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I am now accused of lawlessness and destruction
Dear Editor
The man who cries out at foreigners coming here to take our “economic greatness” (his words), has accused me of playing a dangerous game with Guyana, a country that I have struggled to change for the better since I was sixteen. The man who says these foreigners do not speak English and will vitiate our culture when they come here has accused me of thriving on lawlessness.
You know this country produces the world’s most amazing ironies. Here are some condemnatory words on me by the long-serving TUC General-Secretary, Lincoln Lewis, a position he has held for more than 25 years without being elected. Maybe I should compose an essay for Lewis on the meaning of term limits. Lewis noted; “Kissoon … thrive on lawlessness, tension and division, to validate (his) thinking….”
What is the irony here? Lewis was removed as a columnist from the Chronicle by his own friends in government. One of the indications that his friends thought he was irresponsible in the Chronicle was the intonation by the President in February 2018 at the media brunch at State House that he took objection to a caption of one of Lewis’ column having the words, “testicular fortitude.”
Lewis was accused of recklessness and irresponsibility in his columns by his powerful friends that they kicked him out of the state newspaper. The same Lewis is making accusations of recklessness against me for my critical thoughts on what is taking place at UG and the role the TUC Council member, his friend, Ivor English, is playing in those affairs at UG. Here is more of Lewis on me; “In his recklessness, he cares not who he destroys, whose character he tarnishes, which institution he ‘breaks up’, once he gets his way.”
Lewis has an obsession with using two phrases. They appear ad naseum in all his wild, hypocritical ranting on the use of power. One is that there are time-honoured principles which people who hold power must recognize and employ in the use of power. The second one is that he has the habit of calling on policy-makers to show testicular fortitude in defending themselves against charges of bad governance.
The rest of this commentary here shows where Lewis is a far more egregious violator of time-honoured principles and lacks testicular fortitude in defending himself against accusations of the betrayal of workers’ rights at UG. Several TUC past presidents have told me that Lewis doesn’t recognize collective decision-making but loves the unilateral approach. One of them I have known a very long time and regard him as a trade unionist with integrity. He told me that as president of the TUC, he would read about statements put out on behalf of the TUC that he never saw or approved of. I remember at one time, he was so incensed that he requested an emergency meeting with me on Hadfield Street outside White Castle Fish Shop.
Lewis is a one-man show at the TUC. He is virtually the controller and owner of Critchlow Labour College. He should have the testicular fortitude to explain to all workers in Guyana why the government since 2015 has refused to restore full state subvention to the college. If he doesn’t reply, I will display testicular fortitude and tell the nation the truth.
Lewis should have the testicular fortitude to adumbrate for all Guyanese his attitude to term limits. Does he believe the post of General-Secretary should have terms limits? When is he thinking of demitting office or is he going to stay until the empire of Timbuktu is restored? The simple truth about politics in this country, since the advent of perestroika in October 1992, is that those who lambast people in office for poor quality of democratic character ,have democratic credentials that are even more sour than turn-milk.
I did a column recently that stated that I would vote for Bharrat Jagdeo in front of Ramon Gaskin (AKA, Rambo). I honestly mean that. When you see Rambo on television you would think he is a radical democrat. He is an enduring oligarch. A recently formed party, A New and United Guyana (ANUG) has two politicians among their ranks that do not deserve even half of a vote from the Guyanese people because these two are not better than any leader in the AFC, PNC and PPP that they love to criticize.
Lewis has gone berserk in his condemnation of me (I am waiting for his facts rather than his broad generalizations) because I have accused him in a telephone conversation two years ago, which I recorded and gave to the vice-President of the UGWU, Khemraj Naraine, of betraying workers’ interests at UG.
Frederick Kissoon
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