The Observer
WHILST researching recently, I stumbled upon a quotation from Hubert Humphrey who said, “The right to be heard does not automatically include the right to be taken seriously”.

I pondered, and immediately my thoughts were focused on the vile diatribes of the few local anti-government militants who spew their venom on some television stations and in some newspapers.

My intention in this piece is not to revisit what I alluded to previously pertaining to the coalition of the Opposition and the media operatives and columnists/commentators mentioned.

However, it is extremely challenging to divorce this fact from any discussion on the skewed analyses of these reckless few.

Based on their depraved commentaries, it is clear that amnesia has taken a profound effect on their thinking, or lack thereof. Many inaccuracies and unsubstantiated accusations, which flow from the toxicant pen of Freddie Kissoon, are published daily in the Kaieteur News.

This, and the hatred from Kissoon’s cohorts in the Opposition, are also given prominence in the said paper, the Stabroek News and loyal television stations.

Some of them have been peddling falsehoods and hatred since this administration took office. Yet, led by the Kaieteur News through Freddie’s rants, these seemingly unenlightened and shameless few, have the audacity to accuse the administration of impinging on their freedom of expression.

Freddie has coined the baseless phrase “elected dictatorship” simply because his whims and fancies, for his personal gratification, were not accommodated. The fact that he and his cohorts can daily disgorge rabid commentaries over the years, have, through their own indulgence, dismissed any notion of dictatorship.

Their current obsession in disparaging the administration has revealed, maybe deliberately, a state of amnesia regarding our history. Clearly it has shown their lack of the basic understanding of what constitutes a dictatorship. Maybe, Al Jazeera, BBC and to some extent, CNN newscasts, can refresh their convenient memory.

The current political state of Myanmar (Burma), North Korea and Zimbabwe presents idyllic examples for their enlightenment on the proclivity of dictators. Cuba still has a one-party State. China’s internet policy and that of the wider media, the restriction of the media in Iran and the recent action by Venezuelan President, Hugo Chavez, in closing some thirty-odd private media houses, are examples of the disdain meted out to the media by influential leaders. China is the world’s most populous nation and a global economic powerhouse. Its Constitution guarantees power to the Communist Party. Venezuela, which boasts of being a democratic State, has over the years, nationalised many private businesses. The local media in Iran were restricted in their coverage of the country’s recent Presidential elections. The results are still being disputed by the Opposition.

Such undemocratic actions permeated Guyana during the brutal regime of the PNC; the Party that banished Freddie Kissoon from his homeland and which was linked to the death of Father Bernard Darke and the leader of the WPA, Dr. Walter Rodney. Freddie and other media operatives and political activists of the then Opposition, were jailed and beaten by the PNC. Freedom of expression was not allowed. The diatribes that Freddie, the Opposition including Lincoln Lewis, Mark Benschop and Norris Witter, currently spew, could not have been possible under the PNC regime. This basic freedom of humanity was brutally suppressed during those dark and turbulent days.

Today these men, who freely articulate their bitterness, stand shamelessly in accusing this government of suppressing freedom of expression. As of October 1992, there were four television stations, VCT, WRHM, Channel 6 and GTV 10, the only newscast being on the latter. Then, barring the political newspapers, there were only the Chronicle and the Stabroek News. Today, just seventeen years after, there are some twenty-one television stations with at least seven newscasts, many cable operators and internet service providers and the addition of two major newspapers; the Kaieteur News and the Guyana Times. There is no restriction of the internet. An average of more that nine political Parties contested the 1997, 2001 and 2006 general elections; a fairly high number for a country with such a small population. This is a clear indication of the political freedom that now exists.

Some television stations have programmes, in some cases hosted by owners, who openly castigate the administration. The Kaieteur News and the Stabroek News are riddled with anti-government venom. These commentaries sometimes border on sedition. The recent report from Freedom House, an international body that chronicles press freedom and lack thereof in countries around the world, gave Guyana a status of free in this regard. Given this, and the many freedoms that now permeate, the obvious question to ask these amnesic few is, where is the suppression? Where is the dictatorship they seem to have a fixation with? They cannot truthfully provide answers. This reinforces the obvious; a brazen and opportunistic alliance with the political Opposition.

