Latest update April 24th, 2024 12:59 AM
Aug 31, 2009 Letters
Dear Editor,
In his column of August 24, Freddie Kissoon maliciously claimed that an OAS gathering at Miami International University concluded that “CARICOM should not recognise the polling results from Vishnu Bisram and Ramsamoosh (?)”.
Freddie has a long history of distorting facts and making unsubstantiated conclusions. So I decided to run a check with some of the individuals who attended the parley to confirm Freddie’s assertions and claims which he said were provided to him by Sheila Holder, the sitting MP of the AFC. Not a surprise, Freddie’s claims were once again found to be untruthful and dishonest – which raises an important question as to why did Sheila Holder, a lawmaker, decide to make herself the source of unfounded facts and gossip for Freddie. They both ought to know that their claims can be easily checked out in an age of technology.
Among the names Freddie mentioned as being present at the Miami confab were Profs. Peter Wickham of Barbados and Ramesh Deosaran of Trinidad, both of whom also happen to be pollsters. The Peer Review Meeting in Miami was held four months ago and was called to discuss election campaign finance reform in the Caribbean.
A good educator and columnist would make every effort to confirm and authenticate information especially when the claims malign one’s reputation. Freddie did not. Also, a trained political scientist would have recognised that something was odd about an OAS gathering discussing Vishnu Bisram and another pollster and forming conclusions about them, deciding to investigate them, and agreeing to set up an Association of Caribbean Pollsters to certify pollsters, etc.
But Freddie says he is not a political scientist. He said he is a specialist in German History. One does not have to be brilliant to conclude that the OAS could never involve itself in the matters Freddie penned about. The OAS is an entity of nation states.
Here is what I found out from my conversations with Wickham and Deosaran and the OAS. A meeting did take place at Miami Int’l Univ. It was not an official OAS meeting but the OAS provided funds for MIU to host the gathering. Only about 25 individuals attended the gathering. The OAS said there was no discussion on any individual and the gathering restricted itself to discussing campaign finance reform. Wickham and Deosaran also confirmed there was no discussion on Bisram or Ramsamoosh (sic). They also confirmed they did not have any interaction with Sheila Holder and did not discuss Bisram or Ramsamoosh with her.
Let me also note that Freddie and Holder got (Ramsamoosh’s) name wrong. He is Derek Ramsamooj from the San Fernando area. He is a credible pollster. Aside from mine, his polls came closest to the actual results in Trinidad elections. Wickham did polls for the newly formed COP which did not win a seat. Deosaran used to be Director of the Ansa
McCal Poll but was not involved in the polls for the 2007 elections which Ansa showed was a race between PNM and COP. NACTA said the race was between PNM and UNC and COP would not win a seat. Te results showed 26-15-0 as NACTA predicted.
I find it incredible that Derek was accused of conducting polls for Indian political parties because I know he was commissioned to conduct polls in several Caribbean islands and none of them has Indian parties. With regards to Freddie’s accusation that I conduct polls for Indian parties, that is a falsity. I never conducted polls for any Indian parties. In fact, my polls, commissioned by newspapers, showed the African party (PNM) would win the elections in Trinidad in 2006, 2002, and tie in 2001 – all correct predictions. Mr. Basdeo Panday, the Indian leader, has consistently accused me of being “a PNM pollster” most recently, two weeks ago. I don’t bother with these attacks and I am least bothered by Freddie, distorter. I conduct polls professionally and to the best of my ability and let the results speak for me. So far, I have been on target except in a couple of cases.
Vishnu Bisram
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