TIME is going and it doesn’t look like I will write my memoir but I have left more than snippets over the 35 years that I have being putting pen to paper. Those little reflections should go some way of providing insights into my long, long public presence in Guyana.
I have a different approach to the writing of an autobiography. It must include the episodes, encounters, confrontations, situations, circumstances, optimisms, pessimisms, disappointments, defeats, victories, etc. that are wrapped into one box called your life. An autobiography must be a complete package.
I feel it is only a half-baked cake if the sensitivities and revelations are left out, especially if those motifs told you about who people really were and how they shaped your understanding of people. This is my problem in writing my memoir. I will have to say things that will get me into libel terrain.

Make no mistake- people will sue just to get at you if you embarrass them, even though it is the absolute, phenomenal, earth shattering truth. I will offer two abbreviated examples. Two extremely well-known Guyanese on different occasions, years ago, requested me to stop writing for Kaieteur News.
Their position was that they see me as someone whose moral courage is admirable and I should not be associated with Mr. Glenn Lall, the owner of Kaieteur News. Readers will not believe how close those two persons came and are currently still close to Mr. Lall in a way that I have never been for the 30 years I wrote for Kaieteur News.
These are things I would like to include in my memoir but cannot. I believe deep down in my heart, these two men know that my elaboration on their request will devastate their credibility, and will sue and tell the judge that Kissoon is mischief- creating pursuer who should be sanctioned. I am not going to put Janet Kissoon through the hassle of her husband having to pay millions of what I haven’t got.

If I take the next few years and write my autobiography, the pages will have to be on dead people because the living will sue me. So I can recount my days at Stabroek News and only reflect on David DeCaires and Miles Fitzpatrick. I won’t be able to pen one word of assessment of Anand Persaud.
I know Mr. Persaud. He will sue. I can take the legal liberty where grammar offers me protection by saying Mr. Persaud in my opinion is the second most unacceptable person in journalism after Adam Harris. I don’t think Persaud and Harris can sue because it is my right to say who in my life that I find unacceptable.
Since I did not offer any description whatsoever I believe natural law and free speech in the constitution allow me to say who I find unacceptable. If I am to write my memoir, I will feel compelled to bring to the attention of the world these nuances of Guyanese society that need to be included in Guyana’s historiography.

I believe after 55 years of activism, I have met some truly evil people in the Guyanese nationality and I say with profound sadness it lacerates my psyche, pierces my soul and harms my mind to see them perambulating the steps of Guyanese society, speaking on behalf of values, mores, morals, patriotism, and humanity, and when they have none of these qualities in them.
It would torment me to write a memoir devoid of these stories. A memoir must be the juxtaposition of the nadirs and lowest points in one’s existence. If these things are not included, it is a half-done job. I am thinking strongly of still writing the autobiography so I can be profuse in my admiration of people who have died and still alive.

I would start with Janet Mohamed, my wife the past 44 years. I would never have survived the terrors and demons of Guyanese politics if I didn’t have Janet by my side. I adore Yesu Persaud. He appreciated me for reasons I would never know and he offered me vast moments of protection.
One of my favourite humans is Anil Nandlall, the Attorney-General. I know him, up, close and personal, and I know he has a deep-seated desire to offer poor people the economic and social dignity they deserve. Like Yesu Persaud, Anil Nandlall has contributed to the preservation of my existence in this country.

I could never write my memoir without devoting pages of admiration for Father Andrew Morrison when he was my editor at the Catholic Standard. Father loved me and played a huge part in saving my eye sight. I end with this little poem from the Sanskrit;
If learned critics publicly deride my verse
Well, let them. Not them I wrought
One day, a man shall live to share my thought
For time is endless and the world is wide