I think Vishnu Bisram has known me long, long enough to know from my public writings that I do not, will not and never reply to anonymous letter-writers on social media or mainstream newspapers that attack me.
I am offering an analysis here on a pronouncement Mr. Bisram made and this is because Mr. Bisram is a real person that is not afraid to engage in polemics, debates, epistemological exchanges, and political discourses.

I will never attempt even a paragraph to react to an anonymous person that publishes denunciations of my politics. It has no bearing in human decency to denigrate a public figure and you find refuge under your mother’s dress.
I have always maintained in my long career in journalism that I find anonymous writers who attack real humans to be deeply disturbed people. The long-standing Kaieteur News’s secret columnist knows how I feel about what he does. He knows my position is that he should have stopped a long time ago.

I don’t know who Gaylord Riley and Prescott Mann are that often make public chastisements of my changed politics in the Kaieteur News (KN). I suspect that the fact that their letters are confined to KN makes me believe they are not real persons. I have been in social activism for just over 56 years, appearing as a PPP polling agent in the 1968 elections,

I have never left public activism since then. I never will until I die. I have been in journalism since 1988. I have an obligation to the people over those 56 years that have expressed sentiments of embrace for what I stand for, and I will carry out that obligation to answer questions that I believe those people would like to know about me.
I am prepared to discuss all the public dimensions of my life, but I will never disrespect myself by entertaining people who have hidden names and invisible faces.

This has been a long introduction to a letter by Mr. Bisram in which he made reference to someone named Riley who insulted me. Mr. Bisram went on to write these words: “I agree with the writer, Gaylord Riley that KN is the ultimate free press in Guyana carrying articles that are pro and anti-government as well as those that are objective and un-aligned. The publisher and editor are commended!”
Mr. Bisram never forgets to mention that he has multiple Masters Degrees and doctorates, so he ought to know better by that wide, blanket statement that will certainly call into question his understanding of Guyana and its politics. To say that KN is the ultimate free press is highly subjective and also misleading. But one could even be harsher.

Surely, Bisram has to know better and one gets the feeling that his praise for Mr. Glen Lall may be a dig at the government. I believe there must be some subliminal thing at work here. Bisram cannot be serious about KN being an independent paper. Intellectuals associated with the PPP are going to make mincemeat of Bisram. I am eager to see his argument in defence of KN.

Mr. Lall is more acidic and propagandistic in his outpourings against the government than the mainstream opposition. What newspaper Bisram has been reading the past four years? Surely, it cannot be Kaieteur News. I have written for KN since its beginning and until February 2023; that would be around 30 years. Mr. Lall and I fell out over his crass propaganda that he wanted me to advance, but I respect my education and dignity to allow someone like Lall to dictate to me.
After the opposition exclaimed that there was a creeping apartheid in Guyana. I did a rebuttal strictly on the basis of a theoretical exposition. Mr. Lall rejected the column. I think he did not understand the analysis in the rejection of the contention that there is no apartheid in this country.

Over the phone, Mr. Lall beseeched me to write showing where Guyana has an apartheid system. He even praised my intellectual skills, telling me that only someone like me could do it. I was livid. And the exchange that flowed was not pleasant on my part.

It would take more than one column to describe the gutter level to which KN has descended. The loss of respect and interest in that paper is extensive.

I could go on about the despicable journalism that now characterises the KN but I think most Guyanese are aware of it. I close by saying, that what Bisram has written about Lall will certainly dent his credibility and will call into question his massive qualifications that he says he has.

DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Guyana National Newspapers Limited.