Robin Singh’s mentality will do the PPP no good

Oct 14, 2022 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

---

Kaieteur News – Mr. Robin Singh was an election candidate for the PPP in the March 2020 election. I am told by a reliable source that Mr. Singh is close to the PPP’s leadership. If that is so then when you examine the beliefs, conceptualisation and viewpoints of Mr. Singh, it is literally impossible for the PPP to avoid criticism of harbouring people with an authoritarian mentality.

I read a shocking, sickening and downright irrational defence by Mr. Singh of an authoritarian act directed by the Stabroek News to the constitutional advisor to President Irfaan Ali, Professor Randolph Persaud. It causes one to ask exactly what is going on between Mr. Singh and the professor.

Mr. Singh also took a dig at the current editor of the Kaieteur News (KN) whom I know up, close and personal. I am obligated to confront Mr. Singh’s portrayal of a fine editor-in-chief (EIC), Ms. Sharmain Grainger, a person I consider the most professional EIC at the moment in Guyana.

We will avoid putting words in Mr. Singh’s mouth and quote him directly. His outlay is titled, “My letters have been published in Stabroek News” and carried in that newspaper’s edition of Wednesday, October 12. His letter is replete with contradictions which compel one to declare that Mr. Singh is not only ignorant about the principles of journalism but also on life itself.

The story begins with the professor publishing a conversation with the EIC of Stabroek News (SN) which the EIC gave permission to the professor to make public. I then rang the EIC and he confirmed what he told the professor and also gave me permission to quote him. Please see two columns, “Friday, October 7, 2022, “Open letter to Isabelle DeCaires and Ian Mc Donald and Monday, October 10, 2022, “Ian McDonald rejects Stabroek News’ position on Article 13.”

The professor was told that his letters and those from the Government of Guyana will not be published once they are critical of civil society groups especially Article 13. Former chairman of the board of SN, iconic Guyanese, Ian McDonald replied to say that he rejects that decision by the EIC.

When you think you have seen the most bizarre things in Guyana and it cannot get worse then came Mr. Singh with a defence of the indefensible. Let’s quote the gentleman. “… there appears to be a deliberate campaign/attempt to besmirch the reputation of the Editor-in-Chief, Anand Persaud via Kissoon’s column and anonymous channels.”

This is not only crass ignorance but an ugly avoidance of the issue. The issue is the refusal by the EIC to publish the man’s letters, a position the EIC says he stands by and which Mr. McDonald is not in agreement with. My column was a publication of the professor’s complaint. By some contorted logic, Mr. Singh feels the airing of the professor’s grievance is an attack on SN’s editor.

There is more ugliness in Mr. Singh’s delivery, so let’s keep on quoting him: “Letters to the Editor are the bastion of Guyana’s functioning democracy.” One wonders if Mr. Singh wrote that letter himself because his words are a comical contradiction of the reality.

If letters are the fulcrum on which democracy stands then newspapers that refuse to publish letters are destroying democracy. If Mr. Singh cannot see the logic in that expression, then he is incapable of understanding life itself.

Let’s continue to quote Mr. Singh: “I have written hundreds of Letters to the Editors of various newspapers, it is rare when they have not been published in Stabroek News (or elsewhere).” So what about others like Dr. Persaud who cannot get their missives printed?”

Here is yet another quote: “Since the departure of Adam Harris from Kaieteur News I no longer have high regard for that publication and its offerings either.” Is that an attack on the reputation of its current editor? I will answer my own question by asserting that I have known Ms. Grainger for over 18 years and I consider her to be more open-minded, more professional, and more principled than both Mr. Harris and Mr. Persaud. Both of them cannot reach her standard.

Here is yet another quote: “Kissson et al are engaged in ‘gaff’ more suited to rum shops than newspaper ink.” Guess what rum shop gaff is for Mr. Singh? Exposing an EIC that refuses to publish a professor’s letters once they are critical of civil society groups.

I will dissect Mr. Singh’s letter in another column because the atrocious thinking that it reflects need to be elaborated on. I will end by asking the PPP’s leadership a question: “Are you comfortable with this gentleman’s mentality?

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

---

---