A New York Congressman has applauded Guyanese Vishnu Bisram for playing an important role in getting him elected to Congress. Last Thursday, Congressman Gregory Meeks showered glowing tributes on Mr. Bisram in his opening comments at a town hall meeting with Guyanese-Americans. The meeting was held in Richmond Hill, where a large number of Guyanese are settled, to discuss issues of concern to the community.  It was a question and answer meeting with selected leaders of the community. Meeks has been serving as Congressman for over 11 years.  He left his State Assembly seat in 2000 to run for Congress. Mr. Bisram is a well known community advocate, journalist and teacher in New York.  He is also a reputable pollster in the Caribbean.
Before the Congressman took questions, he said: “I have a few comments to make before I listen to your concerns.  My mother brought me up telling me never to forget three things: never to forget where I came from, never to forget my community, and never to forget those who helped me on my way up to higher things. When I first ran for Congressman over 11 years ago, Vishnu Bisram worked very hard to get me elected to Congress.  He was a volunteer who worked days and late at nights to get me elected.  He is responsible for me getting elected and I am forever grateful.  I will never forget that.  Thank you Vishnu.  I want to get that off my mind since he is here.  I told him anything he wants and I can do it, it will be done.  There are few like him in the community who give their service for free.”
Whenever the Congressman comes to the community and Bisram is present, Meeks would always go over, hug Bisram and extend his regards and appreciation. He has consistently stated that Bisram worked hard to get him elected to Congress and is responsible for Meeks in office. Mr. Bisram did a survey in the district and predicted a huge win for Meeks, who was serving in the state legislature, when he first ran for Congress to fill the seat left vacant following the resignation of Floyd Flake.
Unlike other politicians, Meeks has found time to come to the community to show his gratitude to the community which provided a lot of financial resources to him and key volunteers like Bisram to guide his electoral victory.  Mr. Bisram helped organise Meeks’s campaign programme and helped to raise funds for him.
I wish to use this opportunity to thank and express the community’s appreciation to Mr. Bisram for his reporting of diaspora community happenings in the newspapers in Guyana as well as in the ethnic media (Caribbean and Asian Indian) in New York.  While he has been writing about the community, no one takes the time to thank him for his extraordinary work and his devotion and commitment to community life.  He is among a few altruistic individuals in the Guyanese diaspora in NY.  He has been the only one to consistently focus media attention on events in the Guyanese diaspora in New York.  And he does it all without any financial remuneration from the media, spending his own funds to promote the community.  No one writes as much as he does on or about the community. To say his writings are prolific is an understatement. In addition to his newspaper reporting, Bisram spends time tutoring students from the community, organising activities that will benefit the diaspora, and political advocacy.  And the community has not forgotten his role in the struggle for the restoration of democracy during the authoritarian era. He and a few others like Dr. Baytoram Ramharack and Vassan Ramracha made tremendous sacrifice to bring down the Guyanese dictatorship.