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I hope Dr. Ramsammy knows I have a job to do

Jul 14, 2009 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

It is out of protocol for a newspaper commentator to speak about the circulation figures of his column. It is certainly inelegant to describe how pervasive are your commentaries.
But I would like to inform Dr. Leslie Ramsammy that it is because of the reaction in and out of Guyana to this column that I have continued it.
I have prolonged it because in those reactions it has occurred to me that I am doing a job in Guyana.
I believe the column is not accepted as gospel by its readers, but it gives them at least an analytical insight into what is happening in Guyana.
I cannot know how Dr. Ramsammy feels about the role he plays in this country, although I can try to understand. Likewise, he cannot grasp how I feel about my task on this page but he should essay an attempt.

I have persevered with this corner of the Kaieteur News because Guyanese, too numerous to count, want to read about the secret and undemocratic things President Jagdeo and his Government are doing. If Dr. Ramsammy makes an effort to understand how I feel about what I do on this page, then he would know that I was not being personal or petty (to use his word) when I wrote about him recently in relation to two issues.
It my most sincere message to Dr. Ramsammy when I say to him that as someone who lived under an unpopular government in the seventies and eighties, the Jagdeo Government, according to the reaction I get about my column, is the most disliked regime Guyana has produced.
For a man who presided over a deplorably rigged national election in 1985, President Desmond Hoyte had enjoyed more admiration and respect from this nation than what currently obtains. It is definitely a sad indictment of Mr. Jagdeo.

Against the background of those observations, again I say to Dr. Ramsammy that I hope he understands that I have a job to do and that it is my belief that countless Guyanese out there want me to do it.
Having said that let me allay Dr. Ramsammy’s fears. My two recent pontifications on him were not intended to be personal and I have no ulterior motive.
Let us deal with the second one first – the medical thing. I didn’t know that Dr. Ramsammy took a holiday. I accepted what the paper I write for printed and that was that he went abroad to seek medical attention.
Was the paper wrong? Is Dr. Ramsammy telling the truth? I will not comment for the following reason. I do not have the proof that Dr. Ramsammy went for a medical check-up. But why should I believe him if he said he didn’t? I do not go around accepting
any and everything politicians tell me.

It is possible that he was on holiday. It is possible that he had medical treatment. I simply do not know one way or the other.
But when all is said and done, it was expected of a commentator to offer an opinion as to why Dr. Ramsammy would want to seek a check-up outside of Guyana.
Dr. Ramsammy in his press release shows his annoyance on my comments on the contents of the wire-tapping of Roger Khan’s lawyer in which, he, Ramsammy, was implicated. But for the third time, I will say to Dr. Ramsammy – I have a job to do. How does he expect commentators and editors to remain silent when a drug trafficker implicates him?

I never pronounced on his guilt. I simply wrote that it makes no sense to anyone that the lawyer would choose to name the Health Minister as being an associate of Khan and not the Home Affairs Minister, the President or Dr. Luncheon. I hope Dr. Ramsammy can offer a comment if the lawyer, Mr. Simels, has a personal grouse against him.
It is unfortunate that Dr. Leslie Ramsammy has stayed on with the Government under Mr. Jagdeo’s leadership. I got to know Dr. Ramsammy shortly after 1998, and I regarded him as the most (not one of) opened-minded politicians in the Guyana Government.
He didn’t appear to be of the negative character that the PPP is fond of attracting and the type that would last long inside the PPP Government.
He was certainly a cut above every one of them. We enjoyed a good relationship. As Mr. Jagdeo descended into Burnhamite authoritarianism, he took all the key players with him; he took down the PPP with him.

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