Dear Editor,
I read with comfort and measured relief the apologies issued by Stabroek News and the GTUC, via the latter’s attorney-at-law, Mr Peters, the excuses (not reasons) for their unwarranted disparagement of my integrity and public image notwithstanding. Their original and precipitate rush to print confirms that standards have fallen. I wish to offer a word of caution to Anand Persaud and others of SN: before printing any report which may impinge upon the character of a person in public office he/they ought to ask himself/themselves, ‘Would David de Caires condone the imputation, without first verifying the vitriolic information?’ As for the GTUC, some of its installed executives have perennially regarded me as their nemesis and crows’ bait for vultures to sumptuously consume but I have survived every onslaught.
How on earth could any simian reference to human beings have gone unnoticed and/or not been the object of severe criticism by so distinguished a panel, singly and collectively imbued with acknowledged forensic skills, and even the attorneys-at-law, chomping at the bit to relegate my testimony to the lowest rung of credence? The video and audio recordings proved to the contrary and this positive use of technology on this occasion became a salutary tool of vindication, and I commend the RCOI and its staff for acting so definitively in pursuing my concerns.
For the avoidance of doubt, the sentence in which the alleged offensive word was extracted by the calumniates was descriptive of the size and avoirdupois of the police personnel at the scene when the assault and battery perpetrated against me took place. No one with a minimum of commonsense could have been misled or been honestly mistaken. Maybe, the media has indeed become a weapon and it appears that the refinements of the 1994 Declaration of Chapúltepec are now honoured in the breach by the media of today’s generation. A case may very well be made out for the official calls for its regulation for the protection of the vulnerable majority.
Let me say for the record that I am not a hyphenated ethnic Guyanese as some are wont to popularly proclaim themselves. I am a Guyanese, period. We owe this to posterity.
Yours faithfully,
Justice Charles R Ramson SC
