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Jul 24, 2010 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon
I lived under President Burnham’s administration and I can recall two appointments that people found some hilarity in. Mind you, not curiosity or vexation.
There were no hard feelings against the two Ministers just that people thought they were not serious personalities to be given high-level portfolios. One was Lord Canary, who was made a junior Minister of Trade, the other was Kenneth Denny, Minister of Labour.
Criticism of Lord Canary’s situation perhaps was unjustified because at the time he was put into the Cabinet his singing career was over. But there was no track record of comical behaviour from the calypsonian that should have prevented him from securing a powerful, political office.
In the case of Mr. Denny, I grew up under him on Durban Street in Wortmanville. I played outside his home and occasionally we would beg him for money.
He was indeed a figure of fun. Always drunk, he got into open fights with his female lovers which sometimes spilled over into the streets with him coming out the worse.
The youths on Durban Street had immense fun laughing at Kenneth Denny. So he became a Minister and I knew he would listen to me with my complaint because I was one of the Wortmanville youths he knew well. A garment factory owner had exploited my sister-in-law so I went to Mr. Denny.
As soon as his secretary mentioned my name, I was ushered into his office. What you are about to read is the honest, scientific truth. I pledge this fact on my parents’ grave.
Mr. Denny was buttering the biscuit in his hand with his finger from the nut-butter bottle. Some of the elderly folks in Wortmanville felt he was also eccentric.
In fairness to Mr. Denny, he was a real down-to-earth character that couldn’t harm even a fly. President Burnham knew he had made a mistake with that particular appointment and soon Denny was released.
In the case of the PPP Government, the more comical, blundering and laughable you are, the more likely you can attain prestigious office. This is yet again one of the essential differences between the Burnham Government and the oligarchic junta that presides over the nation’s affairs.
One of the common questions asked about the PPP, and I hear this from their own supporters, is; “Where the government gets these people from?” The list is long. Randy Persaud comes to mind. Brought to Guyana to do propaganda work, Persaud couldn’t string together a series of concepts, wrap them up in sound analysis and produce a final package of intellectual ribbons.
School boys could have debated Persaud and made him look shallow. While going through his comical rituals, Persaud produced a curriculum-vitae that was longer than the Essequibo River, but to many it resembled Andy Capp’s certificate he used in an argument with Fred Flintstone.
While he was in Guyana, Persaud made you laugh alright. I like the one he threw at me. That will remain in political debate in this country for a long time to come. Persaud replied to one of my KN pieces and accused me of being disrespectful to the President because I wrote a column about
Mr. Jagdeo’s third term ambition. Raging with anger, Persaud yelled out: “Didn’t you hear the President said he is not interested in a third term. You must apologize to the President.”
When I read this funny act by Persaud my mind went right away to Bill Clinton. Clinton stood in front of the cameras, with gesticulating fingers and said; “I did not have sex with that woman.” Months later Clinton admitted to something with Monica Lewinsky which to Clinton is not sex but to billions is known as oral sex.
In the case of Randy Persaud, he missed out on two things. He didn’t ask me if I heard when the President made his announcement and he could have asked me if I believed the President.
Persaud is gone. This month, he packed up his bags and left to add up more years on the forty years he has been outside of Guyana. While here, Persaud refused to state his designation.
To date, he hasn’t told us why he left. This writer knows and did promise to publish the reasons. Some delicacy and sensitivity are involved so I will have to know how to frame my paragraphs.
Not to be left out is the man the PPP appointed as the Chairman of the Advisory Committee on Broadcasting, Mr. Evan Persaud. He ran into trouble at UG over some funny antics indeed. Where do they get them from?
GRA catch EXXON trying to hunch GUYANA over 11 BUS dollars in one shot!!!!
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