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I know of no reporter victimised by Kaieteur News

Nov 30, 2019 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

The hypocrisy of Dr. Troy Thomas is virtually over-bearing. And he gets away with it because this country throughout the world is known as the dead zone. Read all the newspapers and Guyanese newsrooms on the internet and you will not see any UG academic writing on the pressing problems on Guyana.
This is an anomaly perhaps unheard of in every other country that has a university.
The most tragic forms of exploitation, victimisation and Guyanese’s inhumanity to the fellow humans are on display in this country and 99.99 percent of this nation is silent and couldn’t be bothered. It is because we are a wasteland (Clifford Krauss of the New York Times on his visit here almost referred to us in those terms) that people like Troy Thomas can get away with his glaring double standards and continue to do so.
Let me confront two points raised in his missive in yesterday’s edition of KN that was condemnatory of me. The first is I was reticent on an action the Kaieteur News took in stopping a journalist from probing corruption of a minister of government.
Anyone who is familiar with what goes on in this country would know that I had a tempestuous rift with KN’s management over intervention on a column that I believed I was justified in writing.
My presence in the newspaper was removed. Subsequently, there was an amicable resolution. That was a long time ago. Since then, only one column was not published. I made an enquiry, which was obligatory of me. I was told that the piece was not carried in the interest of my protection and that of the newspaper because the central figure written about has enormous power and a vindictive hand could be expected. I am not referring to the President or Cabinet members.
I hardly see the publisher and the senior management. I do not go to Kaieteur News at all, only early in the mornings to collect my pay each month. I know of no reporter being victimised over a probe into corruption.
No one in the media fraternity, political circles and the wider country informed me of such an irregularity. No one sought to confront me on the absence of my pen in such a situation. I am only hearing about this now from the TIGI president, Dr. Troy Thomas. That journalist never made contact with me, assuming that such an incident occurred.
The second issue is Thomas’s deliberate and unacceptable reticence on what took place at UG during the tenure of Vice-Chancellor, Ivelaw Griffith. Let me record for posterity my belief on what happened during that time.
I spent four years as a UG student and 26 years as a lecturer. I have criticised the UG administration under the presidencies of Burnham, Hoyte, Jagan, Jagdeo and Ramotar. But never have I seen such terrible governance, financial recklessness and lack of transparency as what took place between June 2016 and June 2019. It was truly shocking.
During that questionable period, Thomas was president of TIGI. He and his organisation were completely silent on maladministration at UG. When I asked him to account for such shocking invisibility, his response was extremely banal. He wrote that to have him speak about UG could jeopardise the credibility of TIGI.
He repeats that banality in his letter yesterday. I quote him; “I will not rehash it here but I wish to clarify that my role as the President of TIGI is to act on behalf of the organisation and not myself and I will not dare to drag TIGI into matters of personal benefit to me.”
This is manifest nonsense and Thomas deliberately confuses concepts. I think he knows better. I hope so. Thomas heads a body that exposes bad governance, lack of accountability, lack of transparency and the ultimate objective is to rid society of these social maladies.
What personal angle is involved if his eyes gaze on these very acts of egregiousness at his own work place?
Thomas has badly exposed himself. For years, he has used his jejune excuse that he is head of TIGI and because he works at UG, he cannot focus TIGI’s lenses at that institution. But he wants me to put my torch light at my workplace – Kaieteur News. So the methodology applies only to me and not Thomas.
Finally, yes I did in these pages of mine publish words of praise for Thomas for critical words on the UG administration on a television programme. That is my job – to criticise when necessary and to recognise laudable deeds when they are done.

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