I’VE had reasons in past letters to comment on the radicalism of Kaieteur News columnist Freddie Kissoon. He lives up to this image in his unkempt appearance, and in his daily rants in the pages of the most read newspaper in Guyana. He craves attention, and demonstrates this by often writing about himself , and participating in demonstrations with his radical friend Mark Benschop. At his very best, he is an annoying character who will be remembered not as an educator, but rather for being a constant pain in the butt of former President Bharrat Jagdeo and the ruling PPP/C administration.
Freddie is a pessimist who degrades the country I love, and the country he prospers in with every opportunity he gets. With all the development taking place in Guyana over the past 10 years, you will never see one acknowledgement of this anywhere in his columns. Like his friend Benschop, Freddie Kissoon has a tremendous amount of hate that prevents him from accepting reality. Nothing the government does is commendable. He calls Guyana “One of the most primitive countries in the world”. He refers to the Berbice Bridge as “the ugliest bridge in the world”, and calls the constitution of Guyana a “dictatorship”. He chastises Berbicians for having no dignity and respect for themselves, and calls our leaders monkeys and King Kong. I can go on and on, but Freddie is no fool. He knows his target audience, and gives them what they want to hear or read about. He is known to bite the hand that feeds him, and has given Kaieteur News reasons to remind him who’s really in charge there, as is evident from this recent publisher’s note (November 25, 2011): “Kaieteur News will also continue to be what it always was- an independent newspaper committed to the principles of objectivity and fairness and consistently striving to be accurate in its reporting. Whatever Freddie may believe he is, the paper is not his birthright. He cannot do as he pleases in Kaieteur News. All organisations have rules, policies and principles that guide them. Kaieteur News is no different. Those who do not wish to comply with the rules are free to leave. If they refuse to comply then the natural course of action has to follow their policies.”
This was not written to embarrass Kissoon, but rather to let him know that his attitude and philosophy are way out of line. Judging from the hateful rhetoric he writes on a daily basis, I can well imagine what went on in his classroom at the University of Guyana -UG.
As if having a daily column is not enough, Freddie found it necessary to use the letter section of Kaieteur News to demonise one of his colleagues there for the way an article was written about his dismissal from UG. I find this personally offensive because I have a lot of respect and admiration for the diligent work done by staffers at Kaieteur News. In his letter, “The facts about Freddie Kissoon’s termination” Freddie, in his usual nit-picking style wrote: “There must be, for journalistic purposes, a distinction between the University and the University Council. KN said “University terminates.” Stabroek News wrote, “University Council fires.” I hope readers see the point.” I do, but this is the same person who wrote in the same letter, “The meeting instructed the University not to reemploy me.” He’s guilty of the same thing he accuses the KN journalist of. When KN says “University terminates”, any fool would conclude that those instructions were given by the relevant authority, in this case, the University Council. The same as he expects readers to conclude that it was the members of the council who attended the meeting that “instructed the University not to reemploy” him, and not “the meeting”. Kissoon continued, “This writer believes that KN’s sources are not UG employees and UG administrators but PPP Council members representing various arms of the Government.”  But in reading the  KN article, it specifically refers to the source as being a “University Council member”, who is also a member of “the staff”. This implies that the “source” has full-time employment at UG, and would rule out the PPP/C Council members he’s accusing.
Here is the quote from the KN article: “For his part, Kissoon said that he always did research, but the University Council member said that nothing ever came of Kissoon’s research. The staff said that in keeping with the contract, Kissoon was given three months’ notice of termination.”
Further, in an effort to justify that Vice-Chancellor Lawrence Carrington was legally authorised to renew Kissoon’s contract, Kissoon contradicts himself. He wrote in part: “The Head of the Appointments Committee -AC is the Vice Chancellor -VC…. The AC is the Vice Chancellor.. The Council is a policy-making body. In order to get rid of me, the Council informed the Vice-Chancellor that he should not have acted on behalf of the Council in awarding contracts and wants them terminated.”
Although a precedent may have been set in the past that allowed the VC to renew contracts on his own, VC Carrington clearly did not have the authority to act alone in renewing Kissoon’s contract because of his age. He may be the head of the Appointments Committee, but he’s just one person, not the committee as Kissoon wants us to believe.
“According to officials, the University’s policy relating to the retirement age of Senior Lecturers or Professors is that they have an automatic renewal of contract should they desire to continue working.
All persons wishing to be re-employed after the age of 60 would be offered employment only by the Appointments Committee of UG.” (KN January 25, 2012). Freddie Kissoon is 61 years old.
I have no doubt that the personal opinions of those PPP/C Council members may have determined his faith, and who can blame them? But I feel sure this was not a government-sanctioned decision. Kissoon has made a lot of enemies; he has brought this upon himself, and is in denial. Who will he blame when he gets himself fired from Kaieteur News? For “whatever Freddie may believe he is, the paper is not his birthright. He cannot do as he pleases in Kaieteur News.”