Freddie’s unjust attacks against Rhyaan Shah and Swami Aksharananda

Dear Editor,
In separate recent columns, discredited columnist Freddie Kissoon unjustly attacked Indo-centric writers Ryhaan Shah and Swami Aksharananda, calling them “racist for exposing the victimisation and racism Indo-Guyanese and Amerindians experienced under the APNU-AFC coalition”; thousands of Indo-Guyanese and Amerindians were terminated or replaced by Afro-Guyanese supporters of the PNC.
Freddie does not dispute that Indo-Guyanese are victims of racism, but he feels Shah and the Swami should also have “addressed the hiring practices of the PPP when it was in office”. Freddie hints but offers no evidence that Afro-Guyanese faced employment discrimination under PPP rule.
Shah and the Swami addressed this question honestly. When PPP assumed office in 1992, 98 per cent of the staff was Afro-Guyanese.
When PPP was removed from office in 2015, about 86 per cent of the staff was Afro-Guyanese.
Since May, most Indo-Guyanese and Amerindians who PPP hired have been replaced. There is no place for discrimination in our nation regardless of which party is in governance.
Replacing alleged PPP discrimination with real APNU-AFC discrimination is not the way to govern the nation. The APNU-AFC had promised during the election campaign there would be no discrimination against Indo-Guyanese or Amerindians, who were supporters of the PPP, when appealing for their votes.
Tens of thousands of Indo-Guyanese and Amerindians crossed over to the APNU-AFC coalition as a result of that APNU-AFC commitment. To fire Indo-Guyanese and Amerindians or replace them with Afro-Guyanese on the (non-factual) basis that PPP discriminated against Afro-Guyanese is not acceptable and must be opposed.
Shah, Swami and other serious scholars don’t pay attention to Freddie because they recognise he is a failed academic. Freddie does not understand the concept of racism because he did not study sociology or political science or anthropology – the disciplines under which racism is studied.
Freddie claims he studied philosophy and he said he was denied a PhD and expelled from the university and deported. I chose to respond to Freddie to correct his inaccuracies and misunderstanding of concepts and for historical posterity.
In assailing Shah, Freddie cowardly did not mention her name although he mentions Swami’s name, but he disrespects Swami by not according him that title. There is no name called Aksharananda. It is Swami Aksharananda — shows Freddie’s poor cultural upbringing.
Freddie is disrespectful to Swami probably because Swami has a doctorate and Freddie was expelled from university and misleading readers that he has a PhD. And clearly, Shah clearly gets under his skin – and that’s because she ignores him as does Swami and others.
One can tell Freddie was a failure based on his writings. He demonstrates gross misunderstanding of a simple concept as racism. He defines a racist as someone who writes on his ethnic group. So according to Freddie, Eusi Kwayana, Tacuma Ogunseye, David Hinds, Eric Phillips, David Granger, Clive Thomas, Barrington Braithwaite, Robin Williams, Abu Bakr, etc are all racists, but Freddie would not call them as such recognising they would deal with him.
So Freddie reserves the label only for Indo-centric writers because as letter editor Freddie would not print responses. Those Afro-centric writers, like Indo-centrics, are not racist for writing on or defending their group. When writers speak as Indo-Guyanese or write on Indo-Guyanese they are racists, but when Afro-Guyanese speak as such they’re never condemned or seen as racists.
Freddie carries their letters but not Indo-Guyanese writers. Freddie is his own worst enemy and is tangling himself in his own web of inconsistencies. Freddie should take the advice of CN Sharma and “take his medication”.
Racism is the belief that one’s group is superior to another group or when (members of) one group attacks (sometimes violently) another group or when a government pursues policy to discriminate against (persecute) an ethnic group.
During the period of the dictatorship (1966 thru 1992), Indo-Guyanese, Portuguese, Amerindians and Chinese were denied employment and or faced discrimination. That is racism. Foods, goods and religious paraphernalia used by Indo-Guyanese were banned.
That is racism and the perpetrators (some now in official government positions as part of APNU) were (are) racist. Indo-Guyanese were violently attacked; that is racism. The dictatorship encouraged kick-down-door banditry against Indo-Guyanese; that is racism. Being silent when all of these racist practices were occurring makes you racist.
Hinds, Ogunseye, and Kwayana spoke out against PNC racism and some of the violent attacks on Indo-Guyanese. Freddie did not speak out against the abuses and violence meted out against Indo-Guyanese; that would make Freddie an anti-Indian racist. PS: Swami and Shah or other Indo-centric writers do not advocate Indo-Guyanese inherent superiority over any group and Indo-Guyanese do not violently attack any group; so they can’t be racist.
All of them and this writer advocate racial equality and sharing of the nation’s resources based on racial equity. Freddie calls for the domination over and persecution of Indo-Guyanese because they are supporters of PPP. That confirms Freddie is a racist anti-Indian hater.
Freddie is an APNU-AFC sycophant lacking independence and objectivity in analysis. For Freddie, anything Indian and/or PPP is bad. He is frothing from his mouth; witness his grovelling to APNU to keep his job as columnist and letter editor. And that is why Indians honour him with the gharpoochna feeder title, an honour he deserves for lacking self-respect and integrity.

Yours truly,
Vishnu Bisram