I sent this letter to Kaieteur News (KN) but the paper has not published it. Freddie Kissoon made reference to me again in his column (Aug 10).  The chap must be in love with me.  He is like a woman who in spite of abuses at home asks for more. In spite of all the blows (debunking his myths and disproving his allegations), he keeps coming back for more. Unlike Freddie, I have travelled all over Guyana soliciting views on issues.  I don’t sit at a desk and manufacture information. I move around and I hire interviewers to collect data for me. Kissoon does not understand peoples’ political views or Guyana’s politics. He makes them up as he goes along. Thus, not surprisingly, few take Kissoon seriously.
Kissoon is liked by opponents and critics of the PPP administration because of his attacks against the government.  Years ago, he had a wide readership but that has declined because of his dishonesty and distortions and his inability to be balanced and professional.  He attacks the President in almost every column. Kissoon is engaged in propaganda work and he himself admits that much in his writings saying his job is to get people to vote for AFC and PNC (APNU).  I reply to Kissoon’s asininity and foolishness in order to correct the record on his lies about me and the NACTA polls.
Kissoon describes my polls as fiction and said I am not a genuine pollster.  That was the exact description for the Turkeyen Research and Polling Institute poll conducted by Dr. Ramharack, Dev, Ramracha, etc., in 1990 and the polls I conducted in 1992, 1997, 2001, and 2006. But all the polls were spot on reflecting the actual election results.  Kissoon praised the Dick poll that showed the AFC would topple the PPP from office in 2006.  The AFC got 7% of the votes and the PPP got 55% as predicted by NACTA. But, for Kissoon, NACTA’s poll was fiction and Bisram was not a genuine pollster. This guy must really love Dick. Nah so Fred!
Last year, Kissoon also praised the Cadres poll that showed the PPP will be defeated in this year’s elections garnering just about 30% of the votes.  My poll last year and this year showed the PPP getting about 45% of the votes. Kissoon said some years ago that TRPI and NACTA conducted the polls in the basement apartments of Indians living in the Bronx.  That is his level of respect he has for Indians.
Kissoon is a perennial critic of the PPP. So it is not surprising that he attacked the TRPI and NACTA polls and is still attacking me when our polls show PPP victorious. Kissoon repeatedly complained that TRPI and NACTA did not hire him as a consultant and for some strange reason that made the findings of the poll invalid. Dick and Cadres used his consultancy and those findings are valid. Kissoon said he loves Dick because he gets paid. Don’t worry Fred, next year, once you no longer love Dick, I will hire you as a consultant.  The fact that your light at UG will be extinguished this month is a motivating reason to use your consultancy.  Once you are hired, the NACTA polls will be good regardless of the findings.  Not so Fred!
Kissoon described Ravi Dev’s viewpoints as blatant, jejune …” because they speak of potential for violence.  I disagree.  Those words describe Kissoon’s columns.  Dev is a respected writer and a professional. His arguments are logical and substantiated with sound academia. Kissoon’s isn’t. Everywhere I travel in Trinidad, Canada, USA, India and throughout Guyana, Dev is respected as a professional and intellectual without comparison. I recently delivered lectures in Fiji at Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi Universities and professors asked about Dev telling their colleagues that Dev is among the brightest Guyanese they met.  You were not included among the brightest Fred!
Kissoon said I am not a genuine pollster. You are not a genuine academic Fred.  Look at your writings – the amount of hate, distortions, and nonsense in them. I have conducted over a 100 professional polls all over the world. Kissoon is yet to conduct one although he stated in 1990 that he was going to conduct polls when he registered his objection to TRPI’s findings that PPP would win the elections.  Two years ago, he said he would conduct polls.  We are still waiting.  I recommend he teams up with Dr. Asquith Rose, who teaches polling at a distinguished university and conduct polls in Guyana.  Whether I am a genuine pollster or not the findings have been on target. All of Kissoon’s assessments and predictions have been wrong from 1992.