Dr. Westmaas ought to know better

Jul 03, 2014 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,
I am shocked to read Prof. Nigel Westmaas’ (KN Jun 21) accolades of controversial columnist Freddie Kissoon for his writings. Dr. Westmaas ought to know better about public writings especially in the media – which, among other criteria, must be objective, truthful, balanced, non-personal, evidence-driven, and if coming from an academic, must be intellectually sound.
Can Nigel say which one of Freddie’s columns or letters have met the preceding criteria? Just look at the man’s ramblings and his misstatements of facts (deliberately done) and arguments advanced by others (theorists, scholars and common folks) and the inevitable conclusion is, Freddie is very biased in his expositions.
I knew Nigel well during the days of the anti-dictatorial struggle when I used to visit Rodney House regularly, and interacted with him, Eusi and several others who fought in the revolution that toppled the Burnham/Hoyte dictatorship.
Nigel did a lot of PR work for the WPA and its organs. So he has a lot of writing experience (added to the fact he has a PhD and is an academic — achievements that require a lot writings that are objective and supportive of arguments) on couching an argument and supporting it with credible evidence.
Nigel studied the social science of which social theory is a critical component. Can Nigel say which of Freddie’s columns and/or letters is factually correct, evidence-driven, and logically argued? Can Nigel examine Freddie’s explanation of any social, political, economic and psychological theory and say which one is correct?
As an example, Nigel should read Fareed Zakaria on “Illiberal Democracy” and then read Freddie’s interpretation of Zakaria’s theory – Nigel would immediately recognize Freddie’s lack of understanding of theories.
Nigel should also take a look at the several pieces Freddie penned attacking Dr. Dolly Hassan, Gowkarran Sukhdeo, myself, etc. (KN Jun 15, 20, 22, 24, etc.) Which respected academic would engage in personality attacks on people?
I ask Nigel to examine the caption (title) of Freddie’s articles and say whether the content is actually about the topic – which one of the articles has supporting evidence?
Nigel ought to know better.
Vishnu Bisram

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Dr. Westmaas ought to know better

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