Dear Editor,
I am writing in response to a number of serious allegations levelled against NACTA and internationally reputed pollster and NY licensed teacher Vishnu Bisram by UG lecturer Freddie Kissoon in column captioned ‘Mr Bismuth Bisram in Grenada is due in Guyana’ (KN Jul 10) as well as in a series of other columns and letters published in KN and Stabroek News. Mr Kissoon has made a number of allegations against Bisram and NACTA and we are yet to see any evidence to substantiate them.
The exchange between Mr Kissoon and Mr Bisram is not of much concern to us but Kissoon’s accusations and allegations against the organisation are our business. We don’t take these charges lightly as we wish to maintain the professionalism of the organisation and as such the reason for this intervention in the exchange between the two men.
Mr Kissoon claims NACTA does not exist. That is a falsehood. I am an officer of the organisation and have been designated to respond to his unsubstantiated charges. The organisation has been conducting polls for a number of years now and Mr Kissoon knows that.
Mr Kissoon claims that Mr Bisram does not conduct polls but makes up numbers to create a swing towards a party. The officers of the organisation confronted Mr Bisram about this allegation and he strongly denied it. Mr Bisram maintains that he never slanted any poll “to create a swing” and asked that Mr Kissoon provide the evidence.
We are prepared to discipline Mr Bisram if he engaged in conduct that brought or will bring NACTA into disrepute. Mr Bisram has also agreed to discontinue polling if Mr Kissoon can provide any evidence to back his allegation that he “created swings” in polling or did not conduct polls.
We urge Mr Kissoon to come forward with the evidence to substantiate his serious charge that maligns the integrity of a reputed pollster and respected teacher in NY. We do not think the newspaper should have published the allegation without the proof. NACTA will not pursue any legal action against Mr Kissoon for exposing the evidence that discredits Bisram’s polls. Mr Bisram has also agreed not to pursue any legal action against Mr Kissoon for revealing information in his possession that Bisram “did not conduct surveys” and created “swings.” Mr Bisram has committed to penning a letter to the newspapers in Guyana declaring he will not pursue legal action against Kissoon or the newspapers if Kissoon and the papers can publish the evidence supplied by Kissoon detailing how, when and where Bisram created swings and all other information in his possession that Bisram did not conduct polls.
NACTA wants the information in the public domain since the charges are serious and assures Kissoon he has nothing to fear about a lawsuit. Since Mr Kissoon claims he has the evidence, it should not be a burden to publish it immediately. If we do not see the evidence in the papers two days after this letter is published, we will assume that Mr Kissoon is a bluffer and hope he will do the right thing by apologizing to NACTA and to Mr Bisram.
Let me note that we are not troubled by Mr Kissoon’s research that Mr Bisram is not a teacher, because we know that is horse dung. Mr Bisram has chosen not to put in the public domain who he works for and we respect his privacy.
What we know is that Mr Bisram is the most respected teacher in the Guyanese, if not the Caribbean, community in NY. Every Guyanese community leader knows that to be a fact. We know Mr Bisram is a highly educated teacher in the city with a number of undergraduate and graduate degrees and licensed in several subjects. We know he served as head of the union in his building for five years and deputy head for an additional three years; my brother confirms he often met Bisram at citywide meetings for union reps totalling thousands. Mr Bisram also served as Chairman of the Leadership Council of his building for three years and a member of that exclusive club for nine years and has been re-elected last month for an additional two years. Mr Bisram offers free tutorial service to students after school, and engages in a number of activities to uplift the lives of Caribbean people in NY. In addition, he is a member of several organizations and volunteers his service as a reporter and columnist for ethnic newspapers in NY. We hope Mr Bisram is not offended by the amount of information we have revealed about him. And we urge Mr Kissoon to stop writing falsehoods such as that NACTA does not exist and Bisram is not a teacher.
Yours faithfully,
Vassan Ramnracha
Communication Officer
NACTA
Mr. Ramnracha, if you were to compare your stunt with, say, Clement Rohee, Subhan, Kwayme, Ramotar, et al; what’s the difference?
Your letter reads like a piece from a Mirror edition or a Freedom House propaganda. You are not very convincing. Please try again.
Mr Ramracha, your generalisations prove just another attempt to do exactly what Bisram does.
Why isn’t NACTA a registered organisation?If it is, what logistics u have to prove such?
Save the subjective statements for people who love the ‘cover painting.’
You’re just another few steps downhill in discrediting Bisram further.
Hush up and supply real facts!!!!!!
Vassan, you are like Bisram. You still have not answered the main questions of this NACTA.
Give Kissoon the address, telephone, email and fax number.
Supply the names of the officers of the company.
Any polling organization worth it’s salt will provide this without hesitation.
So the questions still lingers on.
I couldn’t have said it better. Gost Rider and La vie est bonne are right on the money. I would like Vassan and Vishnu to explain how come the elections in Grenada made a mockery of their polls. What went wrong? Instead of explaining the properties of bismuth why can’t Bisram provide the answers to the professor’s questions.
I tip my turban to the NACTA Communication Officer for writing this letter. I trust Vishnu Bisram highly as a gentleman and a scholar. As for that self-righteous intellectual Frederick Kissoon, who once described himself as a bohemian anarchist, not even my pet monkey Trotsky would trust him.
Why don’t you take on Kissoon?
You surely couldn’t stand up to any real debate!!!
Please Stabroek News—-Please no more Vishnu Bisram stories.
Please Stabroek News , Mr. Bisram and company are like the PPP or PNC trying to tell us that they are doing good for Guyana.
It is enough that we have to live with the likes of President Jagdeo, Dr Gibson and Mr Vishnu Bisram that have totally destroyed any respectability Guyanese had and carried in the Caribbean much less the world at large.
Mr. Bisram is a one-man show and the organization of NACTA (and I stress the word organization) does not exist. Yes he is a teacher—-but has no credentials as a pollster.
Stabroek News this is enough.
You should tell us what subject he teaches. Is it statistics?
Vassa Bai & Vishie Bai, all we want is the addresses, phone & fax nos, emails of NACTA and the place where Vishie Bai working. What so top secret about that? Is not like Vishie Bai working at the Pentagon or FBI OR CIA. Even the address and contact details for them that are public knowledge. Who going to harrass you all in the land of the free and the home of the brave? Freddie Mamu got all right to press Vishie Bai for his details and to call NACTA non-existent till he do so. I agree with “Any polling organization worth it’s salt ( or bismuth ) will provide this without hesitation.”
This pathetic excuse about fearing harrassment is just that- an excuse. Any reputable polling company is more than happy to provide its bona fides to the public. You don’t see Ipsos Reid or Harris Decima hiding their contact information or polling methodology.
This is the most non-convincing letter I’ve seen. This is a soft apology on Bisram’s behalf for Bisram’s behavior which doesn’t make any sense to me.
I am no fan of Freddie, but we all know where Freddie works and we know the street address and phone # for SN and UG. Freddie even tells people which dam he lives on.
Now, Mr. Vasan Ramracha and Mr. Vishnu Bisram, we do not know where either of you work, live or play. No address, no phone #, nothing. We don’t even know if the two of you are one and the same. Even I once had a not for profit organisation here in the US that was registered. It was just for show at the time, but I had a P.O. BOX and a phone # listed. I never travelled past my mailbox on behalf of my now defunct org. Now, NACTA is sooo big, that Mr Bisram travels all over the world to do polling, yet in order to contact him or the parent organisation that is NACTA, Freddie must do so in a local Guyana newspaper.
Like me friend would say… me might come from country but me na stupidy.