SOME children were playing with a frisbee in our yard on Monday afternoon and the flying disc went straight into my wife’s left eye. I took her to the Georgetown Hospital on Tuesday morning. As we were leaving through the New Market Street entrance, I was surrounded by a group of four men, one Indian and three Africans.
There was absolutely no hostility towards me, but I detect an air of both frustration and disappointment in them about me. My description of what took place should be a lesson for those entering politics, but most of all, for the young voters.

I wrote this column here because we are into the 2025 election campaign and my description of what took place outside the Georgetown Hospital with my wife seeing and hearing everything is intended to bring some form of awareness or even consciousness to those who need to understand that they must drink deeply of their country’s politics or else they may vote for people who should not even be thought of as politicians much less get their votes.

Before I relate what happened, I remind you of my column of Sunday, March 16, 2025, titled, “The question that will follow me for the rest of my life.” In that article, I discussed the times people met me in different circumstances and have expressed regrets that I have embraced a different kind of politics.

That March 16 piece somewhat ties in with what happened Tuesday morning, but Tuesday morning was different for two reasons. First, my wife never was there in all the decades when people would meet me and accost me over the nature of my politics. But last Tuesday, she got a taste of it.

Secondly, I never got the expressed comprehension about my political transformation since 2020 as what I received last Tuesday. So here is what happened. As soon as we left the gate of the hospital and stepped onto the pavement, these four men came up.
The first to speak was the Indian one. He said the following words: “Freddie yuh switch.” The rest murmured in agreement. The Indian fellow was still the guy. He said: “Freddie it was the PPP that knocked you off, so how come yuh switch?” It was my response to him that got the rest going.
I looked directly at the Indian guy that was speaking and I said: “But the new government that you know I supported did not send me back to UG.” There and then the rest chimed and told the Indian man; “Listen to wuh de man saying.” Since the Indian guy was the lead man in the exchange, I continued to address him directly.
I told him he had to know about the history of my politics to engage me. I said to him since he knows about my politics, he should tell me what he knows about my politics after 2015. There and then, the rest chimed and began to support me. But there was a certain point I made that changed the countenance of the Indian guy, and there was when they began to understand my transformation.

I asked the Indian guy that for all the politics of Freddie Kissoon that he knew, did he know that after 2015, I didn’t even get a hello or a handshake from the new leaders? Not a million dollars. Not five million. Just a handshake. I think that wrapped it up for them. There and then, they understood the transformation of my politics. I had to cut short the confabulation because my wife’s eye was bandaged up and she was obviously in some discomfort. I left telling them another time I will continue where I left off.

In the myriad of questions that have followed me since 2020, the time was always fleeting. I could never stand up at the street corner or sit down around the table of some watering hole and explain to them how I felt after 2015 and how deeply scarred I was after the 2020 election.

As my wife and I turned into Thomas Street where my car was parked, I did say to her that I wish I could explain to them with detailed analysis on why I am who I am now politically. Of course I explained that is several columns but I don’t know if they read those columns.

I want to leave readers with something I wished I had time to tell those four gentlemen. Khemraj Ramjattan told Norman Brown that after 2015, I began to criticise the APNU+AFC because I wanted him to secure my return to UG, but he Ramjattan couldn’t do that because he wasn’t the Education Minister. These are the people that want you to vote for them in September.
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.