The man who disappeared in 2010

Jan 13, 2011 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

There isn’t any mention of him at all. Forgotten like a song that was never played on the airwaves or the poem that was never written. He touched down in Guyana with an emotional display of a new, democratic Guyana under the PPP that all Guyanese should praise because there is a place in the sun for all of us.
He showed the way by being the first example. He returned, brought his family with him and reclaimed his homeland that he ran away from forty years ago.
As the months wore on, as he looked over his shoulders, his friends in the Diaspora were nowhere to be seen either in Georgetown or Berbice. Heart attack was on the horizon when he read a report from the US Embassy that said 14 persons leave Guyana permanently, daily for the US.
That was hard to take but more shocking was the other side of the coin – that 14 figure excludes mass and mad exodus to Canada, Suriname, Barbados and Trinidad. Strange though, the Prodigal Son persisted. He stayed in his beloved Guyana. He became a nasty propagandist but he was disappointing. His stuff was mediocre, boring and infantile.
Here was one example. He advised us to accept the President’s remark that he will not run for a third term. When we didn’t accept the presidential promise, he accused us of being disrespectful. Poor fellow? He was smitten by his president and he demanded that we should be too.
In less than a year, the incompetent propagandist was gone. Not before he had made a complete mockery of himself. He attended an academic conference at the National Library that was disrupted by state-sponsored goons. He then wrote a letter in the press denying that there was ever any assault on the event.
He was made to look foolish when the chief organizer of the meeting, historian Hazel Woolford described in detail the rampage of the thugs. This was too much for those close to him to take. Two weeks after he put his asininity on display, he was gone. There was a news item in the Kaieteur News that stated that he left Guyana in a frantic rush. He touched down in haste and left in haste.
Why did he leave after a few months in his lovely birthplace ran by his heroes in the PPP? While in his adopted home of the US (Washington, D.C.), some of his heroes was on a visit to New York, met with him and implored that he join the A-team that was turning Guyana into a paradise. Off to Guyana he came and the family too. Paradise soon turned into a nightmare.
The money was good but in paradise modern living was hard to achieve. He could not get potable water where he lived in West Coast. Blackouts allowed the mosquitoes to devour the family. The police came hours after the thieves carted away all his stuff and those of the family.
The thieves came again but the police didn’t show up on that occasion. On the political front, it was a family matter. A nasty dictatorship was on show for all Guyanese at home and abroad to see. He was conned. When his heroes told him that he must join them, his role was to be an advisor.
It turned out he had to do silly but dirty public propaganda. Things weren’t looking good for family stability. When you support a cruel autocracy, family, relatives and friends intercede. They ask you if you are mad. They ask you how you could stoop so low. Some went back to the US. The Prodigal Son was left alone in Guyana. It was time to run away from home once more.
Back in Washington D.C., he got into a huge quarrel with his acolyte, PPP fanatic, Errol Arthur.
While letters in the Guyanese press called upon the Prodigal Son to explain why he “mystic” from his lovely Guyana, the man remained silent. Arthur sent down a missive telling Guyanese that his friend is happy to be back in Washington, D.C. and he saw him one afternoon walking across the lawn of the university he works at going to a class to teach graduate students.
I replied to Arthur asking him if those students were Guyanese kids who could use the benefit of the education of the Prodigal Son. The Prodigal Son was mad with Arthur. He remonstrated with Arthur telling him that it was foolish to mention that he was teaching because people will ask why he couldn’t stay and work at UG.
That was the story of Randy Persaud.

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