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Juan Edghill, Dr. Henry Jeffrey and a journalist’s journey

Jul 29, 2013 Letters

Dear Editor,
I refer to the reproduction of a November 15, 2004 letter by then Minister of Education, Henry Jeffrey in the July 28, 2013 edition of both Kaieteur News and Stabroek News on our disagreement on school placement back then. Unnecessarily, Dr. Jeffrey, after his signature, stitched in a statement in the reproduced letter (not the original one) to the effect that I am a megalomaniac. I ask readers to note these words came from a politician who served 17 years in the PPP Government, ten of which were under President Jagdeo.
I go back to the same era (around 2004) in which I warned my media colleague, Colin Smith, Editor of the Catholic Standard, not to believe anything at all that politicians say to him because that was the nature of politicians. This was in relation to an upcoming Commission of Inquiry when a Minister denied that he told Colin that a Trinidadian was coming to head the inquiry. Colin should have taped him.
On July 27, Guyanese journalists were treated to a virtual volcano of deception in the game politicians play when Junior Finance Minister was openly proved to be unfamiliar with the words that came out of his own mouth. He told Guyanese that he did not stop the media from asking questions at the public forum on the Amaila project. This newspaper quoted from the recording that is at variance with that statement.
What this case here has to do with the 2004 letter Jeffrey republished on July 28 in 2013? He wrote in a preface attached to his reproduced 2004 missive that in my last Friday (July 27) KN column I mentioned that the Ombudsman told me that the Ministry did not reply to him on my complaint about school placement. In his July 28 preface, he said the Ombudsman did. That is not my recollection. I followed up with the Ombudsman twice and I was informed that the Ministry of Education did not respond. I leave it to readers to judge Dr. Jeffrey in his capacity as the Cabinet Minister of seventeen years duration.
As mentioned above, Dr. Jeffrey after his signature of his 2004 letter, mentioned that I was suffering from megalomania. Dr. Jeffrey was commenting on my last Friday KN column which was on school placements in which the analysis was not directed to him and in which there were no caustic semantics against him.
What then could have caused Dr. Jeffrey to call me a megalomaniac? He merely reproduced his 2004 letter to show that under his aegis, the Ministry of Education, school placement was logical. What then could have prompted him to classify me as a megalomaniac?
I am not going to develop an elaborate defence. Henry Jeffrey is not a psychiatrist and secondly, I live in Guyana and mix with all types of Guyanese and I can assure readers that I am treated with respect and dignity.
What is quite intriguing is that Jeffrey has never referred to his former boss, Bharrat Jagdeo, who ruled Guyana with an iron fist but choose to lay that description on a mere columnist, not the Editor or a columnist with a policy-making job. This same Jeffrey worked as a Minister for ten years under Jagdeo in which Mr. Jagdeo became enmeshed in the worst controversies ever to visit a Caribbean Head of Government/State. This same Jeffrey now writes a weekly column on the use of power in Guyana but to date has not seen it fit to categorize Jagdeo as a megalomaniac.
I will continue to write and I will expect venomous denunciations from Ministers and former Ministers. This is a life media practitioners should expect. These are the travails that a journalist encounters on the journey. It happens all over the world. Guyana is no exception.
Frederick Kissoon

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