Dear Editor,
With regard to Freddie Kissoon’s letter captioned ‘OAS meeting on Bisram’s polling did take place’ (SN, September 5) I write knowing fully well that regardless of the amount of evidence presented to debunk the false claims of Mr Kissoon, he will still maintain he is right or come up with other flimsy excuses. It is a waste of my time to respond to false allegations. But I wish to right the record with regard to the allegations against me that he claims were made at an OAS-sponsored meeting at Miami International University (MIU) (no date given). Mr Kissoon alleged in a KN column (August 29) that “the OAS panellists concluded that the polls conducted by Vishnu Bisram and Ramsamooch [sic] of Trinidad are fictional and should be rejected.”
I was able to get information from the OAS and the MIU panellists in two days that no such discussion took place. Mr Kissoon states that he “unambiguously does not believe that Albert Ramdin, Assistant Secretary General of the OAS, communicated to Boodram” that Bisram was not discussed at the MIU meeting. I know Annan Boodram as a respected newspaper reporter/editor of integrity. He is one of the few Guyanese practising media persons who is actually trained as a journalist. He is a man of principle. Annan has no reason to make up an email from Ambassador Ramdin. For the record, Boodram showed me and several other media people the email from Ambassador Ramdin. It contradicts Mr Kissoon’s claim about the MIU meeting.
Further discrediting Mr Kissoon’s inaccurate OAS claim are conversations with Peter Wickham and Ramesh Deosaran whom Freddie identified as attending the Miami meeting. Mr Wickham, a Bajan pollster (who did polls in Trinidad) and lecturer in politics at UWI, and Mr Deosaran, a Trini pollster and Professor of Sociology at St Augustine, told me separately, via the phone, there were no discussions about Vishnu Bisram or about his polls or qualifications at the Miami meet.
So Mr Kissoon is unwilling to accept Ambassador Ramdin’s email, but now we have Mr Deosaran, one of the finest scholars in the Caribbean, and Mr Wickham, a respected political scientist, debunking his allegation. I let the readers decide who is more credible.
Yours faithfully,
Vishnu Bisram
