Where was Ralph Ramkarran when my mother died of a broken heart?

Jan 03, 2011 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

On the last day of 2010, the Kaieteur News letter section had Mr. Ralph Ramkarran saying this of me; “Mr. Glen Lall once told me that Mr. Kissoon gets the largest number of hits on the internet version of the Kaieteur News. The reason obviously is because of his amazing capacity to sustain his anger and to direct it with such animosity at such a limited group of public officials, with some noticeable exceptions for so long.” (end of quote)

Here is a leader of the PPP, who a few months back, wrote in the newspapers about his life in struggle against the PNC Government, referring to my life in struggle as “anger” and animosity.”

All of us who are alive today and fought with the PPP against the PNC Government are now either enemies of the state or extremists filled with hate. We were good people when the PPP was in opposition. Today the PPP is in power and because we speak out against the appalling atrocities committed by the PPP against the Guyanese people, we are classified as spewing hate, anger and animosity.

In writing about his story of political involvement against the PNC Government, Mr. Ramkarran described the days he would accompany his mother when she went to see his father. I will tell Mr. Ramkarran what I remembered of my mother. There were seven children. I am the last.

Of those seven offspring of Irene and Harry Kissoon, I was the only one that went beyond primary school. I topped the entire university during my year of graduation but President Burnham issued an order for me not to be employed. It started when I sent back a cuss word message to Burnham after he sent to call me. I regret that behaviour but youth is always wild and unthinking.

My graduation was a proud moment for the entire Kissoon clan. At least one of us did something for the poverty-stricken family in Wortmanville. My sister, Gwennie, that Mr. Ramkarran and all PPP leaders knew very well, was running around showing everybody my photograph in the newspapers.

Mrs. Janet Jagan, then editor of the Mirror, gave me a huge front page photograph. But I couldn’t find employment in Guyana. The then Education Minister, Vincent Teekah, told me that he liked and admired me but that his hands were tied. Chief Education Officer, Ms. Carmen Jarvis said the following words to me that I will take to my grave; “I would love to have you as a teacher but I’m afraid I can’t.”

I got married in 1979 and left Guyana after receiving a handsome scholarship to Mc Master University. Then I copped another handsome scholarship to do doctoral studies at the University of Toronto. On my return to Guyana, the confrontation with Burnham continued.

He sent to call me after my return home after the Grenada Government of Maurice Bishop imploded. It seems that I didn’t grow old and had left my youthful wildness behind. I was again rude to Burnham. He again banned me.

This time, he banned my wife too. Burnham died and three professors at UG, Clive Thomas, Harold Lutchman and Rudy James wrote Minister of Education, Deryck Bernard to lift Burnham’s ban on me. President Hoyte agreed and I joined the UG staff. I still have Lutchman’s letter and I looked at it the other day. But I was never to be the same again.

My father had died before I resettled in Guyana and my mom was heart broken that I could not find a job. My mom really wanted to see me work in my country. She wanted to see me become a UG lecturer. She remained unhappy at my mistreatment and died shortly after I came back to Guyana from a heart collapse.

I never forgave President Burnham for this personal assault on my psyche and what he did to my mother.

What has all of this got to do with Ralph Ramkarran’s letter? We need to go back to the quote above when he wrote that I have showed anger and animosity towards some ruling politicians for SO LONG (emphasis mine). What happened to the LONG TIME I spent fighting the PNC Government?

Does Mr. Ramkarran feel that I have shown anger and animosity for too long towards the PNC when that party was in office? I know the answer. For the PPP leadership, we were right to confront the PNC dictatorship. But today we are wrong to chastise the “angels” that rule our country.

I will conclude with a statement to Mr. Ramkarran that exists deep down in my soul, heart and mind – the PPP Government today is far worse than when the PNC governed us. I honestly and sincerely feel this way.

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Where was Ralph Ramkarran when my mother died of a broken heart?

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