I will present my evidence this afternoon at my libel trial

Nov 01, 2012 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Mr. Jagdeo’s libel case against me continues today at 13.30 hours in Judge Brassington Reynolds’ court. At this session, I will discuss the contents of my research paper titled; “Ethnic Power and Ideological Racism: Examining Presidencies in Guyana.”
I have waited for this moment since Mr. Jagdeo filed his affidavit. In response to a question about the libel, Mr. Jagdeo told reporters last year that he eagerly awaits his day in court. The press asked me to respond to that and I replied I am waiting for my days. Note the plural.
I took the stand on Monday for a brief period. And today my testimony resumes. Mr. Jagdeo never showed up. One had to feel sorry for him. My three lawyers were the last persons Mr. Jagdeo wanted to see in this entire world. I opine that Mr. Jagdeo would have preferred to fight ten lions, ten tigers and ten elephants than face my three lawyers. One is an attorney that Mr. Jagdeo as President personally attacked at a PPP election rally last year, and among the things in the anti-Hughes tirade was the boast that while there is a Jagdeo or a Ramotar presidency, Mr. Nigel Hughes would never be promoted to senior counsel.
The other is Khemraj Ramjattan whom Mr. Jagdeo caused to be expelled from the PPP. The other is Christopher Ram who Mr. Jagdeo was afraid of meeting in a head-on clash. The country was robbed of an opportunity to see Mr. Jagdeo perform on the stand by none other than Mr. Jagdeo himself. He chose not to come. Would he have done better than Roger Luncheon? Would he have had a terrible inability to remember things as Luncheon did?
I will never ever forget how pathetic powerful people can be reduced to ordinary folks when they are in court. Luncheon was not on his throne but in court facing the formidable Nigel Hughes, and what a mismatch it was. The almighty Luncheon’s only defence was that his memory failed him. But the libel trial has put Luncheon in the history books. He made a statement that was subsequently printed for the world to read. He said that no African Guyanese was qualified for foreign ambassadorial posting.
I was in court (attended every session) and as someone trained in history and who wrote a thesis on the post-emancipation life of freed slaves, I could have heard the African ancestors talking to me as Luncheon uttered those words. Charlene Wilkinson, a UG lecturer recently said, after listening to a lecture by visiting American archeologist, Professor Browder, we must invoke our ancestors and they will respond.
I want to invoke the ancestors of those who fought the slave masters of the plantations to ask them how they feel about Luncheon’s revelation.
As for me, I will have to face Jagdeo’s lawyers. Unlike Mr. Jagdeo, I am not afraid of any lawyer in this country when I am on the witness stand. This is not chauvinistic boasting. It is confidence in one’s self. I spent two years researching African marginalization in my country and the result is a body of work that has factual and evidential integrity.
I will present my research this afternoon. I will defend what I researched. I will defend my conclusions. They are based on solid facts.
I will not live in Guyana and remain silent when innocent Guyanese who were born into this country and who love it and choose to stay here, face prejudice because of their race. We did not make ourselves into Chinese, African and East Indian. We had no say in the type of genes that reside in us, and therefore no one should be biased against another because of his/her ethnic make-up.
My political history is rich, replete with human rights activism and full of countless examples where I spoke up against injustice against East Indian people under the rule of President Forbes Burnham.
I saw injustice and racial discrimination against African Guyanese since the PPP came to power in 1992. My heart, mind, conscience and soul prevent me from being silent. I used my skills as an academic to investigate what I saw, and that was African marginalization. I would like to remind readers that three sisters and one brother of mine married African Guyanese and gave birth to children that are half-African Guyanese, with one being half- African Barbadian.
The African race is very much present in my relatives, so I have every reason to want to protest discrimination against African Guyanese, as I protested discrimination against Guyanese East Indians when I was younger.

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I will present my evidence this afternoon at my libel trial

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