Freddie willing to fight tirelessly for just society - Annan Boodram

Here's a Letter to the Editor written by Annan Boodram in today's Kaieteur News regarding sweet and sensitive Freddie.

Dear Editor,

Like Stella Ramsaroop whose columns I immensely enjoy, I too would like to throw my two cents' worth of support behind Freddie Kissoon. Love him or hate him, I'll wager that Freddie is today one of the most widely and intensely read of all Guyanese newspaper columnists.

The passion that imbues his writings seems to infect readers whether they agree or disagree with his positions. Indeed Stella puts it so succinctly when she states with respect to Freddie that “a society that is thriving in intellectual stimulation and encourages a healthy exchange of ideas and philosophies would be lost without him”.

But I venture to go one step further and disagree with Chief Magistrate Juliet Holder-Allen when she stated that “a proper society that is well-ordered would have no place for the likes of Freddie Kissoon”. In fact it is a Freddie Kissoon who would not only fight with every breath in his body to bring about such a society, but who would also strive with every bone and sinew in his being to ensure that such a society continues to flourish.

This love of country, this mission to right the wrongs of individuals and society, this endless striving to give voice to the voiceless and to represent the underdog is what separates Freddie from other columnists. And, while we may argue and debate Freddie's positions, curse or praise the man, very few will doubt his sincerity. So Freddie, keep that pen flowing because Guyana indeed needs you, my brother!

In the same vein, I find it rather ironic that Ms. Holder-Allen (as Freddie pointed out) threatens to sue for libel when the letter in which she makes that threat is chockful of libel. I wager that, had that letter been directed at someone else rather than Freddie, it would never have been printed simply because the owner and editor of Kaietuer News would have known that they would have had a lawsuit on their hands.

In that same letter the Chief Magistrate indeed waxes narcissistically (as Freddie also pointed out) while she proclaims herself a leader in her community. Strange that not only does this ‘leader' have to blow her own trumpet but that her followers have not rushed in their numbers to let her symphony reverberate.

Methinks the Chief Magistrate's diatribe, nay rantings, speak more volumes about her than everything Freddie has written.

On the matter that raised the ire of the Chief Magistrate, while I agree that myriad factors go into bail-setting decisions, is it not rather logical that the bail, like the punishment, should fit the crime?

Surely those impacting factors are not simultaneously mitigating factors to the extent that the entire bail structure becomes skewed? For then, are we not sending a message that the more serious the crime the less severe the bail?

Finally, I enjoyed the Peeper's column of September 29th entitled “Has history ended for the PPP?”

But I must express disagreement with Fukuyama regarding his thesis about the end of history. Given the emotional, psychological and sociological complexity of the human being, it seems rather far-fetched to accept that mankind would be satisfied with a sterilised, placid, downright boring world.

And, given the now universally accepted Hindu philosophical proposition that the world exists in dualities, it becomes evident that placidity, sterility and boredom will give rise to their opposites. So, while massive ideological struggles

may have come to an end, massive religious struggles continue to fester — as do internecine ethnic conflicts. In fact, even in the realm of the ideological, differences continue to impact on nations and economies.

Venezuela's Chavez, for example, has been hogging the limelight as he pits himself as the champion of socialism willing to take on the American super-power.

So not only is the world a far cry from being a sterile, placid habitat but, at the end of the day, whether religious, ethnic or even ideological at the level of rhetoric, conflicts and confrontation have as their end result the striving for power and control.

And wasn't that what the Cold War was about - this endless striving for power and control over human lives?

Annan Boodram