I WANT to make it clear from the beginning of this commentary here that I do not doubt the huge amount of qualifications Mr Vishnu Bisram says he has.
My contest with Mr Bisram lies in the unfair comparisons in the practice of democracy he makes with Guyana and other countries. His conclusions about Guyana are always disingenuous, misleading and extremely biased, and I would like to stress the adverb “extremely.”

In my last Saturday offering, I confronted Bisram over his fallacious comparisons in which Guyana comes out badly, but in fact is far more democratic than the countries Bisram puts on a pedestal. Today I look at more deceptions of Mr. Bisram and reject as a complete fiction an action he has attributed to supporters of the PPP.

Mr Bisram’s curriculum vitae is emblazoned on the front page with his photograph in the online newspaper, “Indo-Caribbean” for March 25, 2021. He is listed as having the following degrees – two BAs, six Masters and six doctorates. His doctorates are in History, Sociology, Economics, Political Science, Education Administration and International Relations. I do not believe there is any living human in today’s world who has so many doctorates. So, with this educational background, the world will expect Mr Bisram to be a thoughtful, expansive and competent analyst.

But Mr Bisram is incredibly arid in his latest viewpoint on Guyana. Before I expose Mr Bisram’s foolish embrace of Dr Ramcharran’s adumbration of Guyana’s direction into autocratic government, I am accusing Bisram of lying on the supporters of the ruling party.

Here is what Bisram wrote and I am forcefully saying this is not factual: “Many, including supporters of the government, offer praise for his courage to raise the issue of shades of autocracy.” This is an appalling insult to the supporters of the government.

I know of no endorser of the ruling party who thought Dr Ramcharran wrote anything useful and in fact was denounced by government sympathisers, including this columnist, for writing what they consider (including me) a propagandistic hatchet job. I referred to him in one of my columns as a political hitman.
It is my job to read at least most of the things written about Guyana’s political economy and sociology and I haven’t seen any PPP supporter who labelled Dr Ramcharran as courageous for accusing the government of a creeping autocracy. Mr Bisram should provide the evidence or stop writing.

Mr Bisram described a so-called analysis of creeping autocracy as “Dr Ramcharran’s innovative thesis.” This is shocking mediocrity in the political views of Bisram. Dr Ramcharran notes that the Guyana government is attacking NGOs and judges and these things point to a creeping autocracy.

What is innovative about such a perception? There is nothing superb or attractive about that. It is rather a jejune and poor understanding of the politics of Guyana. Dr Ramcharran pinpoints two reactions of the Government of Guyana: one is the responses of the Ali government to the false things NGOs incessantly sp’sout and the government’s reaction to certain pronouncements of the judiciary.

In last Saturday’s piece on Bisram, I asked which world is he living in. The Biden administration has angrily reacted against many decisions of the Supreme Court during the past year. In one case involving immigration in which the court ruled in favour of the state of Texas, the government of the US said the decision was a violation of the American constitution.

In the UK, when the court ruled that Brexit could only be implemented by a decision of Parliament, many government ministers were in sharp disagreement with the courts and some harsh words were said about the court’s decision. Why is a country moving in the direction of autocracy because the government openly disagrees with certain judicial decisions?

It is for this reason I wrote above that the world expects better scholarship from a man who has six doctorates. How can any scholar with six masters and six doctorates interpret what Dr Ramcharran wrote as innovative? Bisram must describe the innovative contents of Dr Ramcharran’s misplaced perception.
One final quote from Bisram. He noted that “Dr Ramcharran’s thesis is an attempt for Guyanese to better understand government and governance and place it in a certain perspective.” What thesis is Bisram talking about? Is he referring to the nonsense Dr Ramcharran wrote as something Guyanese need to read to better understand governance and government. Guyanese do not need Ramcharran and Bisram who have lived outside of Guyana respectively for more than 50 years to lecture us on governance. But one could go further and ask both gentlemen – what do you know about Guyana when you haven’t lived here for more than half a century?

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.