Thank you, Winston Jordan but I am not grateful?

Nov 29, 2021 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

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Kaieteur News – Here is something about me that Winston Jordan, as Finance Minister, didn’t know. A few years ago, because of a critical staff shortage in the hard news section of Kaieteur News, I did a short stint as editor of the letter pages.
I carried an apology a few times when Minister Jordan would demand it for the most innocuous criticism of him, even inconsequential statements way back when he served in the budget department under the PPP government. I will never forget one particular missive in which the writer merely opined that Mr. Jordan was once supportive of the PPP government when he was a high official in the Ministry. Normally, these are things Cabinet ministers just ignore. But Jordan demanded an apology. I carried it.
As a political analyst in the newspapers for the past 33 years, Mr. Jordan remains one of the people I am afraid to write about because he has a propensity to sue. In my last column on Jordan, I asked three lawyers to clear for me any subterranean legal uncouthness. My most recent piece on Jordan was titled, “From “War Break” to “Aluta Continua” of Wednesday, October 27, 2021.
Here is the opening paragraph of that article: “I sent this commentary here to four lawyers; yes, four lawyers. They concluded nothing is libelous. I changed, on the suggestion of one of the lawyers, two adjectives which he opined was safe but still made the suggestion. I will avoid getting libel and will continue to do offer analyses on Guyana’s troubled political landscape.”
After reading what Mr. Jordan wrote about the current Finance Minister, I made the same mistake I keep on making. I was reading the newspaper while drinking hot coffee (I only buy local ground coffee which is extremely good) and when I came upon certain words in a published letter of Jordan, a terrible thing occurred once more in my life.
In the paroxysm of shock of a transformed Jordan, the coffee split on my crotch, and burnt my left leg badly. I had to be rushed to the Georgetown Hospital and quick intervention saved my leg. Here is the headline of Mr. Jordan’s letter published on November 25, 2021: “Finance Ministry removed critical control measure and this has opened the door to procurement confusion and corruption.”
When I read those words in the actual body of the letter, the shock caused my body to convulse and it was there and then the coffee fell on me. Not for a fraction of a second, I would have used the word “corruption” in writing anything about the Ministry of Finance under Jordan. I believe in my heart, mind, soul and psyche that anyone who had composed that sentence while Jordan was Finance Minister would have landed up with a libel writ.
When I read those words, I thought of what the late David DeCaries once wrote of the late medical doctor, Walter Ramsahoye. Mr. DeCaires observed that Ramsahoye loved to criticise people but could not and would not accept criticism. Dr. Ramsahoye sued Kaieteur News three times, one of which I was the first defendant.
Ramsahoye went on Channel 6 with CN Sharma and said nasty things about me yet sued for libel. In the three trials, Ramon Gaskin was the chief witness for Ramsahoye. Gaskin waxed lyrical about the purity of Ramsahoye, a man I found to be an embarrassment to civilisation. On the witness stand, Gaskin said untruthful things about my doctoral training at the University of Toronto.
Gaskin is now the political partner of Yog Mahadeo in an organisation named Article 13 in which the government is constantly criticised. I would like to remind Dr. Mahadeo that I wrote four critical columns on Gaskin, the first being in the Stabroek News of October 1989. I have been analysing Gaskin since then. If my arithmetic is correct, that is a period of over 32 years. Surely Yog Mahadeo must know charity begins at home.
Sorry for the long digression, but the point of this column is that I am happy that we are now seeing a new Jordan where he can engage in flowing discourses and I don’t have to fear libel. I will end with a question in reference to the column on Jordan that I mentioned above.
Let me remind readers what it is about. After the government announced that it is in the process of bringing criminal charges against Jordan, the former minister issued a reaction in which he ended his statement with the African liberation slogan, “aluta continua” which means “the struggle continues.” I asked him to explain which struggle he is referring to. He replied to me but did not explain. I am asking him again.

(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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