Dear Editor,
Mr Frederick Kissoon, a foremost columnist, has made a redeemable error in that he has complied at such a fatal hour with instructions from his employer to avoid commentary on the selected presidential candidate of the ruling PPP.
The columnist has been compromised into a corner. He has been compelled to choose between employment with a popular tabloid and a right to exercise free thought. For now, Mr Kissoon has chosen to remain employed. His explanations for his choice, though they mirror a delicate situation, only serve to express his underlying but unfounded fear of being denied a popular forum through which he can express himself, and by extension be stripped of his incisive political views which he rightly thinks the republic needs.
This columnist is engaging in irresponsible thinking to believe he can still write responsibly and serve a public function, despite such compliance. Responsible writing begins and ends with responsible thinking, and this is needed especially in a young republic where there is no independent newspaper. Those who pampered one newspaper or another as being independent are partially responsible for Mr Kissoon‘s predicament, because they willfully helped to nurture a false sense of an independent press. But the press, like the parliament, is accountable to none. As such, a publisher will disregard a writer’s right to free speech and freedom of the press without care, just as a political party has selected a presidential candidate without concern for a card-carrying member’s right to vote.
Party and press seem to have become one, as this columnist is undermining constitutional rights. Specifically, this columnist is convinced that his censorship is acceptable, as it still allows him to serve some public good. He says others agreed that he must recognize some bigger picture. It is true that there is a need for objective political thought in Guyana, and the columnist’s articles are of importance. But no columnist bound to any one paper and political commentary itself has evolved beyond newspaper columns such as with political blogs. Further, every writer is replaceable.
And no picture is so big that it requires for its upkeep the uprooting of important rights allowed by the constitution, such as a right to free political expression. Indeed, the election process anticipates the role of free political commentary as it makes for a more objective voter and informed electorate. In short, a political writer is paramount. Mr Kissoon, therefore, is respectfully advised to step up to the task or step down, because the sword is not mightier than the pen.
Yours faithfully,
Rakesh Rampertab
