In Tuesday's edition of SN, there appeared a missive from Mr. Vishu Bisram with the heading, “GINA's attack on Rickey Singh is surprising.” Mr. Bisram. GINA had put out a statement in which it took umbrage at Rickey Singh's sharp disagreement with the Government of Guyana's decision to cease placements in the Stabroek News from the Ministries. GINA went on to say that it wants Mr. Singh to reclaim, “the level of repute with which Singh was once classified.”
In defence of Rickey Singh, Bisram wrote: “Rickey Singh has not lost anything about his great reputation as the Caribbean's most reputable journalist. If anything, he has gotten (sic) better over the years.” It seems that Vishnu Bisram is in a terrible rush to self-destruct in Guyana. First, he heaps immeasurable praise on a supposed spiritual leader from New York, Mr. Gossai (what is his first name, Vishnu?) knowing fully well that a time bomb is going to explode on Mr. Gossai.
Bisram is someone who has intellectual reach. He is a person capable of grasping the complex nuances of Guyanese politics. Why does Mr. Bisram feel that President Jagdeo is going to listen to Mr. Gossai or that Mr. Gossai is going to point out the wrongs of the government? This cannot be the intention of Mr. Gossai because Mr. Gossai must know what goes on within the PPP leadership here. I dealt with that in my Tuesday article, so let's return to the so-called great Caribbean journalist.
Since when is Rickey Singh a great Caribbean journalist? Where was Mr. Bisram these past 15 years when Rickey Singh failed to find not even a single mistake in the rule of the PPP? In fact, Mr. Singh got involved in partisan politics, using his Chronicle articles to viciously attack Moses Nagamootoo when Nagamootoo openly declared that he would challenge Jagdeo for the PPP's presidential candidacy.
Mr. Singh joined a Janet Jagan campaign against the continued involvement of Nagamootoo in the PPP leadership and Singh was the main propagandist for Jagdeo and the anti-Nagamootoo coup leaders in Freedom House. Mr. Singh's credibility went out of the window a long time ago. How Mr. Bisram could fail to see the overt propaganda in Singh's Chronicle columns calls into question Mr. Bisram's scholarly objectivity.
On many occasions, I have mentioned Singh's shameless support for governmental wrong-doing in Guyana. I opposed his honorary doctorate from UWI based on his sycophantic columns in the Chronicle for which he is paid. Rickey Singh and David Dabydeen are two Guyanese East Indians that have fallen victims to ethnic sympathies. My belief is that they condone bad governance because they feel that Guyana deserves to have an East Indian Government after the long rule of an African-dominated administration.
Talking to David Dabydeen, Singh's soul-mate, is an unpleasant experience. The man's politics is uninformed, backward, ethnically biased and intellectually corrupt. I remember the last time we met in August 2004 at a party at Moses Nagamootoo's home. He came across as someone that was wiling to critically assess the nature of power in Guyana. He said he was coming back to Guyana in October. He didn't.
Then I read this year that he was involved in an accident when he was being chauffeured by Mrs. Jagan's driver.
Dabydeen had no intention of reflecting on his servile support for the PPP administration as he professed at Nagamooto's party. It is an offence to the psyche to hear an intellectual say the most uneducated statements on history as when Dabydeen told me at that very party that he really admired Cheddi Jagan. What was there to admire about Jagan when he destroyed this country along with others like Forbes Burnham?
Both Singh and Dabydeen are robotic absorbers of Mrs. Jagan's assessment of Guyanese politics. Singh in particular feels that the Jagans were badly treated by history in the sixties and he has a moral obligation to make up for that by endorsing the continued rule of the PPP.
Singh has repudiated his own writings in the sixties. Jagan was bent on implementing communism even though he knew his supporters were dying because of his selfish politics. Jagan didn't care. He did the same thing when he came to power in 1992.
Do you know how many business ventures Jagan deliberately turned his back on from 1992 until his death?
Bisram should ask himself why is it that even though the evidence against wrong-doing in the PPP administration has been proven year after year, there has not been one paragraph on perversity in the running of the affairs of this country from Singh. Singh is an impertinent columnist. He adumbrates his mountain of nonsense about other CARICOM Governments but never a line on the Guyana Government. Is this the man that Vishnu Bisram writes so glowing of?
Until this letter by Bisram, I had a healthy measure of respect for him. But now I am beginning to sense that Bisram is a subtle player when it comes to Guyanese politics. I am sure many observers are beginning to question his objectivity and independent mind. If I wasn't made of stronger mental stuff, I would have thrown up after reading the unadulterated fiction Bisram wrote of Singh.
Here is the part that really freaked me out: “He (Singh) has an independent mind and does not compromise his principles.” Go to hell, Bisram! Singh compromised his principles since 1992 and continues to do so and you are doing so yourself by denying that Singh did that. I hope the Chronicle kicks Singh off their Sunday pages. He deserves worse.