I write to correct several misrepresentations from Freddie Kissoon. In his column of September 30, Freddie, in a response to Speaker Ramkarran, incorrectly paraphrased Mike Persaud’s letter published in SN (Sep 22) and KN (Sep 26). This is vintage Freddie misrepresenting what others penned. His interpretations are far from reflecting what Persaud wrote.

This is what Persaud penned: “What is NACTA? Let us say NACTA is a name invented by Bisram and a few of his teaching buddies. Originally it was indeed founded by about half-a-dozen chaps of his ilk. … NACTA is not Gallup or Harris or some million-dollar polling organisation. All of Bisram’s polling work is done …. with some simple polling/statistical software. NACTA does not need to have websites, etc; it is not a commercial enterprise. … Mr. Kissoon is … fanatical in his claim that no poll was done and Bisram pulled the numbers out of thin air. Well there is a hard copy of each and every questionnaire” (that was filled out for the poll). Mr. Bisram collected the questionnaires and did what any pollster would do – organise, tabulate and maybe fed the numbers to his computer. The software crunched the numbers … Mr. Bisram reported his results (SN Sept 22).

The point Persaud was making was that one does not need a website or an organisation to conduct polls – a sharp rebuke of Freddie who insists Bisram needs a website and a teachers organisation in order to do polls.

How does the above quote translate into what Freddie penned: “Persaud concluded that there is no group named NACTA and that Bisram does his extrapolations on Guyana from a particular type of software” (KN Sep 30).  Persaud made no such claim and he rebuked Freddie in both of his letters as well as on SN blog of Sep 24. In the blog as well as in a in a note sent to Bisram, Persaud concluded that “Something is wrong with Freddie’s brain. He has a mad streak in him. I never said that there is no group named NACTA. On the contrary, I know the teachers associated with NACTA because I worked with some of them during the struggle for free and fair elections”.

Freddie’s interpretation of Persaud is disgustingly dishonest and Persaud made that known in his SN blog (Sep 24).

Freddie penned: “On September 14, the editor carried a note saying he will no longer publish letters on the Bisram controversy”.  That is not factual.

The SN editor appended the following remark to a missive from Freddie (SN 24): “The correspondence on the issue of Mr. Bisram’s polls is now closed”.

How does the editor’s note translate into Freddie’s conclusion “They are finished with Bisram over there (meaning SN)? This is another misrepresentation of other’s writings. When will Freddie stop the dishonesty?

Freddie penned: “Only Ramkarran in Guyana believes Bisram is a reputable New York pollster. In the meantime, Mr. Ramkarran should continue looking for a phantom organisation named NACTA.”

Mike Persaud affirmed in his missive in SN on Sep 22 that the “Bisram” polls are credible.  He also said he knows the founders of the organisation. Annan Boodram also confirms, in several pieces in SN, KN, and GC on different dates that he knows the founders and affiliates of NACTA and some of the individuals who travelled with Bisram to conduct the polls. Vassan Ramracha and Ravi Dev confirmed in several pieces in KN that they know of NACTA.

Ravi Dev wrote that even though he was very close to most of the principals, Bisram never once played around with the findings of my polls. In the heyday of ROAR, when they were pulling mammoth crowds to their rallies (and the PPP was running scared) Bisram’s showed small support for ROAR. NACTA has always been credible.

What Freddie is upset about is that his wild speculations – presented invariably in categorical assertions – are just as invariably proven to be wrong. To cover for his unscientific and anti-academic habits, he resorts to distortions, ad hominem attacks and change of subjects. He is very practiced in the art of misdirection. With his daily columns, he has become the Guyanese Goebells who believes that if he repeats his lies often enough they will be accepted as “truth” by the unsuspecting. He has been allowed to get away with this tactic because no one wanted to waste too much time on his mud slinging.
VASSAN RAMRACHA