THE LIBEL lawsuit filed by President Bharrat Jagdeo against Kaieteur News Columnist Freddie Kissoon, Editor-in-Chief Adam Harris and the publishers of Kaieteur News is proceeding in the High Court before Justice Brassington Reynolds.
According to the sworn affidavit in court, the First Named Respondent/Defendant was at the time a daily columnist at the Kaieteur News, a daily publication (Third Named Respondent) with wide circulations throughout Guyana, on the Internet and in North America. The second defendant is the editor-in-chief at the aforementioned publication.
Freddie Kissoon and his cohorts are before the court for libelously labeling President Jagdeo and portraying him as a racist in a racial spotlight. As a result, the President is suing for damages in excess of $10 million caused by the article, ‘King Kong sent his goons to disrupt Conference’ dated Monday June 28, 2010. In a highly sensitive case that can have consequential backlashes, the President stated that the aforesaid libel has caused not only him but the Government of Guyana great public embarrassment and had held everyone up to abhorrence and ridicule nationally and internationally. One must realize the point of view from which Kissoon penned his article was meant to distort the facts of a modern Guyana, and show the President in a bad spotlight.
Attorney-at-Law and Member of Parliament, Mohabir Anil Nandlall, who is representing the Plaintiff, made it clear in court that the reporting of the publication is biased and only seeks to highlight aspects of the evidence which is adverse to the Plaintiff and that there is a deliberate effort to downplay or simply not report on matters which are advantageous to the Plaintiff’s case. Nandlall even went as far as accusing certain media houses of simply distorting the evidence to achieve their own objective. Kaieteur News was specifically identified as a media house which is most pronounced in its biased reporting. Nandlall explained to the court that because Kaieteur News is a party to the proceedings, it has an interest to serve, and therefore, they have a special responsibility to ensure that their reports are objective. They must ensure that their role as a litigant and their role as a newspaper do not conflict.
Another complaint was that the reporting by the media house is dangerous to race relations in Guyana. In this regard, he cited daily headlines such as “Court hears black candidates overlooked for DPP position” among other racially charged headlines to support this contention. One must understand that Guyana is a multi ethnic society with six different races and that the ideology of racism is a far gone thing of the past. The defense enthusiasm to show the President is a racial and biased person, falsely constructed their defense upon issues of general nature rather than the issue at hand before the court. For that matter, Dr Roger Luncheon, Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Presidential Secretariat was called as chief witness, and under cross-examination the defense sought to show that Diplomatic Postings, Heads of Governmental Agencies, Ministerial Postings, Infrastructural Support Mechanisms, the Award of Contracts and the Distributions of Lands across Guyana are premised on race.
In sworn testimony in the high court, Dr. Luncheon clarified that all dealings regarding the various issues, and the procedures for so doing, are all based upon the interest of the nation and have nothing to do with race. Several misleading reports were put to the court during the cross examination of the chief witness by the defense. Questioned on the transfer of Prime Commercial Lands by the National Industrial and Commercial Investment Limited (NICIL), the Cabinet Secretary outlined to the court that this is laid out in the approved Parliamentary Privatization Framework which was instituted even before the current President got into power. As if to prove that names justify ethnicity, a great flaw in the defense, Nandlall objected vehemently, stating that names do not justify ethnicity and that share capital of companies need to be taken into account to determine ownership. Dr. Luncheon outlined to the court as well the names of people of African descent that would have acquired lands in an attempt to show falsity of the defense. Attempts to mislead the court by presenting to the plaintiff’s witness a document purporting to show irregularities in sale of lands was thwarted by the vigilant Nandlall.  This was done by lead Defence Attorney Nigel Hughes. This question was strongly objected to by Nandlall, who cited irrelevance and upon checking the said document noted that National Industrial and Commercial Investment Ltd (NICIL) was nowhere mentioned and that the land was in fact transferred by the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GUYSUCO), a fact which the defense was fully aware of as they had provided the document. Nandlall stated that Hughes’ question emanated from a false hypothesis and moved for the questions regarding NICIL to be removed from the records and any other question regarding NICIL not to follow. This was accepted by Justice Brassington Reynolds, whose records validated Nandlall’s objections on the grounds that the document was false and cannot be used. Hughes also sought to show that racism existed in the bargaining of wages and salaries. To this note he pointed out that Guyana Agriculture and Workers Union (GAWU) members are allowed to negotiate while the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) members have wages settlement imposed. Dr. Luncheon rejected this suggestion in its entirety and advised the court that government does not impose nor dictate the negotiation between employers and the unions representing workers. He also noted that GAWU represents workers in the Public Service, Fisheries Industry, and Sugar Industry among others. 
Questions emanating from the location of infrastructure facilities were also brought up as evidence by the defense to show that primary beneficiaries are East Indians. The issue of the location of the Berbice River Bridge was over thrown as Dr. Luncheon made it clear that the location chosen was not based on race but on feasibility findings that linked it to cost. Dr. Luncheon explained to the court how the Consultant Louis Berger took those factors into consideration and recommended the current location and added that the Work Services Group was evidently persuaded and informed Cabinet accordingly. The Head of the Presidential Secretariat also pointed out that it’s not an issue of race as a Health Center was constructed in the East La Penitence Area and also the Olympic Swimming Pool at Liliendaal.
