Dear Editor,
It is 2:35 am Wednesday morning March 6, 2007 and I am grappling with the complex yet intriguing subject – Evidence. As a deserved break I have been scanning the letter pages of Stabroek News and noticed a letter written by Mr Eusi Kwayana on the apparent appointment of Shri Prakash Chand Gossai as some ‘Presidential’ special assistant. This letter was given prominence by caption and column space.
I do not wish to engage Mr Kwayana or any others, in your letter column as I have found this process to be rather unproductive and banal. But permit these few comments on Mr Kwayana’s letter which I find to be rather convoluted, spiteful and pregnant with ‘hearsay’ and may be libellous.
First, who is Mr Eusi Kwayana, aside from his claim as a private citizen as we all are, to give a sermon on the requisite acceptable qualities of anyone on the requirements for advising the government on ethnic or religious issues. Spare me the details of Mr Kwayana’s political history and activism; sometimes we all outlive our usefulness and must know when to quit lest we tarnish whatever little public good we have done.
Secondly, I wish to share what I know of Mr Gossai. I met him when he was 11 years old coming from Handsome Tree, Mahaica Creek. Three of us, himself, his first cousin Jagewan Ram Gossai now living in Canada and myself from Cane Grove all attended Cummings Lodge Government Secondary school under the tutelage of the renowned principal Kunar.
We sat in the same bench. Also in that class was Mr Bish Panday of P&P Insurance, Mr Clyde Munday of GRA, and we had as our contemporaries Ministers Manniram Prashad and Robeson Benn. We were all batch mates.
Prakash was by far the ‘brightest’ of all of us academically. However, he had a calling early in life for religious work and spent most of his time singing religious songs and playing Indic musical instruments. This later translated to his current endeavours.
Prakash and I never kept in touch but through mutual friends and the fact that only a river divided us in Mahaica, nurtured a lifelong connection.
Thirdly, Mr Kwayana’s main objection seems to be that Mr Gossai allegedly made some statement in which he referred to members of the temple of which he is the Pandit as “his followers”. This Mr Kwayana claims betrayed a kind of attitude.
I do not know if Mr Gossai made this statement or whether it is the figment of the imagination of that mischief maker and ‘pot salt’ Vishnu Bisram whose diatribe frequently is given prominent space in Stabroek News, sometimes with a by-line and other times as letter writer, but even if it was made, does Mr Kwayana know the context in which it was said, its relevance, or its intention.
It is easy for anyone, particularly the so-called educated class, to lift a word and a phrase and ascribe to it its ordinary meaning and develop some sinister theory to support a warped viewpoint that somehow we have a devil amongst us, so we must beware.
Fourthly, to support this theory Mr Kwayana reveals that Mr Gossai is involved with some litigation issues and quotes liberally from some documents that he has allegedly seen. He then draws the racist connection that a group supportive of Mr Gossai hired an Afro-American wanted by the authorities as the ‘chucker-out’.
Mr Kwayana’s conduct is much like the same ‘chucker-out’ that he so disdains, as here is a man who will use his race, his intellect and history to seek to ‘chuck-out’ Mr. Gossai from any opportunity of contributing to his country.
Moreover, all that Mr Kwayana has published are mere allegations and not findings of fact, a distinction if he does not know Stabroek News should have drawn. Moreover, there should have been an editorial note to this effect, failure of which can only lead to a conclusion that Stabroek News is not impartial and supports the agenda of Mr Kwayana.
I am a declared opponent to the administration of President Bharrat Jagdeo. I was a candidate in the last General Elections and hope when I have completed law school to continue my political life. But in so doing I will not take or support extreme action to deny any citizen much less a person of Mr Gossai’s calibre from contributing to our development.
Our political history has been punctuated by vicious communal and racial conflicts, we can ill-afford religious clashes. None of us can claim that we are free from sins, as admitted by Mr. Kwayana, so all of us have a responsibility to be guarded, careful and circumspect when throwing the first stone.
Yours faithfully,
Jerome Khan
