Dear Editor,
Someone by the name of Vassan Ramracha has decided to come to the rescue of Vishnu Bisram (SN, July 29 ‘Vishnu Bisram is a teacher’). In the process, Mr Ramracha has proven three things about himself. One is that he has the identical attitude of evasiveness of Mr Bisram. The second one is that he does not read the incriminating missives in the Guyanese newspapers by Mr Bisram. Thirdly, like Mr Bisram, he does not know reality even if it drops on his head like a boulder.
I stick to my contentions that Mr Bisram is not a teacher in the US and there is no group in New York or elsewhere in the US by the name NACTA. I am not impressed that Mr Bisram would not sue. If he did, he would have to prove to a judge by documentation the date NACTA was founded, its present location, its membership and everything else about it that my attorney would insist he submits.
Let me provide Mr Ramracha with information supplied by Mr Bisram himself in the SN and KN, information which has destroyed the credibility of this pollster. First, he cannot give out the name of his workplace because someone tried to get him fired by peddling false stories to his boss. He is afraid to go public with his workplace because that may happen again. He agreed to name his employment privately to me through personal contact. He never did so.
Secondly, he moved on to another reason why he is refusing to state where he works. His employers do not want to be pestered by me Thirdly, when I revealed that an American (non-Guyanese) friend of mine in the media in New York couldn’t find the institution that Bisram teaches at, Bisram exclaimed that I could have easily got the information from thousands of Guyanese who know where he is employed. This is incredible rubbish. If thousands of Guyanese can tell me where Bisram works, well then is he no longer afraid of people trying to get him ‘knock off.’ So if thousands know where he is occupied, why is he insisting in not revealing where he teaches. My American friend is a staff member at the business section of the New York Times. He is married to a Guyanese woman who is a senior New York banker and comes from a prominent Berbice family. This woman and her husband have failed to ascertain the school that Mr Bisram is attached to despite speaking to many well-placed Guyanese in New York. Both of them told me they know of no group by the name NACTA. I have contacted two friends who are involved in Guyanese community affairs in New York for more than twenty years and they never heard of NACTA
Fourthly, Mr Bisram openly wrote that he finances most of his own polls and that polling is a hobby for him. So where does that leave NACTA? Fifthly, in one of his several responses, he described the number of countries he has visited within a six-month period conducting polls. Then he explained that for the first half of 2008 he is booked up. I guess his friends take his classes for him while he goes around the world financing his own polls.
Sixthly, three times, Mr Bisram wrote that NACTA was founded by Ramracha, a Trinidadian. Now Mr Ramracha signs his name as Communications Officer of NACTA. So the founder is no longer the head. Can Mr Ramracha tell us why he chose to step down as founder-leader? Seventhly, Mr Ramracha in his July 29 letter lets know the many places Bisram worked at and all the clubs and associations to which he belongs, but conveniently no specific name is offered. Mr Basir Sulaiman informed us that Mr Bisram received a prestigious award for his work in the Indo-Caribbean community, but again, conveniently we were not given the name of the institution. Mr Bisram wrote that he went down to Grenada with his polling partner but, conveniently as usual, no title was offered.
I close by advising every single Guyanese citizen and organization in this country to demand Mr Bisram provide proof of the institution he teaches at in New York and evidence that NACTA exists. When he does that, the information must be verified. Mr Bisram, Mr Ramracha and whoever Mr Sulaiman is, they should not be taken seriously by the Guyanese society.
Yours faithfully,
Frederick Kissoon
