By any standard, Freddie Kissoon is a radical

Dec 31, 2011 Letters

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Dear Editor,
Once again, I feel obligated to respond to yet another ridiculous article by Kaieteur News columnist, Freddie Kissoon.
In his diatribe of December 29, “The present, the future and the return to the theme of the past “, Kissoon continues his daily attacks on the Government, despite the absence of his favorite target, former President Bharrat Jagdeo. He has now shifted his venomous attacks on newly elected president, Donald Ramotar, like a paid pitbull of the opposition.
Rather than expressing his profound disappointment that APNU and the AFC cannot agree on a common choice for Speaker of the National Assembly, he chastised the PPP/C for wanting to retain the Speakership. He wrote, “First, the PPP says the opposition rejects winner-take-all but now is practising loser-take-all. But the opposition did not lose all. They won the Parliament. Why is the opposition a loser and the PPP a winner? Who won what and who lost what? Why don’t we have an exchange then? The minority party in Parliament (PPP) takes the Speaker position, and the loser of the plurality vote (AFC and APNU) takes the presidency? How about that! What is the likely answer from a PPP analyst? Obviously, he will think it is an absurdity.”
In his twisted mind, Freddie Kissoon overlooks the fact that the opposition parties are not united on anything. The same major differences that kept them apart before the elections, are the same that will cause them to oppose each other in Parliament. Simply put, the Alliance For Chance has no confidence in APNU. They cannot be trusted. And after witnessing all the chaos and national unrest by APNU protestors in an effort to cripple a newly elected government, the AFC cannot afford to be associated with this type of despicable behavior that’s so common to the PNC.
Then he seems to be laying the foundation for future attacks, by reminding his readers that the President is a product of a Marxist education. He wrote, “President Ramotar lived for eight years in what was once a communist country in Eastern Europe named Czechoslovakia. Mr Ramotar and Clement Rohee lived in Eastern Europe where they were on the editorial board of the monthly journal, “World Marxist Review” of the world communist movement. Surely as a person who studied Marxist philosophy, he would know that Marxist dialectics do not see a disjuncture between the present and the future.”
Editor, I need to address the rest of this letter to my dear friend Glenn Lall, who, contrary to what some in the administration may think, is a true patriot whose sole objective is to protect the rights and interest of all Guyanese, by demanding fairness, transparency and accountability from whomever seeks higher office:
Glenn, as the very successful publisher of Guyana’s leading newspaper, you have the tremendous responsibility to demand accuracy and objectivity from your paid reporters and columnists. The reading public has grown to respect you as the conscience of the nation, a beacon of truth in troubled times. The Kaieteur News has weathered the storms of lawsuits and restricted advertising revenues from government to become the leader in the print industry. You have justly championed the cause of the Guyanese people, and can be proud of it. But now, you need to be more vigilant and exercise more control of those in your payroll, whose agenda may differ from yours and that of your publication.
By any standard, Freddie Kissoon is a radical. His extraneous views are self-serving and are dangerous to the peace and stability of our nation that needs to heal. Whether he’s being paid by the opposition to spew their talking points on a daily basis, we may never know. But he is surely undermining the principles for which you stand and have dedicated your life to: Fairness; Transparency and Accountability.
In his article of December 29, Peeping Tom wrote in parts, “Sections of the private media continue to harbour strong biases against the government…. Make no mistake about it, the private media has its biases and this is no secret and the private media, particularly sections of the electronic media, need to be exposed for what they are…. Instead of setting the standards for objectivity, certain private media practitioners have become to characterize its one-sidedness and the fact that the state media seems unwilling to become more balanced in its reporting should never be used as an excuse for its poor reporting standards…. The main culprits within the private media are well known. Some of them are household names in Guyana. It may be asking too much to ask these individuals to change their stripes. They have been at their lopsided mission for too long; they are not likely to be able to change and therefore what is needed is for new faces to emerge, faces that would not become infected with the same biases as those established practitioners who seem unable to improve their professionalism.”
I cannot agree with Peeping Tom more. Like his friend Mark Benschop who operates an internet radio, Freddie Kissoon is so biased and filled with hate for the PPP/C Administration, that he uses Kaieteur News as his personal vehicle to vent anger and to achieve his devious objectives.
If Freddie Kissoon is so important to maintain readership and popularity of the Kaieteur News, and his radical views cannot be tempered, then may I suggest you add a preface or editor’s note that reads: “The views expressed by this columnist, are not necessarily those of management nor the editorial board of this newspaper.”
Harry Gill  

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