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Aug 11, 2013 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon
Mark Benschop in a letter to this newspaper put my age as “touching 70s.” I didn’t reply to that because I think, not most, but all Guyanese know I am very far from seventy (by the way; do I look like over seventy?). But I have been around a long time to know who is who in Guyanese society and Guyanese politics.
I have not counted the numbers of columns I have penned since 1988 when I first started newspaper commentary, but since then it has to be a few thousands. In that kaleidoscope of analytical directions, emotional reflections, historical journeys, sociological outpourings and some personal silhouettes, readers can extract the way I have felt about countless persons in and out of this country and some major international figures.
No, I am not over seventy but I feel like I have been around for over seventy years when I think of the assessments over more than two decades of Guyanese personalities and politicians that I have made in my pages. My negative and positive choices are public. There is no way I can be that silly to think that I can avoid naming names in this particular column so as to avoid people’s awareness of my conceptualizations of these positive and negative horizons.
Let’s leave out those who have departed. Readers of my state of mind since 1988 would know that I deeply respect and admire Eusi Kwayana. He is an exceptional Guyanese. I admire Tacuma Ogunseye in a very profound way. Prominent Guyanese like Yesu Persaud, Professor Rudy James, Clive Thomas, Sister Mary Noel Menezes, David Hinds, (to name just a few) are exceptional Guyanese that I have interfaced with over more than thirty-five years and I have nothing but excellent things to say about them. I am glad I met them.
There are others that I cannot mention because they would not want me to publish our long relationship out of fear of victimization. In 2008, Mr. Donald Ramotar, in Berbice publicly said some businessmen assisted me to build my home where I now reside in Turkeyen. I replied to him in a letter in KN and he responded in this very newspaper and asserted what he knew.
He was right. I did receive their generosity because we knew each other and they wanted to help. Yes, they are businessmen, and my politics is uncompromisingly working class oriented, but they are good and humane people. I am not in their pocket.
Since I built my home in 2006, I have never solicited any help from them. One day I will name them when there are no clouds of victimization. They are great Guyanese. The eyes of countless Guyanese would pop out of their eyes if they know about the prominent professional who insisted that he wanted to make a contribution to my home construction.
He gave me fifty thousand dollars. We always liked each other’s academic potential and we knew each other very well. But people go separate ways in life. I stuck with my bohemian, anarchist outlook and my love for the poor and powerless. He went in a diametrically and dialectically opposite direction. For years now we have never talked. I hate power and want nothing to do with it.
Two fantastic Guyanese I met and have nothing but love for them are Nigel Hughes and Khemraj Ramjattan. They are extraordinary political activists in my book and for now I will continue to see them as I have always done. I met Khemraj in 1988. And I immediately saw in him, a person with a fiercely independent mind. While I was acerbically critical of the PPP, Khemraj never for one moment ever rebuked me for my views or tried to persuade me.
I remember when he was with the PPP, Khemraj remonstrated strongly with Ralph Ramkarran when I got Ramkarran’s libel writ. They were both PPP leaders, but Khemraj said to Ramkarran; “How can you sue Freddie, he is anti-dictatorship. For Ramkarran, I was not a PPP person, so I was the enemy. For Khemraj, I was someone whose politics he supported.
I met Nigel Hughes in 1989 when he defended me on a charge of attempted arson at UG during the anti-budget protest that same year at UG. He offered his service pro bono and I was acquitted on a false charge. It was clear to most of us who saw Nigel that this was going to be a phenomenal man who will have a future say in the direction of Guyanese politics. I stand by my conviction which I printed several times on this page – not since Walter Rodney has Guyana seen such a caring, charismatic activist. My advice to Nigel is to stay in politics and help bring about the future all Guyanese still dream of.
LISTEN HOW JAGDEO WILL MAKE ALL GUYANESE RICH!!!
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