Dear Editor,
I refer to a letter written by Vishnu Bisram in the SN of March 9, 2018 titled, ‘Kissoon’s claim does not hold water,’ in which he asserts that I was the letter editor at Kaieteur News and prevented publication of his letters. Anyone who follows my activism in Guyana would know that I do not reply to Vishnu Bisram. My deeply honest belief is that Mr Bisram has an unhealthy obsession with me and I have completely ignored him. I have been active in politics in public life for over 50 years and I have never encountered someone so obsessed with me.
There was a time about six years ago where Mr Bisram was writing four letters a week on me. At one time, Dale Andrews and I counted it in the Chronicle. Against this background, when. Andrews was editor of the letter pages, he refused to carry Bisram’s letters on me. Anyone living in this country and reading the newspapers cannot fail to detect Mr Bisram’s obsession with me. I expect that to happen when you are as public as I am and for that reason I have totally blanked Bisram out of my head.
I did a short stint helping with the letters at Kaieteur News because of some staff changes. I came across letters by Mr Bisram that were truly sickening and should never find their way into any newspaper. They were only published by Guyana Times and never appeared in the Stabroek News and Kaieteur News. Mr Bisram complained to the publisher Glenn Lall who arranged for him to present his complaint to the staff.
After he told the meeting that his letters were not being published. I presented the eleven letters to the meeting that I rejected, reading from four of them when Mr Lall stopped me and told Mr Bisram that he must take such letters elsewhere. Mr Bisram quietly left the meeting. I doubt whether there is any editor of the Kaieteur News, Stabroek News and the Chronicle that would carry things that Mr Bisram writes about.
I have known the editor of Guyana Times, Tusika Martin for a long time now and got on very well with her when she worked at Kaieteur News. In fact she was one of my favourities at KN. She would tell you that at the Survival Supermarket about two years ago, I told her I was totally disappointed in her journalism that she could not see Bisram’s disturbing preoccupation with me in publishing so many letters on me by Mr Bisram. I vehemently chastised her for this approach to journalism. Since that time, I have seen a discernible pattern of episodic missives on me by Mr Bisram. In closing let me say that over the decades, many persons have repeatedly criticized me, some using unpleasant language but Mr Bisram’s attitude towards me definitely borders on preoccupation.
I have only penned this letter to clear the air that I do not have any authority whatsoever at the Kaieteur News. I will not lower my dignity to reply to his response to this comment here of mine. This comment here may be the last I ever respond to Bisram.
Yours faithfully,
Frederick Kissoon
