Dear Editor,
Freddie Kissoon in his letter captioned “Dr. Jagan was under strain from corruption” (08.03.09) describes as “downright pathetic” my reply to Mrs. Jagan expressing regret for writing “some people told me that corruption may have been one factor that triggered Dr. Jagan’s heart attack”. A basic lesson professors taught college grads like Freddie and myself is to substantiate arguments with proof and to be fair and objective. Freddie has failed in this lesson in responding to my letter as well as Mrs. Jagan’s comments reprimanding me. As a lecturer and someone I respect and admire, he ought to know better and be more professional.
What is so “pathetic” in my expressing “regrets” for writing the unsubstantiated statement about Dr. Jagan’s heart attack?. Did I successfully express reasons to substantiate why I expressed regret?.
Mrs. Jagan challenged me to provide proof that there was corruption in Jagan’s (as well as in succeeding PPP) administration (s). She also accused me of accepting “gossip” as truth saying “Dr. Jagan’s heart attack had nothing to do with corruption” and any other “story” is a gossip. I did not read the medical report on the cause of Dr. Jagan’s death. Hence, I cannot dispute Mrs. Jagan’s claim. If Freddie knows otherwise, let him provide the proof. Freddie claims that as someone living in Guyana, he knew since March 1997 that corruption triggered Dr. Jagan’s fatal heart attack. And he is only now telling the nation about it some eleven years later and only after I mentioned it.
Freddie also claims he has proof of corruption. Then he has a moral duty to take it to the police as Mrs. Jagan advised. Otherwise, people will view Freddie as “pathetic”. In Trinidad, some people had the courage “to take the evidence to the police” and the UNC government collapsed. Does Freddie have the courage to take the evidence to the police?
As I stated, I do not have any proof of corruption and none was ever presented to me. Thus, I am not in a position to go to the police. In conducting surveys annually, numerous allegations of corruption were presented to me and voters did indicate that corruption was a serious problem though it was not a priority for them. Voters were more concerned about crime in virtually all of my surveys since the PPP came into office in 1992. Freddie says he has the evidence on corruption and yet he does not want to go to the police.
With regards to Freddie’s attack on Dr. Jagan, although I disagree with Dr. Jagan’s ideological positions, I view him as among the most honest politicians the world has produced. Many ultra right wing businessmen in Guyana I spoke with also admired Jagan for his honesty and patriotism. As I stated before, neither Dr. Jagan nor Mrs. Jagan condoned corruption.
In sum, Freddie has not made a compelling case in castigating me for expressing regrets about writing on the cause of death of her loving husband. It takes a level of integrity and maturity (not fear) to admit to an “oversight error”.
Yours faithfully,
Vishnu Bisram
