2021 review, Part 6: the surrealism of Vincent Alexander and Charles Ceres

Feb 07, 2022 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

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Kaieteur News – Have you read the newspapers of 2021 and the things Vincent Alexander and a man named Charles Ceres said about me? It was not your run-of-the mill castigations. Alexander and Ceres went into surreal directions.
It is wise to divorce myself from the two situations in order to understand the meaning of life in Guyana. If you want to understand how surreal this country can get and if you want to get into the minds of influential opinion-makers, you need to study what Alexander and Ceres did.
Once you concentrate on what Alexander and Ceres said about me, then, the picture gets lost. Just focus on the action of Alexander and Ceres and the context in which they expressed themselves and the puzzle about this country is solved.
Let’s start with Ceres. A letter appeared in this newspaper on December 18 signed by Ceres headlined: “Charles Ceres to Freddie: Provide the evidence or be sued.” When that letter appeared, I guess curious readers wanted to know what bad things I said about Ceres. Here is that bad thing I penned that Ceres wanted to sue me for.
I wrote that Ceres’ grandparents knew my parents and eldest sister. Then I asked Ceres if he knew when Burnham was president, he, Burnham, enabled Ceres grandparents and parents. Life had to become surreal in Guyana when a man objects to you saying his grandparents knew your parents and because of that he wants the court to award him judgment for libel.
What was funny about Ceres is how did he come to that conclusion that his grandparents did not know my parents? Suppose his grandparents never discussed that with him or felt it was not important to mention? Now wait for more surrealism. In the letter in which he threatens libel, he referred to me as a pseudo-researcher and someone who hasn’t got post-graduate qualifications.
So what is the meaning of Ceres’ action? I am a nobody so Ceres can attack my character and my qualifications but Ceres is in a higher category so I am not allowed to even mention anything, not about Ceres himself, but even his grandparents. I ask the readers to put into context Ceres’ letter and the picture of what Guyana is can easily be seen.
Put in context what Alexander wrote and you see the mind-set that has to be confronted so Guyana’s young population can learn about their country and construct in their own minds the nature of the people who preach to them.
Last year, Alexander advised the editors of the newspapers that when I write they should fact-check me. I don’t have a problem with that; how could any columnist? What I object to is who is saying it. If I should be fact-checked then Alexander would not get a letter published in any newspaper in this country.
A citizen advocating that the newspaper I write for should fact-check me needs to have his offerings frame worked in graphic, large and consistent factuality. Alexander not only fails to meet this criterion but could also be accused of alternative facts, invention of facts and embellishment of facts.
If the Chronicle during the reign of APNU+AFC regime had fact-checked Alexander then the newspaper and Alexander himself would not have lost a libel writ brought by the current Chief Election Officer of GECOM, Mr. Vishnu Persaud. The court ruled that Alexander’s description of Persaud’s character and his academic qualifications were not fact-based. Please do a Google search to read what the judge said about Alexander’s portrait of Persaud.
Next month will be two years since one of the most infamous assaults on the voting process by an election body in the democratic world took place – the Guyana national elections. On to this date, Alexander denies that the March 2020 conduct by some in GECOM’s secretariat, the conduct of the then CEO, Keith Lowenfield and the then returning Officer for Region 4, Clairmont Mingo, were unbecoming. But the facts support such unbecoming conduct.
Here is a question for Alexander. Can he state between what years he was away from Guyana in Moscow studying? I know he was chairman of the youth arm of the PNC, Young Socialist Movement in 1973.
Each time I accuse Alexander on this page of participating in the wrong things his idol, Forbes Burnham did to Guyana, he would reply that he has no knowledge of those things because he was in Moscow studying. I asked him about the rigged election in 1973, he replied he was in Moscow. I asked him about a 1983 incident with Burnham, he replied he was in Moscow studying. How long did Alexander study in Moscow?
(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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