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Jun 12, 2022 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon
Kaieteur News – I refer to a published correspondence, “An invitation to Mr. Kissoon and Ms Shah to expand on their construct of Indianness” in the Kaieteur News of Saturday, June 4 of someone who printed his name as Otis Paul Junior Chase. This gentleman attributed words to me that in 34 years of column-writing I never used. He kept on and on without naming any source from which his words are taken
Here are his outputs abbreviated as Q – meaning “quote” and my responses abbreviated as R meaning “response.”
Q – “Both authors (Kissoon and Shah) expressed and alluded to how it singularly caused both of them to recognise their Indianness.”
R – Either Mr. Chase is dishonest, has a runaway imagination or is ignorant. I never ever penned in 34 years of a presence the newspapers of an event (events) that caused me to recognise my Indianness. Up to this day I never wrote on my Indianness. In fact, I observed that I do not know what it is. Ryhaan Shah and Vishnu Bisram in reacting to that confession of mine delineated their arrival at Indianness.
Q – “For myself, I am quite content to share in my personal experience of how violence underpinned by racist and colourist illogic has come to impact my own processes of self-identification. However, unlike the authors above, it has only served to reinforce my view of the need to construct the discourse on equality and human dignity.”
R- I have no idea what Mr. Chase is talking about in relation to me when he used the words, “unlike the authors above,” meaning me and Shah. Ms Shah and Mr. Bisram, like Mr. Chase, wrote about how they arrived at their process of self-identification. I never wrote about circumstances in my life that led to my self-identification. Where is Chase getting these words from that he puts into my mouth?
Q – “In the case of the two authors, I suspect that Indianness might be the reason why I perceive that they do not share the same outlook.”
R – I am totally confused here. This man has no logic about him. He writes about my acknowledgement of my Indianness, then, in the same vein he says Shah and I have differences on Indianness that is why Shah and I do not share the same outlook. What mangled nonsense in making a point, that eventually renders the point useless.
Q – “Parvati Edwards pushed the narrative through state media that Afro-Guyanese youths are socialised to rob and murder Indo-Guyanese.”
R – If Mr. Chase had an ounce of research talent he would know that I was the only Indian in Guyana to put in print a rejection of what Ms. Edwards sprouted out and I was the only Indian in the picket line outside the Chronicle building in demonstrating against Ms. Edwards. Present was Gerhard Ramsaroop, but he is half-Indian.
Q – “I invite the authors above to expand upon their construct of Indianness”
R – Why am I supposed to do that? Why is that a priority for a Guyanese citizen who rejects the following – discrimination against one race by the other, one ethnic group bullying another, people seeing themselves as Indian first and African first.
Q – “The familiar facts that would have emanated for an infamous libel case between Mr. Kissoon, himself, and the former president.”
R – Here is dishonesty in full flow. Mr. Chase carefully and deliberately chose his words. He chose not to say the following words – “facts that Mr. Kissoon brought out in the libel case.” My question is: were these facts brought out by someone who had embraced his Indianness.
Conclusion. Mr. Chase’s letter is an important one that is why I devoted an entire column to it. Mr. Chase’s letter is about how we feel about racial, cultural, and religious identities based our experience in life. Why this gentleman chose to write about something I discovered, which I haven’t discovered, is clearly in his imagination. His point about the realisation of self-identity based on unpleasant racial encounter early in his life does not square with mine.
I grew up in an African populated ward in south Georgetown named Wortmanville. I would not use the words, “predominantly African.” It was 99 percent African. The African people of Wortmanville did not treat the Kissoon family badly and discriminated against us. Four of my siblings married African Guyanese. All of my friends in Wortmanville were Africans; I had no Indian friend in Wortmanville.
My wife was born in Wortmanville and I can’t recall her telling me that her family was treated badly by Black people in Wortmanvile. Out of that reality, you come to appreciate the essence of other races. I know who I am. I am multi-racial human first and Guyanese second.
(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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