THE president of a country has a moral obligation to treat every citizen with respect. Hence, it would have been unbecoming if  Mr  Jagdeo had assumed that Freddie Kissoon was “foolish” and that he (Kissoon) could have been duped into believing that someone else (Nirmal Rekha) was the bad guy who denied a change in the specification to his duty-free car letter (Kaieteur News, April 18). It is therefore understandable when the columnist, in alluding to the incident, writes that if meeting with the president “was a horrible thought, more frightening was the acceptance of Mr. Jagdeo to see me to discuss that unadulterated inconsequentiality.”
And the situation is further exacerbated because “Mr. Jagdeo couldn’t bring himself to deny the request so he said yes and kept hiding from” Freddie Kissoon. It’s rather strange that in this “fascist state,” as Guyana is often labelled by the columnist, the President would hide from a citizen whom he thinks is “foolish.”
Under the given circumstances, one might be inclined to ask: Is the President who keeps hiding from a newspaper columnist, a fascist, or is the suggestion that the president is fascist, just plain preposterous and foolish?