DR. BERTRAND Ramcharan came out swinging at me yesterday (Thursday) in what he shamelessly described as his favourite newspaper – the Stabroek News (SN). His favourite “institution of learning” – SN, also came out swinging at me too by referring to me as the PPP’s latest favourite hire.

Let me assert with pellucid boldness, I have absolutely no respect for the so-called scholarship of Dr. Ramcharan. He writes nonsense and those who are educated in political theory would know he writes nonsense.
I say unapologetically, a first year university student should have a better understanding of the social and political structure of a democratic country like Guyana than Dr. Ramcharan

I am deeply disgusted at the appalling misunderstanding on the part of Dr. Ramcharan of some of the basic concepts academics used in political theory. In his reply to me yesterday (Thursday), Dr. Ramcharan defends himself against my criticism of him in my piece on Wednesday and makes a mockery of the basic concepts in the study of politics
He describes the existence of autocracy in Guyana which he says is empirical or de facto then goes on to indicate that he does not know if the autocracy is intentional. This is not only infantile but disgraceful.

If there is autocracy in a country, then the democratic foundation is weakened by autocratic policy directions and governmental dictatorial instincts. How then you can describe that nascent oligarchic presence as maybe not being intentional. This is confusing, mediocre and borders on ignorance of the criteria for judging democracy or dictatorship.

In his reply to my Wednesday piece, he referred to me belonging to a government attack squad. There are three attack squads in Guyana of which Dr. Ramcharan belongs to one. They are (1) – the Stabroek News (SN) itself. No paper in the history of this country has directed such toxic emanations against a popularly elected President as the SN. This newspaper is a shameless anti-government outfit to the extent I have heard people who hate the government referred to it as doing a better job than the mainstream opposition.

Go to Wednesday’s edition of SN. The lead story is a statement by a defunct organisation name, Guyana Human Rights Organization (GHRA.) No one in Guyana knows what the GHRA does and the GHRA helps no one who endured a rights violation, but it gets the lead story in Stabroek News.

But the project administrator in the Office of the First Lady, Ravin Singh, had his 700-word letter cut down to 80 words. This is the paper that Ramcharan extols as a professional media house (more on this later).
(2)- The comment section of the online edition is the second attack squad. Here is a regular school of bloggers that either is so shallow that they cannot string together basic concepts or are just plain irrationally anti-Freddie Kissoon. One of them, Emile Mervin, dismissed my 36 years’ writing for all the major newspapers in Guyana as Kissoon just wanting to vent.

Don’t take my word for it. If you want to see the second attack squad in action, go to the comments on Dr. Ramcharan’s letter on me yesterday in the online edition of SN. None of the concepts and theories that I have employed to show that Guyana is a practising democracy and that thus Ramcharan is writing nonsense is commented on.

Go to the site and you will see for yourself. I am referred to in personal terms but there isn’t one word on my theoretical outlay in rejecting the fallacies of Ramcharan. So the SN joins in the circus and paints me in the following way –“the PPP’s latest favourite hire.”
It is both a mystery and a revelation to me that the PPP considers me a favourite. I do not mix with governmental personalities or mix in PPP circles so I would not know if I am a PPP favourite. I do not mix at all. I think SN knows more about my life than I do. I am still waiting for the millions that Glen Lall says Vice-President Jagdeo pays me. When he pays me, I will take it.

The third attack squad is the letter pages of the print edition of the SN. Here is another school of anti-PPP haters that as John Mair, aka Bill Cotton, once wrote that when you open the letter-pages of SN, you look at the signature below before you read. And the signatures are the same. The third attack squad is led by GHK Lall. He gets a daily letter published by the SN while others like Professor Randy Persaud is told by SN that his missives will not be published if they attack civil society. To be continued.

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.