Latest update May 13th, 2024 12:59 AM
Oct 25, 2015 Letters
Dear Editor,
Love him or hate him, Freddie KIssoon’s public intellectualism pervades Guyana. It may be open for debate but there isn’t anyone before him that has used ideas, critiques, intellectual exchanges and plain confrontational grammar to influence Guyana the way he has. Friends who have visited Guyana on their return would tell me that everybody reads Freddie Kissoon. We in the Diaspora read Freddie Kissoon too
I wouldn’t say I share his world view and his philosophical ideas. His take on ethnic voting is too emotionally skewed. He seems to distrust the nationalism of Indians less than Africans in Guyana. That too is simplistic. While I believe he is capable of great intellectual depths, his understanding of the Guyanese Indian mind lacks a sound approach. As many of his Indian detractors would argue; he needs to write more on the sociological weaknesses of both major races, that is, his sagacious pen must roam over the African-Guyanese community. Contrary to what many in the Diaspora have told me here in the UK, I don’t think Freddie has ethnic preferences. His work on the crime spree during the Buxton mayhem was journalism and intellectual analysis par excellence. I cannot understand why Kaieteur News has not made those columns into book form. Our history is incomplete without it
I never thought of writing about him because I do admire and appreciate what he has done to open the eyes of all of us on power and politics in our beloved Guyana. His human rights record is the best in the Caribbean. And I say this as someone who lived in three Caribbean countries before settling in the UK. Freddie is Guyana’s Don Quixote and Ralph Nader wrapped in one. This is my first letter to the press and it was occasioned by a letter I saw on Freddie Kissoon by the Guyanese educator, Harry Hergash who lives in Canada. Hergash is my age and has a wealth of experience on Guyana. I think he is a fair-minded analyst. Harry has put Freddie in very, very big trouble. If as they say he is one of the best analytical minds in politics in Guyana then he will need every muscle in his intellectual body to get out of the situation Harry has put him in
Quoting from two columns of Freddie KIssoon last week, Harry Hergash was able to show that the APNU-AFC relationship is becoming frozen. Hergash implies that Kissoon got his information from the closeness he shares with the AFC leadership. It is public knowledge that Kissoon is extremely close to Nigel Huges, Khemraj Ramjattan and Moses Nagamootoo and he constantly mentions the chats he has, dinner he enjoys, and places he goes with many top AFC leaders. It is public knowledge too that his bosom pal is Dr. David Hinds who is openly frustrated with the APNU direction since Hinds’ WPA is part of APNU. Harry Hergash then implies that those two columns have brought out information about the unsettling relations between the APNU and AFC. In one of the columns on Raphael Trotman, Kissoon insinuates that Trotman got two powerful Cabinet portfolios through APNU and not AFC. In another column quoted by Hegash, Kissoon advises APNU to show a little more gratitude to the AFC because it was the unity slate that caused the May victory and the unity slate only. Freddie Kissoon openly said that the final icing on the cake of victory was the Granger/Nagamootoo symbolism, not the APNU ticket alone
Harry Hergash has really put Freddie Kissoon in big trouble here. How is he going to get out of it? Is there an APNU ingratitude to the AFC? Is the AFC being sidelined by APNU? Was Trotman the recipient of APNU generosity at the expense of the AFC? Does Trotman sit in the PNC or AFC? Does Freddie still believe that the PNC is a changed party that he wrote so much about? Just before the elections, I read a fine analysis on the quality of Granger’s mind by Freddie. Against the background of what Hergash wrote, is Freddie still sticking to that analysis? I close by saying that Freddie has a wonderful mind. I have five children scattered all over the world who have a never-ending love for Guyana and they keep abreast of the country they were born in through the daily Freddie Kissoon column. I was particularly moved by his last weekend column where he described how he almost gave his life to save a little boy. I hope the Guyana Don Quixote can fix the jam he has been placed in. After all we know the role he played in bringing his friends to power
Devanand Persaud
London, UK
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May 13, 2024
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