THE reason why I am replying to Charles Sugrim, an American-Guyanese who belongs to the amorphous US-based oil-lobby group named Oil and Gas Governance Network is because he is a real person.
I do not reply to anonymous persons because no one should lower their dignity like that. I do reply to Peeping Tom from time to time because he knows that I know him.

Sugrim wrote a piece of January 12, 2025, (in which his necktie is the American flag and not the Guyana one) in an online entity named Indo-Caribbean Diaspora News (ICDN), which has no name of ownership or editor, but I am informed that it is the thing of Mr Vishnu Bisram.
Sugrim knows absolutely nothing about my persona, chemistry, character and mental biology, so he is ignorant in attributing an action to me which genetically I am incapable of — writing under a fictitious name.
Over my 36 years in the media, I have done five pieces of commentary without my name being attached – two editorials for the Guyana Chronicle at the request of its then editor Sharief Khan, and three editorials for the Kaieteur News. I don’t think the editorials carry the names of the writers.

In the dozens of thousands of pieces I have written, I have never hid my name. And in older age now I have no intention of starting. As Denzil Washington said in the movie, Training Day, “King Kong ain’t nutting on me.” No one has anything on me that would cause me to use an anonymous pen.
Sugrim’s letter is a mountain of aridity, mediocrity, academic vulgarisation and intellectual asininity. Sugrim makes three adumbrations, two of which I will confront here. The third is his accusation in the different version of his ICDN commentary that appeared in the Kaieteur News of January 25, 2025, that I attacked Glenn Lall after I left the paper. I will respond to that in a forthcoming column. The logic of why I exposed Lall after I left rather than before will be elaborated on. I will continue to expose Lall.
The two points in Sugrim’s outlays is that Vishnu Bisram did a straw poll and found Azarrudin Mohamed in front of President Ali and that Bisram’s poll are authentic. The remaining of this analysis here is a rebuttal of those two fictions. Mr Bisram is very critical of the Guyana Government because he advocated for the High Commission post in India and was rejected.

The key players in the government know about Mr Bisram’s request. I know about Bisram’s quiet lobbying to secure the position, Sugrim doesn’t know because he does not live in Guyana. I am not going to dwell on Bisram’s attempted egoistic journey in diplomacy, except to say had he been chosen it would have been a huge embarrassment for the Guyana Government.
Mr Bisram’s curriculum vitae list him as having six doctorates in six different subjects and six Master Degrees in six different subjects. Imagine how the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in India would have reacted to that. I am asking Sugrim if he believes that. Now for the straw poll. The straw poll is the straw in Bisram’s mind.

I live in this country, unlike Sugrim and Bisram. I visit places where Guyanese congregate. President Ali is well liked across Guyana and is seen by Guyanese as a grassroots man with a unique style. President Ali is going to win the 2025 poll and increase the PPP’s percentage. Sugrim says he travelled recently in Guyana and saw that Azarrudin was more popular than Ali. I don’t know what Sugrim saw. I know what I have seen and seeing.

Finally, the authenticity of Bisram’s polls over the past 30 years in Guyana. I don’t know when Sugrim began to take an interest in Guyana, but if he did do so the past 20 years, he would have seen that I have questioned the existence of these exploits of Bisram with evidence. I have several letters from Bisram in which he wrote about what he was doing in other countries and at the same time, he forgot that he mentioned that on those very dates, he said he was in Guyana doing surveys.
Over the past 30 years, no one in this country knows who the local coordinators of Bisram’s polling activities are. No one knows about the places in which the operations are based. No one knows who the local field workers are. I cannot be sued for libel over my beliefs and my beliefs are, Bisram has no Master and doctorates and does not do any polling at all.

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.