IN my column last Tuesday, I referenced a statement made by Mr. Charles Sugrim that I attack Glenn Lall now that I have stopped writing for the Kaieteur News (KN). I have no apologies for writing about Lall, and I will continue to do so once Lall continues with a presence in the media and in politics.
Strangely and ironically, I have attacked Lall umpteen times when I was a columnist for 30 years with KN. It was mutual revulsion. Lall did not remove me because I was an asset to the paper and I didn’t remove myself because I felt I had an obligation to educate people. It was a moral dilemma that I do not think favours my explanation or can justify my continuation at KN after seeing Lall’s outrageous attitude toward people over several decades.

The PNC has a London-based activist, named Norman Brown. I thought Brown had political character, so I agreed to do a radio interview with him on my exit from KN and an explanation as to why I am attacking Lall now that I left the paper.
I did not get time to record history because Brown used the occasion to get at me, even taping a reaction from Harris, which he played during the interview. Of course, all readers who know me will know how the conversation ended with Brown. There is no way I would allow Brown to abuse me and I think all Guyanese who know me know I will never allow that.

What never came out of the interview will now be revealed because Sugrim has presented the opportunity for me to express clarifications on my journey with KN. It was never an easy relationship with Lall. Seniors like Adam Harris, Nigel Mc Kenzie and Leonard Gildarie will tell you, it was a tempestuous relation with Lall because since I was not a full-time staff and I was an asset to the newspaper; I had room to manoeuvre in confronting Lall.
I have to be careful what I express and reveal about Lall because I don’t want to get sued for libel and get the Chronicle entangled in a lawsuit. Mr. Chris Ram is extremely close to Lall and Ram is a lawyer that no doubt will be consulted. The motive of this commentary here is to offer my reason for staying at KN when, given what I stand for, given my genetic proclivity to speak up against abuses, I still stayed at KN.

Yes, I should have left. I offer now two reasons why I did not depart and expose Lall to the world. First, I was no sycophant of Lall like the person that writes as Peeping Tom because Lall bankrolls him. I have had tsunamic confrontations with Lall over his anti-humane mistreatment of staff and people around him.

The sister-in-law of GOINVEST head, Peter Ramsaroop, Stella Ramsaroop, and I, had a huge fight with Lall over the adherence to maternity leave. She left in disgust. I stayed. But I carried the fight to Lall and any day I could have been forced out because I was a relentless critic of Lall.
As late as 2023, when I was still writing for KN, I criticised Lall on the Freddie Kissoon Show for refusing to carry Joel Bhagwandin’s letters. I interviewed Mr. Bhagwandin, where the subject was raised. Mr. Lall knew his boundaries and dare not approach me on what was said about him to Bhagwandin.
So why did I remain in the miasma at KN? I am not going to defend myself. I think moral obligations should have compelled me to leave. In brief, here is why I stayed. I thought I was educating people in and out of Guyana, and I wanted to continue doing that. In 1986, I got a teaching job at UG. During my time at UG; I had two opportunities to leave. But my students at UG were my mission.

When I started teaching the first-year philosophy course at UG, none of my students knew who Sigmund Freud was. None of them heard about Franz Fanon. They knew nothing about the Holocaust. They never heard about the most powerful philosophy book ever written in the Western world – Martin Heidegger’s – Being and Time. I found purpose in teaching those students about philosophy, so I wasn’t going to leave UG.

It was the same at KN. I found out that what I was doing at KN was my calling. I got employers to pay poor people monies they had robbed them through my columns. Through the columns, I righted many wrongs. But I was living inside a cauldron of terrible wrongs and I stayed. I guess that is a flaw in my character that has become a permanent burden.
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.