“Thou art fled to brutish beasts and men have lost their reason”

Apr 18, 2013 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

There is no way in this world I would ever accept, both as a trained academic and as a practicing media operative, that when a country is experiencing social and political crises, the scholar must be careful not to pen theories that could cause upheaval. And that as a commentator, one must be sensitive and not write things that could engender anger. I don’t accept that and never will.
Free speech carries responsibilities of which the most common example is that you cannot cry fire in a crowded cinema. All countries have laws to protect citizens from writers, be they scholars or commentators or journalists.
You cannot accuse a corporate chairman, openly, in print or on the airwaves, of pedophilia unless you have concrete proof. You can destroy his life. If you have reasons to believe so you have to do more research and build your case.
I know that a young secretary of a Cabinet Minister in the Cheddi Jagan Government committed suicide because she couldn’t take the exploitation of her boss any longer. A week before she died she told me what he did with her passport. I subtly hinted at it many times on my page here and the use of words was discreet and indirect.
Governments and tourism officials would like to curtail the ideas of academia and the media when a country runs in deep sociological and political trouble. That is their attitude and the academics and media practitioners should defy and confront them.
I refused to accept the jurisdiction of the Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC) because it was my interpretation that its leadership’s design was to suppress ideas about the use of state power to discriminate against communities in this country. The ERC’s function was to make sure that race discrimination in official policy implementation was not openly discussed in society. For this reason, I find it bizarre that the Speaker of the National Assembly takes the position that he would not allow accusation of race bias in the House. That is a macabre ruling.
Cheddi Jagan as an opposition parliamentarian would never have accepted that and the opposition MPS should not adhere to Trotman’s edict.
I look back at my life and I am proud that I exposed the moral conspiracies of the ERC and terrible administration at UG. I know deep down in my heart that the era is gone at UG where its Council can at random terminate an academic’s contract without a complaint from the academic staff and/or an official hearing.
I believe that a certain law case against me and the timing of its hearing were intended to stop me from analyzing social malignancy in Guyana but I will not resign. Academics and the media have an obligation to write about a country’s tragedies. They owe no obligation to ruling politicians, profit-makers, and tourism bosses.
We are at the stage in Guyana where dangerous trends are in motion that do not augur well for the future of this country and this columnist will not be deterred in saying so. In fact, I go in the direction of saying we are on the threshold of instability and it does not have to happen if men and women repossess the reason that have fled from them a long time ago in Guyana.
Take the Plaisance protest against the towers that were to be built for the Government’s e-governance project. The Government decided it will not pursue the Plaisance project anymore. The protestors called me when the machines came to remove the humongous piles. I responded immediately. The concern of the protesting villagers was the refilling of the large hole that was dug. I spoke at length with the officer in charge of the operation.
He was polite, friendly and listened attentively. This man told me in the clearest of language that he was specifically ordered to refill the hole. He said that it was a definite instruction. This government that we have in this country did not intend to refill the hole. Huge machines came, removed the logs and left. It is going on to two weeks and the hole is there with an invasion by the mosquito population.
How can any government be so sickening? How can any government be so pathologically petty minded? It reminds me of the trench clearing incident outside my home.
There can only be one result from this kind of cruel act. The people of Plaisance will internalize their anger. It may even breed hate. But it will also bring national disaster. I feel this way and I will write about how I feel. Period!

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