These things should not happen in any country

Jul 18, 2010 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

I am not going to comment on President Jagdeo’s libel suit against me in any detail except to make three expressions. First, President Jagdeo has said disparaging things about me. I laughed each time my Kaieteur News colleague said to me; “Yuh hear wuh Jagdeo said about yuh.”

Therefore, it was a bit surprising to learn that of all the people he would choose to sue, he would point to me. Secondly, no citizen in the history of this country has been so maligned by their government as I am. The Chronicle each year carries hundreds of libelous letters on me. That is now coming to an end because I have been strongly advised to put a stop to the Chronicle’s disease. Thirdly, I hope Mr. Jagdeo knows it is going to be a long fight right up to the Caribbean Court of Justice where his twelve-year-old rule will be on display. I intend to summon Varshnie Singh as a witness.

Having said that, the next statement is obvious. I will not be deterred in fighting for human rights and exposing the abuse of power. As I wrote in my column last Friday, that is my life. I know of no other way to live. It is in my blood. I think a person ought to accept that there are consequences when one uses mischief, deceit, slander, conspiracy, fictitious inventions to criticize his/her government. You are courting disaster because you are doing very wrong things for which the state machinery will respond.

In the case of this columnist, I challenge any human being in this world to account for any mischief and conspiracy from me since 1988 when I started writing. The simple truth is that one does not have to tax one’s imagination to invent stories about the Government of Guyana the past ten years.

The egregious vices and unbearable venalities take place almost on a daily basis in this land. They should not be accepted by citizens. There is a limit to the state’s immoral use of power. The cruel fact in Guyana is that this limit has been exceeded in perverted ways that I honestly do not think any previous government in any British West Indian territory has ever come close to.

I want readers to know that by vice and venality, I am not referring to political controversy.

The Government has withdrawn state subsidy from Critchlow Labour College. It has overlooked professional people and has put its own types in certain occupations. It has favoured state sales to certain investors that are friends of the ruling party. These are only three examples I would say are in the area of political controversy.

You can find these faults in many, many democratic countries. I don’t agree with any of the items listed here, especially the Critchlow College situation. But the fact remains, these unacceptable policies are not confined to Guyana.

When I refer to actions emanating from the political elites that occur here daily and should not be accepted by any nation in the world, I am talking about the egregious crossing of the line that should result in the resignation of a government. Here is a limited list of sins that for me is way, way beyond salvation and should have brought about the collapse of the administration anywhere in the world.

There is no way a society should accept that a President knew he was not legally married and was fully aware that the nation thought he was. More importantly, the woman in question told the country that on several occasions when the President was asked to sign the legal documents, he didn’t. This account of hers may not be true but there has never been a rejection of this particular statement by the other party.

How can a nation accept the utterances of the chief legal officer of the state saying that when he heard about a Minister’s name being associated with illegal conduct he thought he was the person in mind because he is given to such behaviour? How can a powerful politician remain in his job when he took an under-aged girl to his home and forcefully had sex with her?

These are just three examples out of thousands for which the people of this country should have recalled their government.