Kissoon is misguided in his attacks on Indian activists and writers

Apr 21, 2013 Letters

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Dear Editor,
This response is to correct the misrepresented view penned by Freddie Kissoon (KN April 2) attacking several Indians who have historically fought for and on behalf of Indians describing us as “Indian Supremacists”.  In particular, Freddie directed his acerbic pen to Vassan Ramracha repeatedly labeling him a Trinidadian as though it is a bad word and as though Vassan has no right to involve himself in issues pertaining to Guyana or other countries.
If it is ‘supremacist’ to fight injustice and racism against Indians, to fight against electoral riggings, to protest against the beatings of Indians based on their ethnicity, to fight the ban on basic foods that form the basis of the Indian cultural diet, to oppose the ban on items that were part of the religious paraphernalia of Indians, etc., to fight for equality of all races, then I (and I am sure the others Freddie so described) proudly wear the badge of being an Indian supremacist as a sign of honor.
Kissoon is misguided in his attacks on Indian activists and writers. He misinforms the public about us. The problem with Kissoon is whenever he cannot win an argument based on intellect facts, and logic he turns to personality attacks.  We consistently disproved almost all of Freddie’s contentions and exposed almost every one of his fabrications and falsehoods from his contention of “the 38 Indians employed by government in top tier positions” to his claim of “Indians owning 99.99 percent of Guyana’s wealth”.  None of his claims is factual.
Vassan is no newcomer to Guyanese affairs. He was one of the leading freedom fighters against the dictatorship, spending vast amounts of his savings on the struggle and lengthy periods of time in Guyana and serving as a tutor, mentor, advisor and theoretician to several of us (Dr. Baytoram Ramharack, Vishnu Bisram, Dr. Ravi Dev, etc.) who were integrally involved in the struggle to liberate Guyana.
When others did nothing to highlight human rights abuses in Guyana or to organize rallies and marches against the dictatorship, he did it himself.  When Freddie Kissoon did nothing to help liberate Guyana while he was a student in Toronto, Vassan was out in the streets as a college student leading the movement.
Virtually no one overseas, certainly not Freddie, did as much as Vassan for the Guyanese liberation movement.  And Vassan is well known among the Guyanese community for his commitment and dedication to the Guyana freedom struggle.  In addition, through NACTA, which he and Dr. Latchman Narain founded, Vassan organized numerous tutoring sessions and lectures to assist Guyanese students in New York.  He did it all gratis.
Myself and Baytoram met Vassan and his brother Rennie when we were Freshman students at City College in 1977; they were senior to us in college. There were many Guyanese students on campus but none exposed violations of human rights in Guyana or formed a Guyanese association.
Vassan and his brother became the first to discuss rights violations on campus and to motivate us to form an organization when we were denied involvement in the Caribbean Students Association (Indo-Caribbeans were not considered as Caribbean people by the CSA).
Although Ramharack and I were involved in political protests in Guyana during the student strikes on the Corentyne in 1976 and 1977, it was through Vassan and Rennie’s tutoring that we became deeply immersed in Guyana’s freedom struggle. They led and carried the struggle and offered financial contributions when others would not lift a helping hand or offered a penny (not even Freddie gave a penny) for printing pamphlets.
When we completed undergraduate studies and enrolled for graduate school, it was Vassan and Rennie who encouraged us to obtain our teachers licenses and go into teaching. Vassan and Rennie subsequently also joined the profession. It was our salaries from teaching that funded our political struggle for Guyana. It was Vassan and Rennnie who donated money and sent many barrels of educational supplies to organizations and schools in Guyana through NACTA.
When Freddie was sleeping or studying, we were up throughout the nights preparing literature for distribution at public events. It was Vassan who came up with the ideas on what to write and the brilliant Baytoram who penned them as our lead writer and Vishnu who raised the funds and organized the printing and all of us up early in the morning to distribute literature. It was Vassan and I who donated our salaries to buy a printing press that was smuggled into Guyana during the height of the dictatorship.
It was Vassan and several of us who took days off from our job to travel around the country to lobby for assistance to free Guyana. It was he, I and others who spent over a week in boiling heat in the desert of Arizona costing each one of us thousands of dollars all for the sake of liberating Guyana. It was Vassan who led the way on so many other fronts and who kept reminding Guyanese that they were capable of great humanity and nobility and that no race has a right to denigrate and demean another race. It was Vassan who called for the equality of all ethnic groups in Guyana and the Caribbean.
It was Vassan who encouraged Ramharack and myself to run for student government. I got elected three times as an undergraduate student representing the natural sciences and served as Vice President of Educational Affairs.
It was Vassan’s motivation that led me to also get elected three times as President of Graduate Student Government and to serve in other leadership capacities. It was Vassan who served as Treasurer of undergraduate and graduate student governments and who funded African student organizations including Afro-Guyanese for their activities. It was Vassan who funded activities where Kwayana and other African leaders who spoke in NY.  And it was Vassan who went to rallies and protest marches to support Africans in their struggle against racism in America.
It was Vassan who provided funding for the celebration of African Harlem Renaissance during the early 1980s. It was Vassan who helped to organize the Academic Conference of Guyanese
Indians at Columbia University in 1988. It was Vassan who encouraged Baytoram, Dev and myself to conduct polls in Guyana.  It was Vassan who had a confrontation with Freddie in front of UG library when Freddie attacked the surveys. I note that Freddie describes us as supremacist.  But he won’t use the same description for Prof. Rex Nettleford who wrote that the Caribbean belongs only to Africans and only African culture can be Caribbean culture.  Freddie won’t characterize Black Stalin as a supremacist when he sang that only the
Black man can be a Caribbean man (Editor’s note: Black Stalin never stated this in his famous song , aptly named ‘Caribbean Unity.’ Instead he was asking the Caribbean politicians ‘how come you can’t unite seven million?’)
When Barrington Braithwaite wrote that Africans had a right to decide how Indian Immigration Fund money should be spent because their taxes helped to contribute to the Immigration fund but Indians have no right to suggest where the African monument should be located, Freddie did not call him a supremacist as Indian taxes would not be used to build the monument.\
When Kwayana formed an organization for relations with Africa, Freddie dos not describe it as supremacist.   Only when Indians spoke out against injustice, against robberies, against targeted attacks, sexual molestations, that is supremacist behavior. When Indians celebrate Phagwah, Eid, Diwali, and make offerings of mithai and mohanbhog at Christian service, that is supremacist behavior.
For Freddie, anything having to do with defending Indians or standing up for equality for Indian is supremacist behavior.  If you expose flaws in Freddie’s writings, he targets you for personal attacks and you are labeled a supremacist.  That is what he has done to Ravi, Devanand, Baytoram, Vassan, Anand, myself and others.  Freddie cannot defend his views with facts and supporting evidence. So he goes on the attacks calling us supremacists. No Freddie, it is more like being freedom fighters and defenders against your lunacy.
Vishnu Bisram

 

 

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