They are so free that they openly and frequently tarnish the character of public figures. This trait is the hallmark of Freddie’s inaccurate columns. One example of such inaccuracy was blatant in a letter penned by Ralph Saywack and surprisingly published by the Stabroek News of Wednesday, August 19, 2009. Saywack wrote “In his attempt to make Guyana look bad, Freddie Kissoon wrote in one of his columns that the PNC administration never tortured people it placed before the courts for political crimes”. The author alluded to the treason trial of Ivan Sookram and others during the early 80s and detailed how those incarcerated were brutally tortured.

Saywack must be commended for making such information available to the public. The thrust of his letter was to point out how some columnists/politicians can deliberately omit facts from their public expressions. He ended his letter with “Maybe Freddie and Roopnarine (Rupert) should not deliberately leave out facts of which they are knowledgeable”. Freddie was a supporter of the WPA. Rupert is. Why, according to Saywack, would they not want to mention the suffering of their colleagues at the hands of the PNC? Yet these men and the rest of their supporting few are accusing this administration of condoning torture when bandits are being interrogated for causing mayhem in the society. Why such positions?

Given the position taken by those in question and their historical glorification of the ruthless gunmen who wreaked havoc from 2002, it is not difficult to conclude that a convenient collaborative effort is afoot to smear this administration. This routine smearing is in the public domain as a result of freedom of expression. This would not have been allowed under Forbes. Speaking out about the atrocities then meant jail and torture. The PNC instilled fear and held on to power for almost three decades by rigging the electoral process. Their rigging has become so engrained in their political make-up that even after seventeen years in Opposition it is still present. The leadership of the Party is being accused of electoral fraud as its Congress is about to open. Every candidate for the leader’s position has accused the Party’s machinery of fraudulent concoctions; from Trotman to Vincent to Norton and to Van West. All have expressed horror at the said process.

Yet this said Party has the gall to accuse the administration of undemocratic practices. Why haven’t Freddie and his related columnists, the Kaieteur News and the Stabroek News, the AFC other Parties in the Opposition, CN Sharma and his cohorts in the television talk-show arena, Lewis, Benschop and Witter, spoken out against the undemocratic practices the leadership of the PNCR is being accused of by their own? Just as they have turned their eyes from the atrocities of the PNC in government, they will blindfold themselves from the revelations pertaining to that Party’s upcoming Congress. The word is convenience. Given this, then it must be asked, how can these individuals and Opposition Parties expect to be credible in their disclosures? How can they walk the streets and talk about decency?

In closing, Freddie used all the vile adjectives to attack Vishnu Bisram following the publishing of the results of a poll he, Bisram, conducted. The poll showed that if President Jagdeo is the PPP’s candidate for the 2011 elections, he will win. This attack on Bisram by Freddie is not new. He, Freddie, through his wicked pen wrote that Jagdeo WILL be the candidate in 2011 in his August 15, 2009 Kaieteur News column. The poll never said that Jagdeo will be the candidate. Freddie’s assassination of Bisram’s character continues unabated. He has even referred to Bisram’s findings following the poll as being a big con.

The question is who is the real con? Given Saywack’s revelation pertaining to the distortion of facts by Freddie, the deliberate silence of Freddie and his cronies on the undemocratic practices in the PNCR, the attempt by all of them to propagate falsehood about freedoms in Guyana, their synchronised efforts to besmirch the characters of government officials and their mechanisms to “ram shod” this down the throats of Guyanese and international organisations, it is not difficult to ascertain the real cons. Their work has revealed them as they try to con us into believing that Guyana is in peril.

They should not be taken seriously even though they enjoy the right to con us through their facilitators in the media. I repeat what Hubert Humphrey said, “The right to be heard does not automatically include the right to be taken seriously”.