The President asked. I declined. I’ve since changed my mind.

Mar 21, 2021 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

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Kaieteur News – In a brief conversation with President Ali not long after he acquired office, he said, “Freddie in what way would you like to serve your country?” I interpreted it to mean he was making an employment offer. I told him at my age, I prefer to see the younger generation succeed people like me.
I have since changed my mind. I am announcing my interest in state employment. It is a long shot for one fundamental reason; PPP leaders and advisors to the government and personal friends of the PPP leadership are not going to concur, because of fear of my style. You don’t have people like me working in such sensitive high-level state positions where diplomatic behaviour is crucial.
I have never had the capacity to be diplomatic. My entire life has been spent in the trenches, even while I was teaching at UG for 26 consecutive years. I can vividly see their reaction; “nah maan, Freddie gun cause problems with people bhai, big problems.” Anyway, as the saying goes, “nothing ventured, nothing gained.” So I am asking President Ali for a job.
I confess deep within my heart, they are right about my personality. I will bring intensive passion to the job because that is who I am. I will be the first to admit; there will be controversies. So what is the job I am asking for? Before I reveal that two things have to be stated. One is personal, the other is intellectual.
On the personal level, I want to make this kind of contribution because of my age. With advanced age, you want to make a final gift to your country to make it a better place for future generations. Marx said the point of living is to change the world and as old age creeps up, I would like the opportunity to attempt to stop the indignities the poorer classes suffer in Guyana. It is my last chance to change Guyana.
On the intellectual level, I feel deep in my soul, deep within my psyche, that of all the democratic countries in the international community the past 50 years, Guyana because of its small population has the highest index of unhappiness, the highest level of human insensitivity and the highest level of flippancy with regards to human rights. By human rights violations, I mean rights trampling in general; not only state abuse but also abuse of poorer folks by people with money, status and high class positions.
I have been involved in social activism for over 50 years and in the media for over 32 years and each day it breaks my heart living in Guyana seeing and hearing about human insensitivities. I wrote several times in these columns of mine that to understand the mental pain people experience from being denied their right to happiness in Guyana, you should come and spend time with me. Hear the deluge of telephone calls. See the wave of people waiting to tell you the wrong things done to them. Read the flood of my emails about the disregard for people’s rights
Heart-breaking stories that go on each day in this country and the victims remain helpless. Here are just a few examples. Electrical technician, Marvin Ruhoman, was laid off by Giftland. He had no one to turn to. I took him to the Labour Ministry. The Chief Labour Officer, Mr. Ogle, assigned a lawyer to his case. She refused to continue because she said I am from the media and publicity will be given to the case. For my reaction to this lady see my column of Friday, September 7, 2018 titled, “I took a victim to Minister Keith Scott.”
Keifer Burnett spent Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights in the Kitty lock-up for possession of one gram of marijuana. On the following Monday, he had no one to represent him because his friend told me that James Bond said his fees for drug cases start at $75,000. I appeared myself and pleaded with Magistrate, Sherdyl Issacs, for bail. See my column of Tuesday, January 8, 2019, “African Guyanese 52 years after Independence.”
I asked the Traffic Department to stop Hand-In-Hand Insurance Company from chasing away motorists from parking on any of the four streets surrounding the building. The police came, warned them. They still are doing it. UG staff and students are terribly treated for decades now. Commercial banks horribly mistreat low-income customers. Many Chinese supermarkets do not give their Guyanese sales girls annual leave.
So what is the job? I want to be the head of the Human Rights Commission. I don’t want any high salary. I don’t want a SUV assigned to me. I just want unfettered space to do my work.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

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