Two unpleasant incidents with me and Dr. David Hinds

Mar 20, 2017 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

David Hinds and I were in the anti-parking meter picket line last Thursday when a young man began to engage David. It appeared that they knew each other. During the conversation, the young man said hello to me and in full hearing of his friend and David uttered these words; “Hello Mr. Kissoon, remember me? I was the person you gave a hard time over my request to be on my radio show.”
He then refreshed my memory. He had a radio talk show on a station owned at the time by Minister of Natural Resources, Robert Persaud. I remembered the incident. I declined his invitation because I found it morally outrageous to be on a radio station which owed it existence to the morbid patronage of a presidential dictator.
I explained my moral objection at the time and I repeated my reasons to him in the picket line last Thursday. I sounded like a teacher when I told him I believe moral obligation to people is one of the factors that preserve civilization.
The story was simple; the State had a monopoly on radio stations for almost four decades and when Jagdeo was about to demit office, he ended the monopoly after tempestuous condemnations from the democratic forces in Guyana over a long period of time. The ending was sickening. Jagdeo gave out a dozen radio licenses to people close to him and the PPP. Even the PPP, as a party, got a license. I offered the young man another reason while his friend and David listened. I told him my decline to take up his offer was also personal. I explained to him using the famous line – “who feels it, knows it.”
Robert Persaud was part of the Jagdeo regime, and as such, I could not bring myself to morally accept an invitation to be part of that outfit, even if it was just a five-minute appearance. Before the conversation ended, I told him I still remain unapologetic over my position that I took at the time. I have appeared twice on Hits and Jams radio. That company was the recipient of Jagdeo’s radio license giveaway. But the comparison with Robert Persaud’s situation cannot stand.
Hits and Jams benefited from a dictator’s outlandish policy-making. So did hundreds of companies and thousands of individuals in Guyana, but it does not make these people part of the dictatorship. Robert Persaud was part of Jagdeo’s oligarchy. Hits and Jams I am convinced was never part of the decision to victimize my wife at her GOINVEST job.
Hits and Jams knew nothing about the decision to terminate my contract at UG. Hits and Jams was not involved in two physical attacks on me. I cannot approach that firm with the same moral revulsion I had for Persaud’s outfit. I have never given an interview to Guyana Times despite several requests and I will never. It is a racist newspaper that is part of the destructive bandwagon of Bharrat Jagdeo.
The second incident with David took place the very next day, Friday. We finished a television interview with Malika Ramsey and as David approached his car (mine was parked away from Smart City Solutions’ territory), the parking meter officials were clamping. David barely missed the tentacles. I didn’t know right next to us Gail Teixeira was passing. David then caught her attention and said, “If you don’t want to talk to Freddie why you not talking to me?”
David approached her, gave her a little hug. Her smiles were broader than the Berbice River, and a conversation between the two ensued. I watched this lady and believe me right there in my mind, I say most honestly, my daughter flew into my consciousness. This was the lady who led the charge at UG for my contract termination.
As I type these lines, there are the images in front of me of her demanding my termination from Vice Chancellor Lawrence Carrington, who just sat in amazed silence in his chair while the then Chancellor, Dr. Compton Bourne ruled me out of order.
My daughter flew into my mind because of this permanent thought I carry with me – dictators harm the families of people that they victimize. The Jagdeo regime harmed my family on several occasions when it violated my rights. Even if Teixeira had spoken to me, I would have rejected her hello. I do not want now or ever to speak to people that were at the top of the pyramid of the Jagdeo dictatorship. I hope they all pay for what they did to this lonely and scarred nation.

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