THIS is my final column assessing the contents of Guyana for 2023. This is the 11th article in the series and I hope I have been able to make a modest contribution to opening your eyes in a country where there is a relentless crusade by a certain fixed mind or a certain mind set to deny any accomplishment by the government.

From Tuesday, I will look at the world in 2023 and as a human rights activist of over 56 years, I say regrettably that 2023 has been one of the worst years in the world in recent memory based on what happened in Gaza and the world’s inaction to stop it as I write.

I noted that my review will begin on Tuesday rather than Monday because I want to use my Monday column to respond to a vicious anti-government editorial in the Stabroek News on Saturday. Anyone who is concerned with the danger of the media descending into the arena of politics need to respond to that editorial to protect democracy in Guyana. That editorial was written by someone driven by anti-PPP frenzy.

Most columnists around the world tend to look back at the pieces they have done and make a selection of the items they consider the chosen ones. Here is my choice of the column I am glad I did as a political analyst and as a human in 2023. It is titled, “My best Guyanese politician”, Sunday, July 2, 2023.

I listed Anil Nandlall, President Irfaan Ali, EMG Wilson of the PPP in the 1970s, Cheddi Jagan, Desmond Hoyte and Boyo Ramsaroop of the PPP. Mr. Nandlall and Yesu Persaud have done more for me than my own father has ever done. I am thankful to President Desmond for cancelling the fatwa President Burnham issued against me when I returned to Guyana after serving the Maurice Bishop Government in Grenada.

If Hoyte had maintained Burnham’s edict, maybe I would have taken my wife and seek existence elsewhere (I got an offer from Sweden and Barbados was an option) and my life would have evolved differently.

Maybe I would have left Guyana and never be called Freddie. It was UG lecturer Kwame Apatha that named me after the Trinidadian playwright, Freddie Kissoon, on the first day of my class with him when he thought literature at UG. All the students laughed and kept shouting in the class, “Freddie, Freddie!” from that day in 1974 at UG, I lost my real name, “Frederick.”

I met EMG when I was a “youth man” in the PPP. Every person in the PPP called him Willo. EMG taught me to respect myself and never to be someone other than myself. He taught me always to speak my mind no matter how large is the personality in front of me. I will always remember some words of his reaction in relation to a huge PPP leader at the time.

We were all in the leadership of the East-German-Guyana Friendship Society and this huge figure in the PPP leadership, Maccie Hamid, who was close to Dr. Jagan and was a PPP parliamentarian, instructed me how to vote for the selection of a delegate to go to East Germany. I did not like his choice. It was wrong. So, I went to Willo and told him. Willo said: “Comrade go and tell him no.” I told Willo; “you know who Maccie Hamid is? And Willo said, “Go and tell him no, that is what you have to do.”

I think he was definitely one of the persons who shaped my life. I will always love EMG Wilson. I met Boyo Ramsaroop during my youthful days in the PPP and he took me under his wing and brought me into the East-Germany-Guyana Friendship Society.

In those days food was scarce in my home and Boyo fed me. If there wasn’t Boyo in my life, I think I would have gone to waste, never would have become Freddie Kissoon, and never would have my saviour, Janet Kissoon.

Finally, there is Mohamed Irfaan Ali, President of Guyana. We got off to a wonderful start when we were both in the Council of the University of Guyana. Dr. Ali is genetically a “cool”, modest fellow with no ears about him. We struck up a friendship since those days but I lost contact with him over the years.

No president in Guyana has ever sent for me to acknowledge that I made a contribution to Guyana. He said to me: “tell me in what ways you would like to continue serving Guyana.” I graciously declined citing age and preference for a younger person. I sense Dr. Ali is going to be the greatest leader Guyana and the Caribbean has produced. He has my support and I told him that he can call on me anytime.