Craig is gone; class and colour go on

Oct 17, 2016 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

My friend Leonard Craig has gone away. He won’t be back for a long time. It will be difficult for the AFC to replace both his intellectual mind and energetic activism. I don’t think the word “controversy” would be misplaced to use to describe his advent into public life. Craig hit the headlines constantly in his capacity as chairman of the Broadcasting Authority. Over the past two weeks, he was catapulted into the middle of the ongoing imbroglio at the Authority when he went public with the accusations made against two board members.
Craig is gone far away so I can openly discuss secrets that should no longer remain secrets. Craig contacted me to ask what he should do with the information he had. Craig was caught in a confusing paradox. He said that he was fearful that if he swept it under the carpet, certain board members would be emboldened. Juxtaposed against this was his equal fear that if he goes public, the Prime Minister may not have agreed to his action given the likely consequences.
I remember the morning distinctly when Craig called my home to ask my advice. I was feeding my cat. The conversation went on for a long time and my voice was raised. Without hesitation I recommended a press conference, alternatively a press statement. He chose the latter. The Guyanese people are now aware of what happened.
I had umpteen lunches with Craig since he became the Chairman of the Broadcasting Authority. We lunched all the time at Excellence Restaurant on Charlotte Street. Two topics were routine- the early need to end Jagdeo’s incestuous license affair and the increasing disrespect shown to him as Chairman by Tony Vieira. Each time we had lunch the subjects came up and I offered my solution. At the centre of Craig’s two nightmares was the Prime Minister. Moses Nagamootoo may not take too lightly to what I am about to write but I hope he is broadminded to polemicize rather than see things in a narrow perspectives.
For me it was clear that Craig didn’t have the power or would not get the power to rescind Jagdeo’s depraved distribution of his goodies. I told Craig to resign and let the Guyanese people have the facts. Mr. Glenn Lall, the publisher of this newspaper knew I was close to Craig and he would knock Craig for not acting. I would tell Craig that it is looking bad but Craig confessed to me that the Board would not sanction it and the Prime Minister doesn’t want to go that route.
Here is the part now that the Prime Minister may not like and if anyone is in contact with Craig and they ask him, I know he would not deny it. I advised Craig that the PM’s political career is winding down, his is only just beginning. For the sake of his political future, he should level with the Guyanese people. In the end he did not because it was clear to me he wanted to be loyal to the Prime Minister.
On the question of Tony Vieira; it was my analysis that this was a case of class, colour and status. And I constantly reminded Craig of the cruel nature of class and colour in Guyana. Each time he brought up Vieira’s disrespect, I lectured him on class and colour in Guyana. I experienced such angst at the Stabroek News when I was a columnist at that newspaper. It was a terrible moment in my life that I will never forget. I heard my parents and elder siblings lament about the light complexion and class requirements in colonial Guyana when I was a tiny boy growing up in Wortmanville.
In 1988 long, long after colonialism had gone and European society had passed in Guyana, I experienced at the Stabroek News what I heard from people when I was a boy. Nineteen eight-eight passed into history twenty six years ago, but what I endured as a dark-skin nobody from Wortmanville in South Georgetown at the Stabroek News, Craig was witnessing at the Guyana National Broadcasting Authority in 2016. Craig was a dark-skin nobody from an obscure village in Berbice. He had neither light complexion nor money and didn’t come from the middle class.
Those omissions contributed to his headaches at the Authority. The make-up of that board did to Craig what Stabroek News did to me – non-recognition because you do not belong to our class and we will not accept you as one of us. Class and colour dominate this land and reigns supreme. Burnham tried. Jagan tried. But class and colour outlived them.

4 thoughts on “Craig is gone; class and colour go on”

RLSG October 17, 2016 at 6:53 am

This is reprehensible but true. it is common knowledge that class and color still rule in Guyana. Everyone knows that Mr. Vieira’s nephew is allowed to race around Georgetown without a helmet and no policeman pulls him over. It is time that this nonsense stop .. if not now when ? Guyana still exists in the 19th century in terms of race, class and color. This is indeed a very poor reflection on the current administration and like everything else in that place, this too will be swept under the rug. This is just disgraceful .. the more things change the more they stay the same.
1. Gtloyal October 17, 2016 at 8:59 am
  
  This is not only “… a very poor reflection on the current administration …” but a very poor reflection on the country as a whole. We the people have to make the decision to bring about changes. We have accepted this mediocrity for far too long, even growing accustomed to it and, with the exception of columnist Mr Kussoon, hardly, if ever, speak out against it.
2. 19CAGriffith48 October 17, 2016 at 7:39 pm
  
  “… it is common knowledge that class and color still rule in Guyana. ”
  
  In addition to color, the barriers of class and education (schools attended) have kept many from the very top .
  There are those who still believe QC and Saints are Colleges,western style.
  
  It mannered not how many GCE “O” Level subjects one had successfully completed in the home land, ‘to get started in America the Beautiful in 1969’, one had to successfully complete the General Education Development (GED) test.
Pam October 17, 2016 at 11:39 am

I disagree Freddie!. Class and colour do not rule anymore. Socialism and migration took a huge ‘bite’ out of that class-divide and it’s narrow opportunities for the darker complexioned person back then. Your achievements as a dark-skinned person from a humble back-ground is an example. Its marginal existence today, is sustained by dark-skinned people also. This is debatable.