never mentioned it even to my wife and daughter. I can’t recall telling anyone about it. It was there in my sub-conscious, but it was left buried there and never rose to the surface of my conscious mind (in Freudian terms so to speak).
Why did I not tell my lawyers about it? First, I felt they would have said it was too sordid to pronounce in court, and in any case, we had sufficient material to prove that President Jagdeo presided over a government that practiced racial discrimination. Secondly, I felt it was so profane that people out there might have said that Freddie is hitting below the belt.
Thirdly, I was scared that if my lawyers found it to be damning evidence and used it in court, its effect might have been so devastating that violent vindictiveness may visit me. I thought this thing was so nasty that I should leave it alone. The only time this thing came up in my mind was when the then Commissioner of Police Henry Greene got into a legal tsunami over his sex act with a woman who said she was raped.
It struck me that given all the Commissioner had done for the PPP, the PPP never came to his rescue as they did when many high-ranking PPP leaders were alleged to have done what Greene did. But they were East Indians. With this Nandlall caste infamy swirling around Guyana at the moment, the thought about what happened to Greene suddenly flew into my head and popping out of my head, too, is this thing about which I have kept quiet for so long.
One evening in 1995, my longstanding friend, Malcolm Harripaul invited me to swim and use the sauna at Castellani House. Malcolm and I have been friends for ages. We knew each other since we were late teens and I liked him because I think he is as crazy as I am. At the time, Malcolm was the head of the Fraud Squad overseeing the operations of Customs and Excise.
While we were in the sauna, a two-man team came in – Mr. MBA and the Champion. The discussion inevitably had to involve UG. This is what the Champion of Dirt said, and Malcolm Harripaul is a witness. “Ya’ll gat dem Blaaackmaan f…ing dem coolie girls at UG.”
If this was the way these policy–makers think about African Guyanese men then the implications are horrible to contemplate when you think these policy-makers are the bosses of African men who work in the public service.
Giving testimony during my libel trial, I told Mr. Jagdeo’s lawyer that I can cite several instances where high–ranking Indian state sector bosses were guilty of criminal financial conduct but were dismissed rather than prosecuted. Did this have to do with the caste system that the PPP embraces and that Anil Nandlall admitted to? Was the abandonment of Henry Greene (this must not be read to mean I agreed with what Greene did; I do not, but I am being analytical here) by the PPP, related to the caste system?
Even though Nandlall is the focus, the society must not lose sight of the fact that Nandlall’s state of mind is symptomatic of what lies in the Freudian cupboards of the PPP. And I don’t think anyone of them is a rejectionist of the caste system. On the contrary, caste is very much alive in the personal world of PPP leaders.
Caste is intricately bound up with the possession of wealth. The more wealth you have, the higher caste you are assigned. And this is where one can locate its manifestations inside the PPP. It is public knowledge that Mr. Jagdeo, a devout Hindu, has no close friend from the working class or middle class. They all come from the super-rich strata.
Please share this to every Guyanese including your house cats.
Apr 19, 2024
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