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Freddie Kissoon replies to Hergash and Rodney

Jan 18, 2011 Letters

Dear Editor,
I refer to two letters in Monday’s edition (Jan. 17) of Kaieteur News in relation to two columns of mine. One is by Canada-based PPP supporter, Mr. Harry Hergash; the other by long-standing friend of the PPP and former chairman of the Chronicle, Hubert Rodney.
First, Hergash: I can only conclude that this gentleman is a shameless avoider of issues that confront him. I made two inquiries of Hergash. Despite a long commentary on me, he chose not to answer. I never, I repeat never denied that the post 2001 PPP Government faced a baptism of fire (Hergash’s words). I didn’t touch on that subject at all.
My first question was why Hergash chose to observe that others have referred to Mr. Jagdeo as autocratic rather than tell us what his judgement is. My opinion all along is Hergash is an apologist for the PPP’s tyranny in Guyana, but he hides his affection by concentrating on PPP’s critics. I specifically requested Hergash to tell readers what is his interpretation, rather than citing the conclusions of others.
Let me state unambiguously here. I call upon Hergash to inform us if he believes the evaluation of others that he quoted and that is that Mr. Jagdeo is autocratic. We don’t need to read what others have written. We would like to have Hergash’s judgement. We will never get that from him because he cannot bring himself to describe the PPP Government as dictatorial.
My second curiosity was to get Hergash to explain that if after 2001 as he described that the PPP’s hold on power was tenuous, then could he kindly adumbrate on the reasons the Government survived. Hergash deliberately avoids these two pertinences and went into huge quotes from past columns of mine which are completely unrelated to my two questions. I believe his avoidance was intentional
The other letter from Mr. Rodney is on my advocacy that the Government up the retirement age for public servants from 55. I am intrigued as to why Rodney chose to reply to me and not Mrs. Jagan’s pronouncement in 2009 that the age should go to 65. At that time, Mr. Rodney and his wife worked closely with Mrs. Jagan and he was the Chairman of the Chronicle.
I am bewildered too that he didn’t reply to Minister Shaik Baskh who got front page coverage from the Chronicle at the time when Rodney was its chairman that his Ministry intends to pass legislation to move retirement age for teachers from 55 to 60
Having said that, I find the content of Rodney’s letter to be unlearned and unproductive. In which day and age, countries retire working citizens at 55? Secondly, Mr. Rodney is terribly uninformed. He must be the only person in Guyana who doesn’t know Guyana has per capita, the highest rate of migration. It is so terrible that Guyana was specifically mentioned by the then UN Chief, Kofi Anan. Surely, Mr. Rodney should know that the World Bank has listed Guyana as a country where 82 percent of its citizens with tertiary education leave the land permanently
It would be nice if Rodney can inform his friends in the PPP where the skills will come from if young people continue to migrate at such a supersonic speed. Finally, it doesn’t say much for the PPP Government when one of its known supporters can say that since colonial times our life expectancy index has not risen since the colonial era.
I suspect if Rodney was still the Chairman of Chronicle and had made that utterance he would have been dismissed. But Rodney’s exclamation leaves you very pessimistic and will further push migration. Imagine since a hundred years ago, Guyana’s life expectancy has not changed
Frederick Kissoon

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