Mr. Jagdeo did what no other leader has done in recent memory in world politics

Nov 28, 2010 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

You wonder how low Mr. Jagdeo can stoop (no pun intended) after what he did in Berbice on Saturday, November 20. Mr. Jagdeo had as his guest, President Bouterse of Suriname. He invited his guest to accompany him to meet with university students of the Berbice campus.
In his delivery in the presence of Mr. Bouterse, the President launched into a derogatory commentary on me. His statements on me were false. But that is a small matter compared to his protocol violations in the presence of another President.
Do Prime Ministers and Presidents vilify their local critics in the presence of visiting leaders from other countries? Isn’t the traditional pattern for the host ruler to speak about the achievements of his/her government and to detail future projects that will enhance the progress the country is enjoying?
How did I get into Mr. Jagdeo’s picture? Why such an occasion? Didn’t he have other formal and formalistic things on his mind? But even if he wanted to take a swipe at me, why insult Bouterse by painting a false picture of me?
Mr. Jagdeo continues to confuse the length of my marriage with the length of my years at UG. This is the third time he exclaimed that I have been at UG for over thirty years. I have been married for thirty years to the woman that I have loved all through those years and continue to love.
Now marriage and enduring love for a wife are topics of life many Guyanese men know nothing of, and on which I can give them some guidance if they are interested.
I am in my twenty-fifth year at UG. Unlike what Mr. Jagdeo thinks, I am not as old as the world’s most controversial Hindu pandit that wants Mr. Jagdeo to have a third term. I am not as old as many of the people who installed Mr. Jagdeo into the presidency including Mrs. Jagan. He went on to inform Bouterse and the students that I haven’t done any research. I need to mention to readers that he specifically named me.
Mr. Jagdeo has six months left and he will demit office with his paranoia intact; paranoia about debating his critics and his fear about taking up challenges from his detractors. I urged him to accept the challenge that if I can prove that I have published research, then, he has to resign.
I have a good academic record but I will contemptuously brush aside Mr. Jagdeo’s rhetoric on my scholarship because I am not his underling to give him proof of what he requires of me. Let him meet me head on – I fail to prove my academic worth and I fade away forever. I produce my research and he has to resign immediately. Can someone from the Surinamese Embassy send this article to Mr. Bouterse. And if Mr. Bouterse reads this, can he persuade Mr. Jagdeo to accept my challenge.
Mr. Bouterse may not know it, but the students certainly did – Mr. Jagdeo’s hypocrisy was on show. The day before he scandalized me in the presence of President Bouterse, the University had concluded its investigation into a UG lecturer’s alleged sexual semantics in his classroom.
This same lecturer, Mr. Jagdeo, in his capacity of Minister of Information, appointed as Chairman of the Advisory Committee on Broadcasting. My scholarly record towers over Mr. Jagdeo’s appointee. What Mr. Bouterse didn’t know but the students do, is that Mr. Jagdeo has appointed some strange people to high positions at UG whose performance has contributed to the moribund state that UG has found itself in.
I guess I can accept more vilification from Mr. Jagdeo. He has to do what he thinks is strategic for him to do in relation to a commentator that finds fault with his abuse of power and I have a duty to my country to speak out against dictatorship, elected or unelected.
What I can’t understand and will never comprehend about the style of Mr. Jagdeo is why he speaks on issues which put him on shaky ground and thin ice. Surely, he must know that his fulminations against UG would put his record on display. His Government has been in power for 18 years.
Look at the state of UG! Surely, Mr. Jagdeo couldn’t be that foolish to know that once he named me as a lecturer not performing at UG, Mr. Evan Persaud was in the news at the time and it would cause Guyanese to think about Mr. Jagdeo’s double standards.
Of course, Mr. Jagdeo couldn’t be bothered.

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Mr. Jagdeo did what no other leader has done in recent memory in world politics

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