Can Kendall please conduct a poll?

Mar 19, 2014 Letters

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Dear Editor,
I write in response to Ms. Donna Kendall (KN Mar 11) who asserted that I have been “trying to deceive Guyanese by skewing polls in favour of the PPP” and that “the party dumped me after the 2011 elections …”
Kandall’s comments lack objectivity and her assertions are based on unsubstantiated facts and assumptions.
She claims that Persaud described me  as “a charlatan and pretender”. I did not see that comment anywhere and it will not be fair to respond to it. If Kendall can provide a reference, I can respond. Her letter was published in SN (Mar10) but the claim of Persaud’s description was exorcised – suggesting it is not accurate and making Kendall the real charlatan.
Persaud accompanied me to Guyana (around 1997) and did substantial interviews (including trips to Bartica and West Coast and may also include the islands and other parts of Essequibo ). A dental student from UG accompanied us; I am indebted to him and I feel guilty that I did not provide sufficient funds to compensate his work.
I engaged two teachers in Bartica and others in Essequibo.  My recollection is that the questionnaire sheets Persaud and others turned in showed a voting pattern based on “race”.  Persaud may wish to comment on whether that finding was authentic and on Kendall ’s claim that he described me as a charlatan.
Dumping someone means the person was attached to (connected with) another entity. The PPP and I were never co-joined except during the period of struggle for the restoration of democracy when I was also co-joined with the WPA, DLM, TUF, URP,ULP and other partners of the PCD and to GUARD.
Ms. Kendall has been co-joined with the PNC all this time. I was actively involved in that struggle in Guyana and the diaspora and supported all of the opposition outfits with significant funds. In addition, I helped organized and or promoted their marches, rallies and protest exercises in New York and participated in similar exercises in Guyana and did not show any particular bias towards any one of them.
I never worked for the PPP. I was never hired by the PPP to conduct polls. All the polling in Guyana by NACTA and TRPI were voluntary and self-financed. Thus, the PPP could not have “dumped me”. I conducted independent polls and released the results to the media.
I never skewed polls in favour of any political outfit and the findings generally reflected the actual outcome of elections. The latest poll revealed that Moses Nagamootoo was the leading debater in parliament outshining all others including those in the PPP – isn’t he AFC? And Carl Greenidge did much better than PPP M.Ps in the poll – Isn’t he PNC?
In November 2011, the PPP rejected the NACTA poll results (criticized them) that showed the party struggling to get 50 per cent. My recollection was two polls “commissioned by and for the PPP” (not NACTA) showed the party getting over 60 per cent of the votes.
The PPP leadership emphatically stated that it would get almost 70 per cent (based on a report of a survey conducted by some UG academic and by some overseas group) of the votes in sharp contradistinction to what NACTA found on the ground.
There was another poll conducted by a Bajan pollster showing PPP with about 34 per cent support with AFC almost neck and neck with PPP; Kendall did not consider that finding “skewed” given that the PPP got 49 per cent. There was also the poll findings presented by Prof. Clive Thomas (conducted by some foreign group and UG academics) just before the election showing APNU ahead and Kendall did not criticize that poll “for skewing” given that PPP bettered APNU by almost eight per cent.
On the issue of skewing, the Dick Morris polls in 2006 revealed that the AFC would win the election. The AFC got less than eight per cent of the votes with PPP about 55 per cent. Isn’t that a case of skewing and why didn’t Kendall criticize it? Aren’t these illustrations the case of verifiable “skewing” in Kendall ’s commentary?
I addressed the query on the existence and activities of NACTA previously.  Essentially it was founded by Dr. Latchman Narain and Vassan Ramracha as a social, educational and research organization and was involved in numerous activities in New York and the Caribbean including donating educational supplies and money to schools and organizations in Guyana .
The AFC has been losing ground while PNC (APNU) has been gaining support. Interviewers informed me that voters told them they are disappointed with the AFC and found the leadership to be no different from the regular run of the mill politician.
Indeed, everywhere I went, people expressed disappointment with the AFC politics saying they showed themselves to be no different from PPP and PNC (APNU).  People are with their conflicts of interests, handling of Linden and Agricola protests, electricity rates, the budget, sugar workers’ interests, etc.
One businessman, in particular, who gave a lot of funds to AFC in 2011, in my presence and the presence of an AFC leader, said emphatically he does not want to see them anymore after his family was beaten, sexually molested and robbed during the Agricola protest.
Businessmen are most disappointed in AFC over its position on the AML Bill. One doctor told me in the presence of a M.P, “I can’t vote for AFC again”. The AFC does not understand its ground supporters and is taking parliamentary positions completely opposed to most of its base.
Kendall claims that I conduct polls in Indian societies.  That is not factual as I also conducted and published polls on “ Barbados , Jamaica , St. Lucia , Antigua or any other Caribbean Islands “ which she describes as “where only Blacks reside”.
As I have found in my experience with detractors and critics of the NACTA and TRPI polls since 1990, when findings were not favorable towards a particular party, the polls and the pollsters were attacked. The polls were attacked at one time or another by all the parties, including the PPP when it showed Nagamootoo and Ramkarran, the preferred choice as its Presidential candidate.
The problem with polling in Guyana is that only NACTA ventures (put money where their mouth is in Guyanese parlance) to conduct polls and critics (supporters of PPP, PNC, APNU, AFC, etc.) don’t want to accept the findings.
Vishnu Bisram

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