Laurie Lewis and me at the Garden Café

Jul 24, 2008 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Guyanese under twenty years of age probably will not be familiar with the name Laurie Lewis but their parents would.

He is out of the news these days but when those twenty-year-olds were in napkins, their parents would have seen Mr. Lewis nightly on the television newscasts and daily in the newspapers.

Laurie Lewis probably holds the distinction of being among the longest serving persons in the area of public security in the Caribbean among public sector workers.

On leaving Queen’s College, Mr. Lewis entered the officer cadet course in the Guyana Police Force and since then and for the next 40 years severed in different branches of state security, including as Chairman of Joint Intelligence and Commissioner of Police.

Mr. Lewis retired from official duties in 2006 from the Office of the President where he served as a consultant to the President in national security matters.

I knew Laurie Lewis during my early twenties and since that time, I have enjoyed a correct relationship with him.

Lewis is the kind of person who has the uncanny ability to get along warmly with even his enemies (he would say he never had enemies). Maybe it is his training in intelligence matters.

We were bitter opponents at the University of Guyana during our student days but yet Laurie and I got along just fine in the heat of battle.

The interview was discussed at the Rose Bud Café and he suggested we return there for the actual process. The Garden Café was my preference for privacy because I have a big mouth.

As he walked towards the table of my choice, I suggested he buy the snacks but I guess he stuck to protocol, meaning that that was the requirement of the host.

The interview lasted several hours and would not fit into my usual column space. No point in making this one large because readers hate long articles.

I guess the friends of Mark Benschop, admirers of Ronald Waddell, curious Guyanese who want to know about the Monica Reece killer, President Jagdeo’s outburst against Gerry Gouveia, Yesu Persaud and Gordon Moseley, and the confirmation of Acting Commissioner Greene would have to wait for another column.

My first question was on his analysis of President Jagdeo. Laurie Lewis loved cricket and played the game for over thirty years, so one can say he knows how to bat on a sticky wicket.

But I grew up under a father who was an excellent umpire so I know how to bowl on an uninviting pitch.

Immediately, Laurie declined to talk about President Jagdeo. He said he preferred not to discuss his views on a serving president.

He mentioned that he has worked closely with seven presidents and would only evaluate the previous six. I was hit for six. But I came back with a Murali doorsa. I then asked him to speak on Burnham.

This is how he replied: “Burnham is par excellence. That is all I am prepared to say. Let those who know the word look it up.”

In any dictionary, ‘par excellence’ (a French word) means two things. One is the very best of the highest quality or so great that cannot be compared.

I knew what ‘par excellence’ meant so I inquired if he wanted me to mention his description of Burnham in the published interview, and he asserted: “I am on the record, Freddie.”

The Lewis interview was wide-ranging and I felt lucky being able to talk with someone so overflowing with the facts of current Guyanese history.

When one thinks of the knowledge Lewis has of perhaps all the principal political players in the past and present, then one can consider Mr. Lewis a walking library of Guyanese politics.

I persisted about Burnham. Why was he so full of praise for Burnham? He looked me in the eyes, the lightness of his words disappeared and he moved somewhat uncomfortably in his seat.

He said, “Freddie, Burnham was vision, breath, depth, intellectual qualities. People like him do not come easily.”

As I was about to ask another question, he intercepted me and spoke these words: “You know the two persons I enjoyed the most working for were Burnham and Jagan. That man Jagan was so simple. Yes, I admired Cheddi Jagan.”

Since we were on Burnham, I couldn’t let him leave without answering many questions so I inquired about his disagreements with some of Burnham’s policies. He chose to name one – the banning of flour and spilt peas. He thought that was a bad mistake on the part of Forbes Burnham.

As he got up to leave, I saw the shaky gait. This wasn’t the vibrant Laurie Lewis I knew from my student days. But the pleasant personality is very much there.

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