Freddie and funding of polls

Aug 20, 2009 Letters

Dear Editor,
Opinion polls are extremely important to help institutionalise democracy in a society. They need to be done with frequency and regularity. Hence the reason for ongoing NACTA polls in Guyana.
The late David De Caires was one of the few media people who encouraged and supported the concept of polling. He commissioned me to conduct several polls over the years and when not commissioning me to do polls offered me a fee for publication of polls I conducted using my own personal resources.
Freddie Kissoon has consistently and continuously attacked me for self-financing (NACTA) the polls I have been conducting. Freddie opines that polls must be commissioned by the media, individuals, political party (ies), or some other entity. I agree and would love the funds except that in Guyana funds to conduct polls are not always forthcoming.
Polls are relatively costly and the media or organisations or parties may not always afford to fund (or to commission) polls. Political parties also tend to avoid funding polls lest the findings be seen as skewed in favour the party that fund them.
Thus, if a pollster is to test support for public policy, he or she may have to raise her own funds to conduct. That is what Dr. Baytoram Ramharack and myself have been doing for the last 20 years. I know for a fact that Dr. Ramharack used his own money to conduct opinion polls in Guyana (under Turkeyn Polling and Research Institute). Ravi Dev, Vassan Ramracha, Vishnu Bisram and a few others also assisted him with funds to conduct polls.

We spent tens of thousands of dollars to conduct polls in Guyana during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Unlike Freddie, we committed our personal money to promote worthy causes and issues. Promoting the concept of polling in Guyana was an important goal of ours.
After the restoration of democracy in Guyana, the Chronicle and SN commissioned me to conduct polls.
But often their committed funds were not enough to pay the costs of the polls and I agree to subsidize the costs. The same holds true for polls commissioned by the Independent Newspaper and Express Newspaper in Trinidad. I was grateful for the assistance of these newspapers and picked up the slack because I saw the need to institutionalise polling.
When not commissioning polls from NACTA, the esteemed De Caires offered me a fee in exchange for publication of the findings as a means to support the polls.
I always agreed to his conditions and was a willing partner to subsidize the costs of conducting the polls to determine views of the nation on important issues.
As I indicated in earlier writings, polling is a hobby for me and is also a part of my ongoing research on important issues.

Thus, I did not (and still do not) mind committing funds to conduct polls in Guyana or anywhere else. Freddie should consider using his personal fortune to support worthy causes as I do. Contrary to what Freddie believes, the findings of a self-financed poll are no less valid than a commissioned poll. In fact, self-financed polls may be more credible than polls commissioned by political parties. As an example, for the 2006 general elections in Guyana, I am told the AFC commissioned Dick Morris to conduct 2 or 3 polls. Dick predicted that the AFC was beating the PNC and was closing in on the PPP.
The final Dick poll, which Freddie liked and praised, projected the AFC winning the elections. The NACTA poll showed the PNC beating the AFC and the PPP winning the election.
Freddie maligned and lambasted the NACTA poll and Vishnu Bisram, while pouring glowing tributes to Dick. Freddie has not learned anything from that blunder.
In another example from Trinidad, the newly formed COP commissioned several polls from different pollsters all of whom showed the COP beating the UNC and projected to defeat the PNM. The self-financed, non-commissioned NACTA polls showed the PNM winning by a landslide and COP not winning a seat.
In fact, NACTA predicted the actual outcome of 26-15-0 for PNM-UNC-COP.
According to Freddie, Dick is a professional because AFC employed him to conduct inaccurate polls, while Bisram is not a pollster because he financed his own polls.
I will let the readers decide who is a credible pollster and whether self-financed polls trump commissioned polls from a party.
Vishnu Bisram

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