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A thank you for Mr. Bisram

Oct 22, 2009 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

I thank Mr. Bisram for some positive words on some of my columns in his letter to this newspaper yesterday. Given our ongoing disagreement, he didn’t have to do that. I appreciate the comments and would like to publicly state so. I am doing so now. I believe the opposition parties and government need to work together and I am an advocate of that call.
Likewise, I think civil society activists should not pursue vexed relationships. My disagreement with Vishnu Bisram was never personal. It was always on the way his polls were conducted. I believe to this day that the polls were not professionally done. I have stated this all the time.
If one goes back to my volumes on Mr. Bisram one would see I never wrote anything personal about him but concentrated on the contents of his letters. I would like for Mr. Bisram and me to do a poll. Once he does it, and the poll is favourable to the PPP, he will be accused. Once I do a poll, and it is not favourable to the Government, I will be accused by Freedom House of bogus work.
Mr. Bisram and I need to do a joint operation in which independent people will work with us. The entire nation would like to see a survey of how the Guyanese people see politics. I believe a poll done by an institution that is not politically involved will be welcomed by all Guyanese.
I am suggesting Mr. Bisram take up my offer. We will start with the figure Mr. Andrew Hicks, Head of UG”s Sociology Department gave to me for a survey to be done. He thinks it will cost a million dollars. We can add $400,000 to that.
Can’t we jointly raise $1.5M to do a comprehensive survey on Guyanese attitudes to a whole range of questions? I will await Mr. Bisram’s response. If he agrees, I will try to collect half of that. I would request all checks and monies be sent to the management of this newspaper. Mr. Bisram can choose his own method of collection. Once we get $1.5, we should ask the Guyana Press Association or the Guyana Human Rights Association or a neutral body to administer the funds.
I definitely would like to involve UG academics and Guyanese journalists in the project. Doing a poll is not rocket science but it is complicated. Mr. Bisram knows that. We have to get the methodology right if we are going to reflect accurately what people think out there.
The demography of Guyana has to be replicated. This is why Mr. Hicks suggested a million dollars because you have to test opinions in the interior and among the mixed races. The age categories have to be strictly observed. Framing the questions is the crux of the matter. It is Mr. Bisram’s main weak area.
Most Guyanese, including Vishnu Bisram, would know the sociological complications in doing a poll here.
African field workers will not be told the truth by Indian villagers. Fear will be the factor. They feel that their true feelings will be put to some conspiratorial use. Indian field workers will not be given straight forward answers by African villagers who may think that the Government is up to some trick.
For this reason, the field workers are important. They must be mixed groups and it is an advantage if they are young. Villagers tend to be less scared of young students asking them questions. The questions must be arrived at after long discussion by all of us. This is where Mr. Bisram went wrong.
You should not ask citizens if Mr. Jagdeo deserves a third term. The question is too loaded. It is too confrontational a question. It must have some elegance to it. A better approach would be to ask citizens to name one politician in government, in opposition and in civil society whom they would like to see be the president after the next elections. You kill two birds with one stone (as they say in common parlance) if you put the question that way. If Mr. Jagdeo comes out on top then you know that they prefer him to have a third term. Given the fear factor that is ubiquitous, what makes Mr. Bisram feel that people are going to be brave to tell an Indian pollster in Ithaca that Mr. Jagdeo doesn’t deserve a third term?
No matter how you convince them that you are a private pollster they may be suspicious. I will await Mr. Bisram’s response. Once again, I thank him for his kind comments on some of the things I write on this page.

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