I will only put my money on Ramjattan and Trotman

Mar 12, 2018 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Lincoln Lewis who was dropped as a Sunday columnist by Editor-in-Chief of the Chronicle, Mr. Nigel Williams, has a letter in this newspaper yesterday in which he was pellucid that Williams’ decision was a political edict from the centre of power.
This is what he wrote; “It would be naïve to think that the Editor-in-Chief Nigel Williams unilaterally disposed of myself and David Hinds as columnists in the state newspaper. Hopefully, he will not be made the fall guy for adhering to what is evidently political interference.”
Dr. David Hinds was also of the belief that political hands were involved. I had a long conversation with Mr. Williams who is on record as saying that he made the decision himself. But why should I believe him? Why do I have to believe him? There are hundreds of newspaper letters on me, in which people wrote that they did not believe me.
From now until the world ends, people are going to say that they do not believe the explanations of others. That is their right and I know of no example since recorded history that a person demanded that others must believe him/her or else.
I believe there are persons high up in the corridors of power that were unhappy with the contents of the Sunday Chronicle columns of the two men and finally they acted. Messrs Hinds and Lewis together perhaps have more than eighty years of activism. They are persons who have the embrace of many in the Guyanese nation.
My sociological studies lead me to think, that there are countless numbers of supporters of the government of the day that admire and respect Hinds and Lewis. Logically, that would mean the government stands to lose energy from many of its aficionados given the trenchant pieces that Hinds and Lewis pen.
It is out of that scenario, I think the moment came to drop them. It is the opinion of this columnist that a person or persons high up in either the PNC (not APNU but the PNC) or the AFC wanted the two men’s columns to be discontinued. If I were pressed to expand on this opinion, I would willingly vouch only for Khemraj Ramjattan and Raphael Trotman in the entire power establishment and that includes the leadership of both the AFC and the PNC.
I could be proven wrong, but the Khemraj Ramjattan I know will not intervene in such a situation and for one reason only – he will not go in that kind of direction of extremism. Ramjattan believes he can answer back and fight any critic.
I can safely say I cannot see Khemraj Ramjattan using his political clout to stop columns critical of the government. When it comes to Trotman, I cannot see such narrow-mindedness in Trotman. Trotman is an astute political strategist. I once told Leonard Craig and the present General Secretary of the AFC, Marlon Williams, that not even Forbes Burnham could match the brilliance of Raphael Trotman’s strategic moves in politics.
In his entire career, Trotman has always come out on the winning side. With such complete assurance and vast self-confidence, Trotman would consider it below his dignity to stop Hinds and Lewis from writing.
So who did it? I don’t know. Columnists are accustomed to speculating, so it is only natural if I do so in this situation. I am not going to call names but I repeat my position as stated above. I will only put my money on Ramjattan and Trotman, meaning I think the edict came from any big wig within the hierarchy of the AFC and the PNC. I will not exclude anyone from that environment.
Lincoln Lewis told me two weeks ago that the frightening thing he finds about the people in the leadership of Guyana is that they dislike you for your criticism. He wasn’t ambiguous. He said they make it personal when you criticise their politics and policies. I spend a lot of time with Hinds when he visits Guyana during the two big breaks he gets from his teaching job at the university he works for in the US.
The AFC issued a poisonous statement against Hinds saying he should be grateful for the freedoms he now enjoys in Guyana brought about by the APNU+AFC victory. Hinds responded by calling the AFC, power-drunk (his words). Before he left Guyana in January this year, he told me that the PNC leadership was very hostile to him. A powerful person (persons) in the AFC or the PNC or both wants these two to stop writing for the Chronicle, a newspaper they feel he/she (they) owns.

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I will only put my money on Ramjattan and Trotman

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