The last visitor

Nov 14, 2008 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Mr. Rickey Singh wrote that he was the last visitor to have spoken with David de Caires before he died. Mr. Singh wrote that after he left, Mr. de Caires went to bed and did not wake up. Mr. Singh observed that Mr. de Caires spoke of many issues, one of which was the state of politics in Guyana. It would be of interest to all Guyanese in and out of the country to know how this great Guyanese felt about the political future of his country before he passed away.
It is obligatory of Mr. Singh to relate to us the final political (as distinct from private) thoughts of this immense champion of a free Guyana, assuming that the Stabroek News founder specifically requested Mr. Singh not to publish the conversation.
From the little I know of this press freedom crusader, I doubt that he would be that cautious in not wanting his views on the state of politics in Guyana to be known. The first thought that came to my mind would be why such an approach when for more than twenty years, we read how David de Caires felt about the exercise of power through some fine and erudite views in the Stabroek News editorials.
No one can have any doubts about the sharpness of de Caires’s mind. The man wrote thought-provoking editorials, quite a few of which were intellectually top class.
What would David have said to Mr. Singh on the state of Guyanese politics that could be so sensitive that he, David, would not want them to go in print? But I guess we will never know unless Mr. Singh explains.
Assuming that Mr. Singh was not given permission to write about the contents of the last visit that David de Caires had, then I suppose we just have to imagine what was described by the legendary Guyanese to Mr. Singh. There can be no doubt about it that Mr. de Caires was a persuasive speaker.
If you listen to his assessment of political events and political actors, then you are very inclined to share his judgement. As a columnist with the Stabroek News for a few years, I didn’t get to talk quite often with him because he made himself inaccessible to the ordinary folks but from the little chats I had with him, the learned opinion was definitely there.
Was Mr. Singh persuaded by what David told him about politics in the land? Mr. Singh would have to answer that himself but let us return to our imagination. It can safely be deduced that David de Caires was an extremely disappointed man with the way Guyana turned out after 1992.
Long before state placements to the Stabroek News were withdrawn, the editorials of the Stabroek News warned about the decline in transparent, accountable, democratic politics. If one came to the conclusion that democracy was not being practised by the elected government in Guyana, then such a viewpoint would have been shaped by the hard-hitting editorials of David de Caires.
A newspaper will always have non-media people writing editorials for them. There will be friends and acquaintances who will no doubt contribute to the editorial page. But you can always tell when an assessment of political/moral decline in the use of power is done by David himself. It had his distinct New World Quarterly motif.
I once read an editorial on the dilemma between the party and the presidency and the de Caires stamp was all over it. That was a fine piece of writing that all politicians should read. David de Caires brought to the surface the confusion that is inherent in a situation like Guyana where the president is not the party leader and the party has no legal control over the president.
I will urge all politicians to grapple with this dilemma because the implications are horrible for the working of a democratic system.
Sadly, and tragically, David de Caires died a chagrined man. He would not have believed in his wildest imagination that his newspaper fought valiantly to bring an end to rigged elections and unelected dictatorship but that free and fair elections brought elected dictatorship into being.
I do believe that a group of analysts (I would be happy to serve gratis) should select the most compelling editorials of David de Caires where he evaluates the wrong direction the PPP went into since 1992, thus the perilous times in which we live and put them in book form.
In fact, I am almost certain that will be done in honour of this huge contributor to press freedom in this troubled territory. As for the last visitor, I hope that David’s last words achieved the final proselytization of Mr. Singh.

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The last visitor

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