Dr. Henry Jeffrey responds to Freddie Kissoon

Mar 29, 2011 Letters

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Dear Editor,
When a person who writes an article every day refers to one who writes a letter about every three weeks as writing “at a frenetic pace,” there must be something very wrong with his grasp of reality (Freddie Kissoon’s: “The Jeffrey syndrome:” KN:26/03/11).
This simple statement exemplifies a distorted mindset that becomes even more confused when the effort is made to bridge the gap between a malicious intent and reality.
The following snippets will also demonstrate that Mr. Kissoon’s malevolence is so bedeviling that it even affects his capacity to accurately paraphrase.
“Dr. Jeffrey told Denis Chabrol that there was no formal concretization of the entity called the Civic Component. He plainly said there was no such living organism.
When asked why he didn’t help to formalize it he replied that seeing that Dr. Jagan was not interested then why create tension. So Mr. Jeffrey was living a lie for 17 years, when the PPP went around the world and spoke of a coalition in government.”
Apart from his usually illogical, tautological and messy construction, which makes comprehension difficult, if my memory serves me right, what I said was that the PPP was not interested in formalizing the Civic structure.
But as Mr. Kissoon is so hell bent on denigrating the name of Dr. Jagan, he makes no attempt to appreciate the difference.
Indeed, I believe that given some of his activities just before he died, Dr. Jagan may have come to recognise the need for a level of formalization.
Again, since, so far as I am aware, the PPP has never said that the PPP/C constituted a formal coalition, how is it lying when it claims that the PPP/C is coalition: meaning a loose coalition? How then could Jeffrey or the PPP be “living a lie”?
According to Mr. Kissoon, I found myself in a “moral quicksand” for stating that: “Both the PNC and PPP have blood on their hands. 2. The PPP has engaged in marginalisation against African Guyanese. 3.
The Jagdeo presidency is a problem for Guyana,” while at the same time holding that: “I do not believe that our country is in this condition because over the last half of a century our politicians have been wicked.”
As has become normal when Mr. Kissoon is on his malicious rampage, the last quotation does not present the complete picture.
What I said was that: “I do not believe that our country is in this condition because over the last half a century our politicians have been wicked and intended this kind of backwardness.
We simply have a governmental framework, rooted in ethnicity, which is deleterious to any “massive improvements in our standard of living.”
This is not to deny the existence of corruption, incompetence, etc. and the duty of citizens to immediately call to account politicians and others who have indulged in such activities.”
Secondly, I did not say that the PPP/C was “engaged in the marginalisation against African Guyanese.” What I did explain was that by the time the PPP/C came to office it was generally agreed that there was need for some balancing in the public services, and it may well be that that balancing has become overbalancing, and whatever evidence the PPP/C could provide to show that the latter is not the case, in the racial context of Guyana, it will not be believed.
With those clarifications, let us now go in search of the “moral quicksand.” Every regime must take some responsibility for what takes place under its watch.
So far as I am concerned, people have died as a result of political violence under every regime in Guyana so far. In this sense, all the parties that have held power have blood on their hands.
Furthermore, where is the moral dilemma in recognizing, that the Jagdeo presidency has been “problematical”; meaning that during this period a lot of unusual and grave problems have arisen which have negatively affected us all.
Still smarting from his admission that the he stole books, Mr. Kissoon stated, “As it relates to me, Dr Jeffrey wrote that I tried to justify my unlawful (his word) act of stealing a book by claiming poverty as the reason.
In the same letter he wrote this, he whitewashes Mr. Jagdeo’s autocracy by claiming if other Guyanese were in Mr. Jagdeo’s position they would have done the same.”
Firstly, I did not say “if other Guyanese were in Mr. Jagdeo’s position they would have done the same.” I said “The fact is that many of us, who are not even in government, exhibit dictatorial tendencies. …. Put …. us in Mr. Jagdeo’s position (where the PPP/C appears almost destined to win every election) and I suspect that many of us will behave worse!”
However, to put Mr. Kissoon’s mind at ease, should Mr. Jagdeo admit (as Mr. Kissoon did) that he rifled the public purse, he would not be allowed to claim mitigation by reason of the existence of a permissive environment!
In a previous discourse, I referred to Mr. Kissoon’s kind of mind as rudimentary and thus very prevalent.
Nowhere is this more visible than in his contention that he is ashamed of being an Indian (“The East Indian mind, the East Indian conscience and Guyana’s tragedy:” Kaieteur News: 04/04/10)! His way of seeing the world tends towards the wholesale blaming of peoples and/or individuals: it is about wickedness and redemption.
Since he once blamed Burnham and the Africans for what took place during the PNC era and he believes that what is now taking place is atrocious, he must now be ashamed for being an Indian!
He fails to appreciate that, matters not what he thinks, the vast majority of Indians are orientated towards what they believe to be in their best interest.
He has absolutely no monopoly on what is right and good: indeed, his usual level of analysis suggests that he would be best ignored.
Mr. Kissoon, you should not be overly worried about my future. I have been one of those lucky people who have been able to make a decent life in spite of themselves. Yet I feel constrained to bring to your notice that those you wish to alert of my presence need no warning of yours! For example, the very constituency from which they and you most want support, you claim to dislike because it does not adhere to your world-view!
Our condition is very complex and one need not be ashamed of being Indian, African, Amerindian or anything else.
Mr. Kissoon should work to gradually attempt to move his Indian brothering in the direction he believes desirable and simultaneously cooperate with others to institutionalize arrangements that will facilitate their doing so.
I suspect however that this may be asking too much of him.
Henry B. Jeffrey

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