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He went to fancy universities, has a fancy house, fancy car and fancy dog

Apr 02, 2017 Letters

Dear Editor,
I am not even an amateur commentator much less an analyst but I still would like to add my little, tiny bit to the debate about which Guyanese is likely to do good as the presidential candidate for a third party in the general elections of 2020. When you read the newspapers and watch the television talk shows, you get a sense that Guyana is on the verge of getting another major political party.
In all these discussions, one name keeps coming up – Freddie Kissoon. For a man whose output the reader cannot keep up with, Mr. Kissoon is very silent. I wonder why. Freddie Kissoon is not the silent type, on the contrary his voice is booming. Freddie has his reason for his unusual silence which I hope we hear why in the coming months. Recently someone joined Ralph Ramkarran’s name and from thereon he has been pitted against Freddie.
One writer made the interesting but unusual point that Freddie while being one of the heroes of the nation will not make a successful candidate because the business folks would frown on him and he will not be embraced by a wide cross section of the nation if the third party wins. This is the point I would like to introduce in the debate and it does not concern support for or arguments against Freddie Kissoon. My letter here is not about Freddie Kissoon or Ralph Ramkarran. It is how candidates get elected. I say this because I am not in favour of the letter writer who posited that if Freddie Kissoon runs he will receive all the votes of poor people but none from the business and middle classes. He goes on to say that Ramkarran is a better bet because he will pick up votes from all sections of the nation.
As I said Mr. Editor, I am not even an amateur commentator but this does not make sense to me at all. What makes sense to me is how many votes are required to win an election. You can get them from anywhere or nowhere but you have to get them and they must be in large numbers. The letter to me is more concerned with presentation than the ways you can win an election. He says people find Freddie Kissoon a philosophical dreamer the type you don’t put in government whereas Ralph Ramkarran has more accessibility among voters.
One can hardly argue with that but my entry in this debate is to ask about the amount of votes and not who is more presentable to voters. Mr. Editor, correct me if I am wrong but it is not accurate to say that one section of the society can vote against you, another section can vote for you and that other section is larger therefore they will make you win the election. Correct me again if I am wrong Mr. Editor, didn’t the recent US presidential election show us how wide spread is sectional voting? Mr. Trump won because one half on the US voted for him, the other half didn’t.
I don’t have any particular and special fondness for Freddie Kissoon except to say that like most, Kissoon has my admiration and is an honest citizen without baggage. One way or the other, I have no interest if he is a presidential candidate or not. My letter here is to raise the debate as to which candidate will get more votes. One letter writer says Ralph Ramkarran will do better because he will get the votes from all classes in Guyana while Freddie Kissoon will only pull the votes of the masses. This is where I find his argument weak. To win you need the votes of the masses.
Mr. Editor, I am still in confusion as to why the middle classes will reject Freddie Kissoon according to your writer. By any standard isn’t Freddie Kissoon a middle class man? Any reader could Google the relevant information on this man. Plus he is a public figure in Guyana; his life is on display. This gentleman went to fancy universities, drives a fancy car, lives in a fancy house, walks a fancy dog and listens to classical Italian music. Isn’t that a middle class man?
Roopnarine (Roop) Latchmansingh

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