Dear Editor,
I have refrained from commenting on the views for and against the credibility of Mr Vishnu Bisram over the past two weeks because I believe if not all of them, then 99 per cent are penned by fictitious writers. It is an unfolding comedy in Guyana that the letter pages of two major news media in this country are manipulated by people who hide under their mothers’dresses while criticizing public figures including Mr Bisram. I have my problems with Mr Bisram’s polls but I will stoutly defend him against his phantom critics whether for or against. There can be no moral justification for an individual to hide under his/her mother’s coat when castigating persons who openly speak their minds and are not afraid to do so. Quite a large number of persons have laughed about the endless Chronicle circus where its letter pages are filled with anonymous, infantile writings. But Kaieteur News and Stabroek have their fair share of ghost writers.
How much time will it take for the senior editors of both newspapers to quickly send back a mail requesting an address, workplace and telephone number from their internet writers in the Guyana diaspora? If both papers insist on this request, I believe the ghosts will disappear. To tell the truth, I think the newspapers need these letters to fill their space. I hope I am wrong but it may be the truth. In the end, it is both a tragedy and a farce to have this space manipulated by fictional names.
There is nothing wrong if an anonymous person wants to protect their job when they tell us about a perversity in their work place or in the country as a whole. But to have these phantoms on a regular basis denouncing public figures from under their beds does nothing to advance enlightenment in a country like Guyana.
Since the names are not real, I would suggest the newspapers drop the names entirely. Just carry the correspondence without the false signature at the back. How interesting that we in Guyana have come to have a Freudian fascination with ghost people. They first appeared on the electoral list of the 1968 elections. Then from 2002, we had ghost killers fighting the Buxton conspirators. Now we have the return of the ghosts. They are plentiful in the Guyanese newspapers.
I appreciate the comments of Clinton Urling about the fairytale existence of NACTA (‘Bisram usually gets it right’ SN, 16.5.08). But I think he is wrong on two counts. Mr Bisram was wrong many, many times. For example, Mr Bisram surveyed a minority government for the PPP in 2006. The Dick Morris poll did not predict a win for the AFC. It was Mr. Bisram who wrote that three times in the last six weeks. Finally, why doesn’t someone pointedly ask Stabroek News to press Mr Bisram on the existence of NACTA? Mr Bisram is always careful to refer to his operations as NACTA surveys.
There is one non-Guyanese friend of mine in New York who is well connected. I trust him implicitly as a media operative. When he tells me there is no viable organization by the name of NACTA, then I believe him. I have asked him to check on Mr Bisram’s teaching profession. His investigation found that there is no teacher in a high school or community college or technical school or vocational school or university in New York who goes by the name of Vishnu Bisram. If Mr Bisram works at an educational institution full time in New York, then it is not under the name by which he is known in Guyana.
I will keep repeating what I know is scientifically factual – there isn’t a group in New York that does polls and employs Mr Bisram to do polls by the name of NACTA. Finally, should we not start thinking about Mr Bisram’s world? In every exercise of Mr Bisram, Mr Jagdeo looks good. We don’t know anything about the professional work of Mr Bisram. But this we know: each time he conducts a sampling project, Mr Jagdeo comes out on top. What does that tell you?
Yours faithfully,
Frederick Kissoon
