The point was missed

Dear Editor,

ONE reason to write a letter to the press is to flush, from the deep thickets of the self, some thoughts and feelings you didn’t know were in you as you try to document your understanding of the world. Your ardent wish every time you start to write that letter is that the reader comprehends what you have written. But I cannot take responsibility for the low comprehension skills of Mr. Vishnu Bisram, seeing he missed completely the intent and objective of my letter to the press on rural Guyana vs. urban Guyana with respect to the formation of the new ERC.

My letter is there for the record, so I have no intention of wasting the editor’s time or humouring Mr. Bisram’s gross ignorance by regurgitating that letter.  What I do have is some clarification for the reading public, to put to rest Mr. Bisram’s clumsy attempt at falsehoods.

1: I was an AFC member who was on the 2011 list of candidates.

2: I resigned from the AFC in 2014, and politely declined to have my name considered for the 2015 list of candidates because of professional reasons that had nothing to do with Guyana or Guyanese politics.

3: I used my presence on social media and in the local media to help the APNU+AFC campaign in 2015, but what I did not do was return to Guyana anytime between December 2011 and February 2016.

4: Choosing between a Ramotar and a Granger is a very easy choice for me; and if the circumstances were the same, I would have no difficulty choosing a Granger over a Ramotar. However, if the choice were a Ramkarran vs. a Granger, that is a very different choice that may deserve a very different response. My support is not bequeathed based on race, but on whom I see will be better for Guyana.

5: I was very careful in crafting my letter to ensure I compared and contrasted ‘rural’ vs. ‘urban’, and used as my examples the rural Hindus and rural youths. I could very well have used rural Afro-Guyanese or rural women as my examples, but as my letter clearly spelt out, there were space constraints.

Had Mr. Bisram read my letter carefully, he would have noted that I mentioned representation for Buxton and Victoria in equal strength to Albion and Enmore. My sole intent was representation for rural Guyana. I clearly do not need Mr. Bisram to put words into my mouth or ink in my pen.

6: My letter was not a complaint, nor was it designed to blame anyone or any government; it was merely an observation. I have since been advised that it is being considered at the highest levels, and that is all that matters to me — that rural Guyana is given greater consideration in the appointment of the next ERC.

7: When called upon to support one or the other contenders in May 2015, I supported Team Granger, and that is my democratic right. I would be the first to state that many policy and political mistakes have been made since May 2015, and those who have eyes will see that my column in the Kaieteur News, called the “Voice of the Liberal Democrats”, has given the Government credit where it deserves, and called it out when necessary. Isn’t this what citizens ought to do: hold their Government accountable, rather than metamorphosing into pandering sycophants of a political party because of ethnic insecurity or personal loyalty to politician X or Y?

8: Mr. Bisram accused me of holding Government positions. What has he been smoking lately? I do not hold any Government of Guyana position, officially or unofficially; do not serve on any board, and the one act I did for this Government was to write a column for the Guyana Chronicle, called “Straight Talk”, for a few months.

And if I serve the Government of Guyana, so what? Isn’t that what Guyanese ought to be doing: serving their people at any conceivable level? How more dotish can Mr. Bisram become?

So Mr. Bisram owes the foundation of truth an apology for abusing that truth with so many manufactured falsehoods in his letter to the Guyana Times. One of the first things any Ph.D. student does is use every opportunity to verify the accuracy of the information at his/her disposal.
From Mr. Bisram’s writing, it is clear he is yet to join the programme.

But I did find one nugget of agreement with Mr. Bisram, which was: “The few MPs who truly cared about rural life were Ravi Dev (ROAR) and Veerasammy Ramayyah (AFC), and that is because they lived in the rural community.” It is a fact that credible rural leaders like Dr. Ramayyah, who orchestrated the swing, voted for the APNU+AFC Coalition to be in power today, and President Granger understood that reality. That is why he overruled the Gang of 6 in the AFC by appointing Dr. Ramayyah as the REO of Region 6.

If Mr. Bisram wants to write a letter replete with falsehood, who am I to stop him? But, in future, it would be advisable that we operate in mutually exclusive circles, since his vision for Guyana has very little in common with mine. He is all about a narrow agenda of Indian domination; I am all about a broad agenda of national unity and leveraging the talent of all our people to lift all boats. We clearly are not in the same class.

Mr. Bisram should learn this quote carefully in spite of his comprehension challenge: “It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak (or in his case write) and remove all doubts”.

I do not intend to continue this debate with Mr. Bisram, and therefore this is my last letter on this topic.
Regards
SASE SINGH

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