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How could Mr. Kissoon come to such a conclusion?

Apr 15, 2010 Letters

Dear Editor,
One cannot help but notice the colossal blunders dished out by the venerable professor who lectures in Social Science at the University of Guyana, and who supposedly teaches (or is certainly grounded in) Statistics and Research Methods.
On 06-03-10, Mr. Frederick Kissoon stated of the commercial landscape in Georgetown, “almost 99.99 percent” are owned by East Indians; in other words, out of 10,000 businesses or so, about 9,999 are owned by East Indians. Did Mr. Kissoon do a poll to come to this conclusion, or does he need a refresher course in Statistics 101 at U.G.?
On 04-04-10, Mr. Kissoon erroneously used the inductive reasoning in arriving at his outlandish and singular conclusion that East Indians are racist because they did not give their vote to the AFC in the last general elections held in 2006.
Perhaps we could be reminded of the two general categories of arguments – deductive and inductive. A deductive argument is one in which it is not possible for the premises to be true and the conclusion false. Therefore, the conclusion follows necessarily from the premises and inferences. The classic example given: 1. All men are mortal (premise). 2. Socrates was a man (premise). 3. Socrates was mortal (conclusion).
An inductive argument, on the other hand, is one in which the premises are supposed to support the conclusion in such a way that if the premises are true, it is improbable that the conclusion would be false. Thus, the conclusion follows probably from the premises and inferences. Here is an example: 1. Socrates was Greek (premise). 2. Most Greeks eat fish (premise). 3. Socrates ate fish (conclusion).
In this example, even if both premises are true, it is still possible for the conclusion to be false (maybe Socrates loved bunjal shrimps instead, and was allergic to fish)!
Mr. Kissoon goes on the false premises that (1) All votes for the PPP are from Indo Guyanese, (2) All votes for the PNC are from Afro Guyanese.
In addition to assuming an inductive approach to base his conclusion, Mr. Kissoon made the terrible mistake of affirming the consequent. In other words, he draws a conclusion from premises that do not support that conclusion. For example, if it rains, the ground gets wet. The ground is wet, therefore it rained. The problem is that the ground could have been wet for other reasons!
Responsible journalism behooves one to find out exactly why the ground was wet instead of coming to a sensational conclusion.
Since 2006 I have written at least two letters in response to Mr. Kissoon’s constant rant that East Indians were ‘racist’ because five seats were taken from the PNC and gained by the AFC. I repeatedly explained that the AFC were late in their jump-start in the election race. Consequently, only those in the urban areas were familiar with their platform. And almost all of the AFC votes came from urban areas – populated mainly by Afro Guyanese.
I had pointed out to Mr. Kissoon that two weeks before the last election, my neighbour (on the East Coast of Demerara) – I shall refer to her as “Ms. Singh” – expressed her frustration about the (PPP) government’s (lack of) grasp on the crime situation, and how “hard” the country was. She was cynical and disillusioned about the prominent binary of the PPP/PNC and indicated that she would not vote; race was not a factor in this woman giving of her vote. I inquired if she thought of the AFC. Her response was shocking – she had only ‘heard’ of the AFC, but had absolutely no idea of who was leading it! If the “Ms. Singh”s in the rural areas hardly knew of the AFC, how could they have voted for them? How could Mr. Kissoon come to the conclusion that they are ‘racist’?
Mr. Kissoon has a moral and professional responsibility to apologise to his students and others for his gigantic faux pas in making preposterous and dangerous conclusions.
Devanand Bhagwan

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