ACTORS in the extremist African school in Guyana think African people are stupid. They believe once they sing the sermon of a government led by an Indian discriminating against African Guyanese, the message resonates with African Guyanese, and they acquire converts. They are living in a bubble where imagination has no limit.

This article was motivated by a letter I saw last Wednesday in the newspapers written by former head of the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA), Lelon Saul. Saul belongs to the extremist school referred to above. It is the same old mantra; Africans are not treated rightly by the PPP Government.

The extremist school cannot and will not be effective, because African Guyanese not only see them as clowns but betrayers. And why do African Guyanese see them with such despicable eyes? Because their track record is stink and ugly. Someone coming from Timbuktu into Guyana would not know that Saul, Ogunseye, David Hinds, and Clive Thomas, among others, were part of a PNC- led government between 2020 and 2025.

Let’s look at these people’s baggage; we must show African Guyanese this baggage. When we do this, we open the eyes of African Guyanese. Let’s start with Saul. I have a taped conversation with Saul in 2017. My phone number is 614-5927. My email is fredkissoon@yahoo. If you want to know about this extremist school and how they betrayed African Guyanese, please request a copy of the tape.

A poor Guyanese man with three children and a housewife applied to Saul, on my advice, to set up a workshop in Kitty because he had a little place he owned in Kitty, and thought of transferring his workshop there because the rent in Campbellville was too high. The CH&PA did not reply to the man for months. I drove home to Saul the point of “monkey know which limb to jump on”. I demanded a reply and went into CH&PA myself.

So, CH&PA decided to reply, and told this quintessential working-class man that his permit was denied because the area is a residential zone. I was so livid, I could not think rationally. I counted 28 business places, including a car repair place and body-work shop in the area. Right next to the man’s intended business was a boutique, and next to that was a pawn shop.
I was prepared to get locked up every day in protest movement for that poor man. I called Saul, and he was unapologetic. I have the tape. Please listen to it. The man set up his workshop, and I defied Saul, David Granger and all those who claim they speak for African Guyanese.

Next is Tacuma Ogunseye. In a stupid outburst, he asked African Guyanese why they are lamenting discrimination when the Police Force is Black, and they have the guns to use against the government. The visitors from Timbuktu would not know that Ogunseye’s party was part of the government that held a Commission of Inquiry into the public service.

This Indian columnist appeared in front of the Commission and strenuously argued that retirement age for the Police Force and Army should be elevated to 60. The report of the commission accepted upping the retirement age. Ogunseye’s government never acted on it.

The asininity about Ogunseye is that when he urged policemen to take up arms, he did not have the decency to tell the police that he was part of the government that refused to up the retirement age. So, those guys with the guns retire at 55, and NIS benefits begin at 60.

Next is the Mulatto/Creole King who is the darling of Stabroek News, and the best friend of the Queen of the Mulatto/Creole class, Alissa Trotz. Westmaas’ very personal friend was the then Minister of Housing, Keith Scott. Every year from 2015 to 2019, Westmaas came to Guyana, and every night would go bar-hopping with Scott. This writer raised with David Hinds the question of Westmaas putting pressure on Scott to give poor African applicants house lots.

Hinds refused. I approached Westmaas myself when he, David and I were having lunch at a restaurant on Charlotte Street named “L’Excellence”. Westmaas told me he does not want to get into Scott’s political administration. It was a cop-out. He and Scott cared not about African Guyanese. Westmaas’ brother, who has a fumigation business in New York wrote a letter last year saying he was proud to be an African. So, many of them echo that sentiment, but it is a false alarm.

Now Clive Thomas gets into the act. In reference to African Guyanese, he urged them not to sell their votes. When you do that, Thomas said, you will lose your soul. Thomas lost his soul, like Dr. Faust, a long time ago.

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.