Dear Editor,
Freddie Kissoon attacked Swami, Ravi Dev, Rhyaan Shah and others , but he does not allow critical responses to his acerbic commentaries. That is a quality of a fascist — censorship and maligning others without evidence.
No paper should publish Freddie’s letter with such bile attacking a religious icon like Swamiji. Swamiji is a role model for the youths and is respected for his highly admirable administrative traits at the SVN.
Kissoon charges that Dev and Shah “did not criticise the PPP for its ill-governance. That is not supported by facts. They assailed the PPP for marginalising Indians. It was because PPP discriminated against its own supporters that Dev (and others) courageously called for ethnic equity and an end to ethnic tokenism in governance.
Is it not the epitome of dishonesty to describe PPP governance as fascist when the country experienced democratic rule during that period. Freddie attacked the PPP government daily without recriminations. He dared not try to do so under PNC rule. What passes for governance in Guyana today reeks of fascist tendencies.
Kissoon accepts that “hundreds of Indians lost their jobs under the coalition” but defends it by stating that these Indians held the jobs “perhaps through displacement of Africans who held the jobs under the PNC”. How can an academic justify such an act (of ethnic cleansing) in this day? The fact is those Indians terminated by the coalition did not displace Africans in the public sector. During the PNC tenure, Indians made up only 10% of the bureaucracy and that number did not change significantly under the PPP; Indians justifiably cried discrimination under PPP and PNC. It is also a fact that the PPP did not fire African workers – a few PNC henchmen (bent on sabotaging PPP governance) were removed from their positions because of their undying loyalty to the PNC system of governance; not removing PNCites was a condition (brokered by Jimmy Carter) for the transition of power in October 1992.
An academic cannot couch an argument without hard facts (official numbers). And one cannot use “perhaps” to buttress an argument and or mount a defense of what is widely accepted, even by Kissoon himself, as a racist act (firing Indians and Amerindians).
Kissoon attacks others, and he excludes critiques of his writings in the paper – a violation of an essential principle of journalism. And Kissoon’s censorship behaviour and his unjustified (Hitlerite) attacks on others have all the makings of a fascist. So when speaking of fascist, he should look in the mirror. Kissoon violates the principles of democracy – that is a fascist act.
Kissoon declares that Swami, Dev and Shah are tribalists; none of them is. Kissoon should look around among those he keeps company from the WPA, PNC, ACDA.
Kissoon also accuses Swamiji, Dev and Shah of “being in the gutter”; no they are not and are very respectful of others. The kind of language that Kissoon uses to describe Swami, Dev and Ryhaan is that of someone who rolls in the gutter and mud as “willy the pig” does.
It is noted that Chronicle allows Freddie to spout his anti-Hindu and anti-Indian hatred without allowing a response. In Chronicle, Freddie wondered “where Hinduism will put Blacks in the caste system”. Casteism hardly exists in Guyana. But if Kissoon wants to revive the caste system, that’s his business. He certainly knows where he belongs in the ladder. His behavior rules him out of being in the high caste. In the classical system people belonged to the system based of their nature/qualities and action. Kissoon who must know himself more intimately than anyone else may hope to do, where he belongs. By his own recognition, he says he is a chamar. Nothing beats self-recognition.
Kissoon wonders what Swami teaches in SVN where he is the head. The leadership of the coalition (no less than President Granger, Prime Minister Nagamootoo, and Education Minister Roopnarine showered accolades on Swami for his leadership and administration of the school. They all say Swami’s managing of SVN is a model for Guyana.
Yours truly,
Dr. Vishnu Bisram
