Freddie replies to Mike Mc Cormack

May 06, 2015 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,
I refer to Mr. Mike Mc Cormack’s letter of April 29 in KN in which he attempted to answer my constant criticism that his organization, the Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA), has been dormant for over more than a decade. I need to point out to Mr. Mc Cormack that within that decade, I have made that accusation several times in my columns.
Scholarly studies of Guyana have concluded that post-colonial Guyana has been essentially authoritarian, with free and far elections being irrelevant to the continued existence of the authoritarian state since such elections have not transformed the dictatorial system into a democratic polity
“In such a condition then” (to use Hobbes’ famous words) a human rights organization becomes priceless. Sadly, Guyana does not have a body specifically functioning in the arena of human rights violations. For anyone to dispute that citing the functions of the GHRA would border either on dishonesty or ignorance. For Mr. McCormack to assert that his organization is alive and well is certainly a self-inflicted damage to his reputation.
You ask any citizen who has been violated either by central government, state institutions, the police, the prison authorities, army, local organs, the medical system, the different ministries of government, the courts, big businesses etc, if they know about the GHRA or has sought redress from the GHRA, the answer would be no.
Any woman who is violated runs to Red Thread or Nigel Hughes or the press, but they never go to the GHRA, because they simply do not know about its existence. Anyone who has been mistreated by big business seeks out the help of the press, but never the GHRA. Mr. Mc Cormack was cynical in his letter about the complaints I get, but he should take my position seriously, because it is a sad indictment on the dormancy of his entity.
Mr. Mc Cormack can accuse me of chauvinism if he wants to, but he would be shocked to know the number of complaints I get from citizens who have been violated, and it is a brutal indictment of this society and how the lesser endowed citizens are treated. Mc Cormack and his GHRA should be ashamed that such victims do not know about the GHRA.
It is sad to see the intellectual decline of Mr Mc Cormack when in his reply he suggested that the Kaieteur News show me the things he sends to the press. I will quote him, “May I suggest you (Kaieteur News) pass on to him (me) the press releases GHRA sends you (Kaieteur News), some twenty per annum.”
Well! Well! It is either the press releases are not effective since the victims do not solicit the intervention of the GHRA or a majority of the press releases are not carried or are carried but not digested by readers. I wonder if included in those twenty documents are the releases of the Guyana Rugby Union with which Mr. McCormack’s name is more associated with in the newspapers.
But is this what the GHRA has become? A press release organization. Is this how Guyanese should assess the work of the GHRA? By the number of yearly statements it dispatches to the press? I would think that even a school boy would know that you judge an organization by the substance of its work and the resulting accomplishments.
Even though it is trivia, it still would have been nice to know that through the pressure of GHRA, Banks DIH is now putting the identification of the flavours of its ice-cream on the face of the cover of the container.
Most unfortunate, Mr. McCormack didn’t make any mention of the very reason I criticized the GHRA in the column he took objection to. It is about the widow whose husband disappeared in a plane while in the employ of Air Services Ltd and she was never contacted by the management of Air Services Ltd, a billionaire company in Guyana head by Ms. Annette Arjoon, wife of calypsonian Dave Martins.
Finally, to correct Mr. Mc Cormack. I am the only UG lecturer to have his contract terminated without a document or a piece of paper going before the Council of the University for discussion and sent by someone or some section of the university. My contract was terminated through the oral suggestion of Ms. Gail Teixeira supported by four others Council members from the PPP/Government. The legal advice to the Ombudsman made that point pellucid. I close by imploring that the GHRA start helping the poor and powerless of this tragic land.
Frederick Kissoon

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Freddie replies to Mike Mc Cormack

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