With regards to diplomatic postings, defense counsel Christopher Ram questioned the replacement of Guyana’s Ambassador to Brazil Cheryl Miles. The Cabinet Secretary justified her replacement adding that she was appointed on contract by the plaintiff and stayed on as an ambassador. However when her contract was up she returned home and she was subsequently replaced. The process by which the defense chose to cross examine the witness was met with some reluctance by the judge as he cautiously reminded Ram about the line he uses. Often times he had to realign his question when the plaintiff’s lawyer had to object many times as Ram’s questioning were riddled with inconsistencies. Ram was eventually ordered by the judge to stop cross-examination, clearly, a most unusual occurrence. 
Nandlall also pointed out to the defense that neither the President nor the Cabinet appoints the Speaker of the National Assembly and that before each Parliamentary Session; the National Assembly elects a Speaker. He explained that in both 2001 and 2006 Mr. Ralph Ramkarran was unanimously elected by the Parliament. This has nothing to do with the Cabinet or the President. 
The defense also found themselves languishing once more when Khemraj Ramjattan, another defense lawyer suggested that over 70 percent of scholarship awardees are Indo Guyanese. This is in clear contradiction with the lead defense lawyer, Nigel Hughes, in previous submission to the court. In any event, Dr. Luncheon rejected this notion as being absolutely false, explaining that in no single year nor aggregately over the years, was there ever seventy percent of the scholarship awardees being Indo-Guyanese.
On the issue of Award of Contracts, Dr. Luncheon was questioned during the cross examination of the defense team. He further explained that the only role of Cabinet in this process is to offer its “no objections”. Nandlall, in his re-examination, asked the HPS to explain to the court the basis for which would happen. The head of the Presidential Secretariat explained to the court that Cabinet receives awards for the procurement of goods and services that exceeds $15M from the National Tender Administration Board (NPTAB). This he stated are then further re-examined and re-evaluated by the Cabinet from the perspective of compliance to the Procurement Act that so governs that aspect before Cabinet gives its “no objections.” Also noted is that fact that the Chairman of the Tender Board, Donald deClou and the Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Ford are both of Afro Guyanese ethnicity.
Dr. Luncheon also cleared the air on appointments made to various state organizations that were deemed as appointments made by the plaintiff. The Attorney for the plaintiff, Mr. Nandlall guided the court along the way to show that there were many inaccuracies in the defense’s case and it was riddled with inconsistency. During the re-examination process the Cabinet Secretary stated that many appointments to those organizations listed by the defense were done by the respective boards and only few were done by the plaintiff during his tenure. The defense sought to show that majority of the appointments to state organizations were made by the plaintiff, President Bharrat Jagdeo. For that matter the defense listed the names of many inclusive of the Guyana Revenue Authority, Head of the Value Added Tax Department, The State Media; National Communications Inc, Guyana Power and Light, Guyana Water Inc, Environmental Protection Agency, Institute of Applied Science and Technology, Georgetown Public Hospital, Judicial Appointments as well as internal appointments made for the various departments of the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation and Public Health Officials among others.
Justice Brassington Reynolds also upheld an objection from Nandlall in ruling that the McDougal Report on Minority Issues in Guyana is inadmissible. Nandlall indicated that he submitted a written report to the defense as to why the document should not be drafted into evidence. Justice Reynolds indicated that it would be unfair and unsafe to admit into evidence the document due to the fact that the author would not be available to be cross examined so that her work can be substantiated. The judge also dismissed questions from Ram regarding “phantom squads and the crime spree” and Ram tried in vain to gain grounds. For that fact the judge once more cautioned Ram about making unsubstantiated suggestions. He once again asked about NICIL and land allocations at an area referred to as “Pradoville 2.” Dr. Luncheon refuted claims by the defense that the community is an Indo Community headed by the Head of State. He declared that allocations are done through the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA). He listed the names of Afro-Guyanese who are allottees to the area.
On the allocations of lands in Industrial Estates with specific reference to the Coldingen Industrial Estate, the defense once again sought to show that the allocations were made out of acts of racial discrimination. However the Head of the Presidential Secretariat and Cabinet Secretary once again outlined the procedure used to distribute those lands. He stated to the court that prior to the preparation of the lands, they were advertised and interested parties had to submit a management plan that showed how the allotted land would be utilized. This was done by NICIL. Moreover, these allocations were done by President Cheddi Jagan and long before President Jagdeo assumed office. A similar procedure followed for the Eccles Industrial Estate as well. The Cabinet Secretary stated once the plans were accepted, leases were issued to successful entities. The transfer of state properties executed by NICIL is in keeping with open and transparent tendering procedures, whereby a market valuation is carried out on the asset that is being transferred and further followed by public tender and after the endorsement of the most competitive bidder; it was then taken to Cabinet for approval. Dr. Luncheon then facilitated great detail of the entire process and stated that all transactions are available for the public in a document “Guyana’s Privatization Programme; The Institutional Framework and Result for Phase 11 (1993-2008)” as compiled by the Head of the Privatization Unit, Winston Brassington. Notably, all of the details of these transactions including the  entire process beginning from the public invitation of expression of interest, with the names of the successful bidders, the purchase price paid for each property, the date of the transaction and the date when each was advertised in the Official Gazette are all publicly available in the said document. Allottees in this scheme include very big companies such as, Ready-mix Concrete Ltd., Kaieteur News and relatives of Kaieteur News, Reaz Khan, Samuel’s Wicker, Rattan & Upholstery Works, Surya Delight, Sheikh Hassan Productions and Shakoor Trading among others.
The ongoing legal fiasco stemmed out of the article written by Kissoon who may not have thought about the consequences that could emanate from such. As a result it is being made clear in court that Guyana is a multicultural society and as such anything done and policies executed by the Government are for the benefit of all Guyanese.