Shall I sue Charles Ceres for libel?

Dec 19, 2021 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

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Kaieteur News – Charles Ceres referred to me as a pseudo researcher who is still to realise his dream of post-graduate qualifications. Referring to someone who is a trained academic with 26 years of teaching at a university with publications to his name is in my opinion, libelous.
To say a person doesn’t have post-graduate qualifications when that person did post-graduate work right up to the doctoral programme at two of the world’s best universities is certainly libelous.
I am not going to publicise my academic achievements because someone like Ceres says I am under-qualified. I consider it infra-dig to offer my qualifications in print because someone questions it. But let’s stick with the libel dimension.
People all over the world could be heard saying that there are things inside their DNA and there are things that are not part of their DNA. Suing people for their scandal sheet on me is not in my DNA. I just would not sue people. I don’t know why. I just don’t know, that is not me.
Firstly, I have protection against damage to my character that is also a factor in deterring me from suing people. I have over 50 years of social and political activism. I have 33 years of media functionalism and 26 years of university teaching. Out of this ocean, Guyanese people in and out of Guyana of all ages and professions have come to know what I stand for.
I don’t think Ceres has the talent, capacity and learning to say anything about me that, though fictional, people would believe. Secondly, in relation to Ceres himself, I don’t consider him important in Guyana to want to sue him for what he wrote about me. I don’t know Ceres, don’t want to know him, and don’t think he is relevant to Guyana for me to want to sue him.
Thirdly, when you sue someone for damage to character, you are conceding that the person has influence in the society and that influence can shape the way people see you. I don’t see Ceres as having any influence in this country so that his words can shape Guyanese’s perceptions and conceptualisation of me.
I close this aspect of the libel discussion by saying I have no respect for Ceres and will never. Now I don’t think there is a judge who could command another person to respect another. I believe humans in this world still retain the right to say who they respect and who they don’t.
Now for the bicycle incident. If Ceres had studied philosophy like I did at one of the world’s top universities, he would have been better endowed to understand how life works. The bicycle is not the issue. Perhaps I can educate Ceres by some ground structuring engineering into philosophy and epistemology.
It is not the bicycle that is the issue. The incident with the eviction of my bicycle in the National Park was a display of power. The bicycle doesn’t have any value in deconstructing the event. Power was used to victimise an Indian citizen on three occasions in the National Park.
The issue is power and how it was used in the National Park by the party that was founded by the man that Ceres informed readers empowered him to believe in himself. I hope Ceres recognised Guyanese history in which Burnham empowered other people to kill other people. I would gladly offer a free copy of the Walter Rodney Commission report to him to substantiate my opinion on Burnham.
Finally, let me be pellucid, unambiguous and pyrotechnical in the articulation I am about to present. Here it is. I am an educated Guyanese who has lived all my life here. My research (I couldn’t be bothered what an engineer says about my social science research; he has no training to judge it) and my existence in Guyana enable me with the capacity to write about all ethnic groups in this country.
I don’t know what makes any African Guyanese feel that because they are African-Guyanese, no Indian has the right to analyse the history and sociology of African Guyanese. Well, I am telling Ceres and all the others who think like him; this Indian has the right, will exercise this right without fear of being intimidated or scandalised to write on Africans in Guyana.
I will continue to do so because it is my right as both an academic and a Guyanese. If Indians don’t want to write on African-Guyanese and if African-Guyanese don’t want to examine the sociology of Indians, then that is no business of mine. Finally, I never got any scholarship from the State under any president and I worked for 26 years in the public service for a lousy pay. That is patriotism.
(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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