Freddie should hate the message and not the messenger

May 21, 2008 Letters

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Dear Editor,

I think columnist and letter writer Freddie Kissoon needs to be professional in his comments and responses on or about others. He should stick to issues and not personalities.

Unlike Freddie Kissoon, I do not need to know the details of Dr. Anand Persaud’s personal life, in letter captioned “Is Anand Persaud a Ghost Writer?” (Kaieteur News, May11) in order to respond to his queries. People’s personal lives have no relevance to their comments in papers, unless that is the subject of their writings.

What Anand Persaud or Vishnu Bisram do for a living should have no relevance to Freddie Kissoon.
Persaud wrote he has a doctorate in “Life Sciences;” I have no reason to dispute his claim. Persaud asked questions (relevant to polling in SN) and I responded accordingly.

However, I detest his unprofessional condemnation of my recent poll, and his imputing motifs about the poll and questioning my integrity and honesty.

I choose not to attack Persaud or question his existence, like Freddie does. I do not know Persaud, but I am convinced he exists in body and soul. I do not need to know him in order to answer his queries, as long as they are related to my polling or on the issues I write about. As a professional, I will not pass value judgment on Persaud.

Freddie, on the other hand, passes judgment on people without evidence. And he asks questions that have no relevance about polling or on the issues I write about. Freddie wants to know about my job.
He wrote in March that he simply wants to verify my employment, and because I refused to divulge details about my employment he concluded “Bisram is not engaged in reputable employment.”

But Freddie has had a history of forming conclusions when there is no evidence to back them.

In another recent example, he wrote Dr. Ravi Dev is an American citizen. That is a non-factual statement. I know Ravi Dev extremely well, having struggled with him in the trenches against the dictatorship.
Freddie will never come up with any evidence to back his unsubstantiated claims against Dev or myself. Dev is one of the most brilliant thinkers and writers I have come across, and Freddie is no match for him.
Freddie indulges in nasty attacks whenever he loses a debate. He attacks below the belt – calling people names and questioning their patriotism and nationalism, as he has done repeatedly with Dev and others (including myself).

In his latest missive he engages in several untruths about me, but I will ignore some of them, because they were debunked in previous letters.

Freddie says I have not provided professional details about myself. Thousands of people know me as a teacher, but that is not enough for Freddie; he wants to verify my employment. Freddie is yet to explain what my life and the people associated with NACTA have to do with the findings of polls I conduct.
I have conducted polls for almost 20 years, with a very good track record. That should be enough for any reasonable person to pass judgment on my competence to conduct surveys. But, then again, that is Freddie!
I have not applied for a job from Freddie. Thus, I do not need to supply him with my CV or resume‘ for vetting. My employment is not related to what I pen in the papers. My employer did not contract me to conduct a poll in Guyana or elsewhere.

My employer has contracted me to teach, and I believe I have done a satisfactory job, because I am tenured and have been teaching and conducting research (in the natural and social sciences) for over 25 years.
I have previously written, in response to Freddie, about my education in the natural sciences (B.S) and graduate degrees in virtually all of the major social science subjects.

With regards to polling, I started this activity with Dr. Baytoram Ramharack during the late 1980s under the Turkeyen Research and Polling Institute name.

When Prof. Ramharack “eased up” on polling, I was asked by other educators, with whom we were associated, to fill the void. By this time the name NACTA (North American Teachers Association) was established. NACTA was founded by Trinidadian Vassan Ramracha.

I was authorised to use the name, and made Director of Polling. I am not authorised to speak on behalf of NACTA, but I can speak about the polls.

I wish to point out that TRPI conducted several polls in Guyana before and after the 1992 elections.
The findings of a 1989 poll were referenced by the Democratic Institute of America in calling for free and fair elections. The PPP also used the findings extensively to bolster its claim for a clean election. I assisted in the conduct of virtually all of the TRPI polls.

Those polls, as well as those I supervised under NACTA, were financed by the individuals. Prof. Ramharack, Dr. Dev, Ramracha and myself used our own funds to pay the costs associated with the polls.
Unlike Freddie, I do not find anything unusual or unprofessional about funding our own polls.
It is taxing on our pockets, but there aren’t interests willing to fund polls in Guyana. Businessmen have repeatedly asked what I can do for them.

It is regrettable Freddie is offended that I am funding my own polls. I will discontinue funding my polls if Freddie pledges to pay for them.I authorise the editor to forward my contact for Freddie to get in touch with me to assist payment for polls. Thanks, Fred! You are a great guy!

I wish to point out it is an untruth that I did not consult with people from UG or other scholars about the polls I conducted in Guyana or elsewhere.

I never made such an admission to Freddie.

Freddie knows the truth but chooses to peddle untruths. I indicated in responses to his columns that I did not consult with Freddie for obvious reasons — because he agreed with Dick Morris’s prediction that the AFC would win the 2006 election.

And many a time he is not objective in his analysis about the PPP and PNC. I did pen that consulting with UG academics is not a requirement to conduct polls.

Freddie had made such a claim when Ramharack and Dev conducted polls in the 1980s, and I and others debunked that myth.

There are more untruths in his many columns and letters, but I choose to ignore them.

Finally, I wish to point out that the Bisram name has developed a reputation for professionalism and accuracy in polling long before SN started publishing my polls. My polls in Trinidad since 1995 have been correct, including the two tied elections.

Freddie should focus on the polls instead of on my personal life. How I earn money, my employment, etc., bear no relationship with the polls I conduct.

I wish to note that only in Guyana would a writer and an academic like Freddie get away with attacks and lies about others.

They would not be accepted outside of Guyana.

Vishnu Bisram

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