balwant persaud on the bharrat jagdeo case against freddie kissoon etc

Balwant Persaud - immigration lawyer & field negroe - last of a dying breed

Dear Sir/Madam,

No one can deny that Guyana is in a chaotic state, thanks to the government and those in authority and more importantly the citizens of Guyana who tolerate it.

President Jagdeo has made the biggest blunder in his presidency by suing Freddie Kissoon but Freddie does not have the option of suing President Jagdeo.

The President should have ignored Freddie Kissoon’s rantings but instead this court case has exposed the President and the government on a sensitive issue in Guyana-racism.

Kissoon and his lawyers have exposed in the court some damning facts about racism in the appointment of government officials, something the President never anticipated. Whatever support the PPP had among Afro-Guyanese would now disappear or diminished and we are back to the old days of “them” and “us”.

This court case by the President against Freddie Kissoon has done more damage to the Guyanese people and has exposed the PPP government on their selection process for high positions in Guyana.

What is strange about this libel case is that it was brought up for hearing only after a few months of filing and there are many other libel cases that are lingering in the courts for years. For instance, this writer has sued the Kaieteur News for libel since February 2008 and no date has been fixed for a hearing, so how come the Jagdeo-Kissoon libel case was called up so quickly? Something is definitely wrong with the justice system in Guyana.

The President has placed himself in another embarrassing situation with the charging of an eighteen year old teenager for allegedly pointing his middle finger at the President’s motorcade. This teenager was locked up for two weeks and bail was refused in the magistrate’s court. This is a bailable offence and it is strange that the teenager was not placed on bail.
This case should have never been brought before the courts. It just embarrasses the President.
In Trinidad, a teen threatened to kill the Prime Minister, Kamla Persad-Bissessar on her Facebook page but the Prime Minister, Mrs. Bissessar said the teen will not be charged and she wants to meet the teen.
Mr. Jagdeo should have stop his motorcade and meet the youngster and have a discussion with him or just ignored the youngster instead of wasting taxpayers money on a frivolous court case.

This PPP administration has a penchant for taking people to court who opposes them even without any concrete evidence to secure a conviction. The purpose is just to embarrass them or tarnish their character or to scare them into silence.

As I was saying for almost ten years that I do not have any confidence in the Guyana Police Force and I am now vindicated as Mr. Steve Merai has exposed certain elements in the police, linking them to people in the drug trade. Nothing will come out of Mr.Merai’s accusations as the police cannot investigate the police. The whole police force needs a thorough shake up with a foreigner as the Commissioner of Police as is being done in Trinidad and other Caribbean countries.
An International Commission of enquiry is needed in the case of Mr. Merai’s accusations.

Then we had a refugee claimant who made accusations against a serving Minister of the Government at the Refugee Board in Canada accusing the Minister of kidnapping and hacking into people’s private emails and the opposition parties remain silent on a serious issue as this. To make matter worst and to justify the refugee claimant’s accusations against this Minister’s illegal behaviour, the Minister began harassing the counsel for the refugee claimant with threats of jail, a case which is outside the jurisdiction of the Minister, yet the opposition parties remain silent on this issue.

Do we have an opposition in Guyana? I do not think so.

Balwant Persaud

Tags: bharrat jagdeo, Clement Rohee, freddie kissoon, guyana, guyana police, ppp