Latest update January 1st, 2025 1:00 AM

Guyana's largest selling daily and New York's most popular weekly

Latest News

The Attorney-General/Ramjeet incident is the story of my journalistic life

May 09, 2018 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

This is one of the world’s most dangerous countries in terms of physical, legal, and political harm. In Guyana, there isn’t a safe place that you can escape a robbery attempt. Our political paranoia started with the spilt between Burnham and Jagan. Since then, a citizen is viewed either as an Indian PPP supporter or an African PNC embracer.
Legally, this country is terrifying swampland. It is one of the world’s most litigating corners of the world. Just say a person isn’t doing his/her job properly and you get a law suit. Some of the most bizarre libel suits you can find anywhere in the world are found in Guyana. I challenge you to give me a more depraved example of a libel writ from any other country than the two I will offer you here.
A deputy CEO is wanted in Guyana for fraud to the tune $27 million committed against the state-owned electricity company. He will be arrested on sight if he returns but he sues for billions of dollars based on the reporting of the case.
It takes a comical turn, because he cannot come to Guyana to collect the money if he wins. A state employee is charged for fraud involving hundreds of millions of dollars and because the reporter did not spell out the entire charge and left out a few words, he threatens to sue for libel if not paid fifty million dollars.
This is Guyana for you; a place where people sue for things they have said and done but they still sue. People file libel writs for two obvious reasons even though what is written about them is true. One is that they ensure they shut you up and the topic will die with the filing of the writ.
The second reason is to tell people that what is written about them is not true that is why they are going to court. In the second reason, there is the malicious mind at work.
You have done something that shouldn’t be done but you want the world to know that you haven’t done it. This second reason is a strong impulse in the motivation to sue. This paper and I avoided a libel writ and apologized after I wrote that a certain lawyer offered a type of advice to a client that I found questionable.
Both the paper and I apologized because we both wanted to get on with our work and not be bogged down with walking up a court step. Then I found the two letters of advice that was written to the client. If those letters were not found, I could not have commented on the lawyer’s attitude.
People write poisonous things about others and you dare not reply. When you do, you are told that you are an unworthy human. Why is this happening? The society has disintegrated and people arrogate to themselves the pomposity to impose their twisted values on the Guyanese people.
One day, I saw a letter on page 18 in the Stabroek News by a remigrant that goes under the name GHK Lall. The date of publication was Thursday, March 26, 2015.
I never met the gentleman, never saw him, never spoke to him; never wrote a line to or about him. This is what GHK Lall wrote about me; “Kissoon not only compromised himself, he contaminated himself too…yes he has deteriorated.” This was in March 2015 when the election campaign was in full swing.
I suspected Lall was annoyed at my criticism of the politics of Ramon Gaskin and B.K. Tiwarie because I had written things about their PPP connections just days before.
Here are the words of Lall in April 2018 when I replied to his incessant, unsavoury, vicious derogations of the Kaieteur News. “I seem to recall dismissing (Kissoon) a while back.  Now I have to venture into the gutter that has become part of the local lifeblood.  I feel stained and tainted and utterly disgusted.  Is this what this country has become?”
The very gentleman didn’t say these words about himself when three years ago, he said I was a contaminated person.
So we end with Oscar Ramjeet accusing the Attorney-General of libel when the AG said he wanted a job in his Chambers after 2015. Ramjeet wrote; “I have never applied for any position whatsoever in the AG Chambers… deliberate falsehood filled and published with malice is actionable as a tort of defamation.”
But the AG produced proof of the truth from which what Ramjeet accused the AG of libel. Guyana and Guyanese are lost in time and space.

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show | December, 2nd, 2024

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

Keevin Allicock – the next torchbearer for Guyanese professional boxing

Keevin Allicock – the next torchbearer for Guyanese professional...

Dec 31, 2024

By Rawle Toney Kaieteur Sports- In the rich tapestry of Guyanese sports, few names shine as brightly as Keevin Allicock. A prodigious talent with the rare blend of skill, charisma, and grit, Allicock...
Read More
Guyana Harpy Eagles begin Fitness Preparation for 2025 CWI Regional Four-Day Tournament

Guyana Harpy Eagles begin Fitness Preparation for...

Dec 31, 2024

The business end has arrived, a place in the final is at stake tomorrow night

The business end has arrived, a place in the...

Dec 31, 2024

Thirteen-year-old benefits from Project “Cricket Gear for young and promising cricketers in Guyana”

Thirteen-year-old benefits from Project...

Dec 31, 2024

Milerock stop Winners Connection 9-3 behind Drakes 5 goal spree, Botafago humble Capital Fc 8-3

Milerock stop Winners Connection 9-3 behind...

Dec 31, 2024

Dharry reigns supreme with second-round KO against Ramirez

Dharry reigns supreme with second-round KO...

Dec 30, 2024

Features/Columnists

Publisher’s Note

Freedom of speech is our core value at Kaieteur News. If the letter/e-mail you sent was not published, and you believe that its contents were not libellous, let us know, please contact us by phone or email.

Feel free to send us your comments and/or criticisms.
Contact: 624-6456; 225-8452; 225-8458; 225-8463; 225-8465; 225-8473 or 225-8491.
Or by Email: [email protected] / [email protected]

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]