God! I hate this thing in Guyana about some Guyanese

Jul 28, 2018 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

I did a brief stint editing the letters at Kaieteur News and I never wrote about what I learned from the experience. Only Adam Harris, my editor, I spoke to about a certain issue. I told Adam that I stopped many sick, demented anonymous letter-writers.
I don’t know what became of them or which newspapers they migrated to but as editor, I made it clear to them, that they have to type a letter on a desk and not under their mother’s dress.
If I am asked to help edit the letters again or even edit a newspaper, one thing I am going to do as soon as I sit on my chair, is to stop vicious attacks on other people by cowards who sign a fake name or anonymous letter writers who advocate others to change Guyana while they hide under their mothers’ dresses.
There is one such hypocritical letter in this newspaper yesterday, which is what prompted this column here.
Let’s journey back to my days as the weekly columnist for the Catholic Standard. I adored Father Andrew Morrison, the Jesuit priest who edited the Standard and the only quarrel we ever had (and I quarrel with all my editors and publishers – let Glenn Lall and Adam tell you about my craziness) was about an anonymous letter.
It was written by a retired public servant, Joseph Collins. He has long been deceased. He lived on Duncan Street and was very close to Father Morrison. Mr. Collins wrote a lengthy letter calling on Guyanese to resist the Hoyte Government. He went so far to advise them to ignore being dismissed or arrested or jailed and he signed as “Observer.”
I was extremely angry when I saw Colin Smith (the current editor) editing the missive. I registered my misgiving with Colin who suggested that I talk with Father. My vehement point was that Collins was morally outrageous to ask people to make sacrifice out of a nationalist cause and he wasn’t prepared to do the same.
You will not believe what this man wrote in his advocacy yet did not sign his right name. Mr. Collins was afraid of victimization, and rightly so because he was a pensioner. But he had no ethical motive to tell others, using a false name and a bag over his face, that they must go forward and face victimization for their activism.
There have been thousands of letters since that little exchange with Father that have done what Collins did. I will come to the similarity in yesterday’s Kaieteur News. During my interlude as the letters editor, someone was attacking the IDB resident representative each week. So, I emailed the person asking for evidence of their existence. That person disappeared immediately.
There was someone from New York who signed as a doctor. He was lambasting the new government every week.
I simply asked what type of doctor he was; where was his professional office and the address in New York. He replied saying that he didn’t see why he has to provide such details for the public to know about him. I met him halfway and said that we will not publish his personal details but the paper needs to know those details. I never heard back from him. And this is because he was just one of those cowards whose false signatures we see in the dailies.
Why would any human write a letter in the newspaper describing Minister John Jones as a complete idiot, doesn’t know grammar, cannot speak properly, is an incompetent fool and should be removed from office and is quite happy to hide under his/her mother’s dress? So you tell the public what a silly person is Minister John Jones and you walk the streets without your family, relatives and friends knowing that you are a coward.
Let us look at the missive in yesterday’s Kaieteur News. The writer observed; “What does matter and what will determine whether the ordinary Guyanese will be able to enjoy the good life like the politicians is whether we allow corruption to fester and rob us of a bright future without doing anything about it.”
At the bottom of the correspondence were the words, “Name Withheld.” So we are compelled to confront corruption according to this person because if we don’t, corruption will deny Guyanese a bright future. However, how are we supposed to fight corruption? By telling others to do so and in a simple letter to the newspaper, the advocate is afraid to be named.

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God! I hate this thing in Guyana about some Guyanese

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