I demand $50 million or I will sue

May 09, 2019 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

I have instructed my lawyer to sue Ralph Ramkarran for $50 million if he does not apologize on the front page of this newspaper for calling me a liar.

Freddie Kissoon

I feel my reputation has been damaged as a media operative, academic and social activist.
I need the money. I will buy a new car as soon as I collect the cheque from Cameron and Shepherd law firm that Ramkarran heads. Or if I am directed to the head office of ANUG in Timbuktu, I will journey there to pick it up. But then again, I prefer the money in cash.
To deposit a cheque in the bank you have to show proof of address within the last three months on an envelope with a post office date stamp. I am not in possession of such an envelope. I will have to collect the stuff in cash.
Mr. Ramkaran wrote the following about me yesterday in this newspaper; “I would be happy to answer Mr. Kissoon’s questions if he confesses that over the past twenty years he has deliberately, persistently and publicly lied about me by accusing me of suing him in court. I am not raising the other matters about which he has lied over the years.”
How can I confess to lying when I don’t know what I have fictionalized about Ramkarran’s long political career? ANUG has some strange leaders. We will return to Ramkarran below; a few notes about the other leader of ANUG – Henry Jeffrey.
In four published KN letters, Jeffrey describes me as a liar and dishonest person who cannot do proper research. But no details are available so I can comment on them.
In four missives, there are no examples of my lies and dishonesty and just one example of me, being a poor researcher – I wrote that the ministry should be National Security not Public Security.
Jeffrey said he did a Google search and Israel has a ministry of public security. More on Henry Jeffrey later, the co-leader of ANUG that wants to hold the parliamentary balance of power in the upcoming national elections.
Ramkarran took objection when I responded to him writing in the Stabroek News that when the PPP came to power, he advised PPP leaders not to pursue libel steps but let people offer their criticism. I showed where Ramkarran sued me and this newspaper for libel during the time he was advising his colleagues in the PPP leadership about the unnecessary threats of libel.
Charges of being a liar emerged from Ramkarran’s pen because he is contending that he sent a letter of intent and not a writ. To my disadvantage, I have not done the search through my papers to find the writ. I don’t know if I ever collected the writ. Ramkarran says there was no legal filing just a letter sent to Kaieteur News. Could that have been the case? I don’t have evidence of the writ so I cannot pursue that line. What I can do is offer an apology to my editor. But I will not apologize to Ramkarran because he is splitting hairs.
The issue for me is not what kind of paper was used or what process was adopted – letter of intent or court document. My argument revolves around “state of mind.” The state of mind of Ramkarran was to sue for libel. If the newspaper didn’t agree to his terms, would there have been a writ? This is the pivotal issue which the debate has to incorporate – Ramkarran’s attitude to libel.
Now assuming that I am wrong that there was no court filing how does that absolve Ramkarran from the state of mind I referred to above? And to prove that such an attitude to libel exists inside the mind of Ramkarran I will give three other examples.
Years after the first letter (see I am not using the word, writ), Ramkarran complained again to the newspaper.
Each time, Ramkarran threatens libel, Glenn Lall would call me in for a discussion. On one of those occasions, Mr. Lall showed me how angry Ramkarran was by producing a letter in which Ramkarran wrote the words (hope I get the wording correctly,), “You had no intention of firing Kissoon as you told me you would.”
I hope for the sake of his political future, Ramkarran does not deny he wrote such a letter because Mr. Lall obviously keeps his documents. The other two occasions was in 2017 and 2018 in which the threat to sue was unambiguous, pellucid and graphic. I am not confessing to anything Ramkarran wants to me to because I do not have that kind of respect for him.

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