David de Caires: The untold, unheard, unseen side

Dec 13, 2008 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

If I was to be asked if David de Caires was a great Guyanese, I wouldn’t hesitate for even a fraction of a moment to say a resounding yes. Indeed he was. For me, great status must not include the killing or being associated with the murder of people or the taking away of their human rights.
For this reason, Jagan and Burnham are not great Guyanese, are not Guyanese heroes, and were not good people. Eusi Kwayana, Hubert Critchlow and Walter Rodney are the three definitive Guyanese heroes.
We all have our faults, some large, some not so consequential. David de Caires was not without his faults. I wrote that in my two tributes to him in this newspaper. However, the vast outpouring of eulogies contained in three pages in the Guyana Review (GR) of Wednesday, December 10, 2008 should be evaluated lest it ends up distorting the “true” history of Guyana.
There are too many omissions to the story of David de Caires and his crusade for press freedom in Guyana in that GR outpouring. What follows are brief notes. One day, I may lengthen this essay to present it as an academic conference paper.
First, I was long told that education at those private, elite Catholic schools ends up instilling strong instincts of elitism in its graduates. The GR piece informs us that David picked up his humanity, love of people and simple, modest character from his schooling at Stonyhurst in England.
I didn’t see the last trait in David de Caires. I didn’t see such traits in the leadership of Stabroek News. David was happy living a life of colour and class.
His partner, Miles Fitzpatrick, who often deputized for him in the editor’s chair, was the most authoritarian editor any Caribbean newspaper had. Mr. Fitzpatrick certainly was not tolerant of pieces that did not suit his aesthetic conceptualizations.
I beg to disagree with any media expert who thinks that a reporter and a columnist must write to suit the temperament of his/her editor.
One section of the Stabroek News leadership was foul-mouthed, disrespectful of staff members and was simply an untrained mind when it came to manners and etiquettes. Certainly David’s internalization of values at Stonyhurst was not passed on to this person. David de Caires ran an elitist outfit at the Stabroek News where staff were not permitted to contact him directly either by phone or in person. Staff were not given his direct line.
Up to his death, very few of his employees knew his cell number. I wrote from 1988 to 1994 for his newspaper helping to market it with my independent perspectives but was not allowed to contact him. I had to go through his wife when I wanted to speak to him. On most occasions, she refused me access.
This was in stark contrast to Adam Harris of the Chronicle, Father Andrew Morison of the Catholic Standard and Glenn Lall of the Kaieteur News. These were people that you could talk to, tell a story to and end up having their direct line and cell number. Where was the influence of Stonyhurst on de Caires?
I wrote several pieces about this type of elitism at the Stabroek News in column form and in the letter pages. If the story of the Stabroek News is going to be told in an objective mode or if the history of the Guyanese media is going to be written then my hope is those essays of mine, including this piece here, are captured on the canvas.
I reiterate what I wrote in my two previous eulogies; Mr. de Caires was definitely the more open-mined and accommodating of the Stabroek News decision-makers. In fact, Mr. Fitzpatrick made that quite clear to me when in a disagreement over one of my submissions he told me I could give it to David when he, David returns because he, David would be more inclined to take “such things.”
Finally, this crusade to be a fiercely independent newspaper that is so gloriously told in those Guyana Review pages is not a true reflection of the original direction of the Stabroek News. Far from it, the Stabroek News was an extremely cautious starter.
I would leave it to that writer to delve into the reason why I stopped writing for the Stabroek News. It concerned a column about the late Dr. Kenneth King, Ms. Joycelyn Dow among others. Mr. Fitzpatrick objected to its contents too late; it was already published. David called me in and that was the end of my Stabroek career.
Whoever wrote that panegyric of David this week has lots of reasons for remaining unknown.

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David de Caires: The untold, unheard, unseen side

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