Dear Editor,
Dr Anand Persaud is more sober but still confrontational in his second commentary about my poll in a letter captioned, ‘Further questions about Bisram’s poll’ (SN, 13.5.08)) than in his first attack on the poll (SN, 10.5.08). My first degree (yes, I too went to university) was in Bio-Chemistry, and as a scientist, I was trained to offer solid evidence (by way of lab findings) to refute an argument. Anand Persaud did the opposite. So I was literally shocked when as a specialist in “life sciences” (of which Bio-Chemistry is a discipline), Persaud condemned the poll and then asked questions trying “to gather evidence” to discredit it. It appears that he came with a preconceived agenda to knock the poll regardless of what the findings were.
Polls are a standard staple in America. We get a few every day in the papers. But people don’t knock polls because they are a snapshot of peoples’ views at a particular point in time and they change with time. Even politicians who don’t like the findings of polls avoid knocking the polls or pollsters. In Guyana, some people go to great lengths to attack polls and pollsters as evidenced by Persaud’s caustic comments and suggestive questions.
Clearly, his questions lead one to conclude he does not trust my work. I do not ask him to accept my work. But in the absence of others, he should pay attention to my findings. I do not prevent Persaud from conducting his own polls and in fact I welcome others to conduct opinion polls in Guyana.
These additional polls would be good for the society.
I have been conducting polls for almost 20 years. Wherever I go I am described as having an excellent track record in polling. I was in Trinidad last week and wherever I went people praised my work, especially that I was the only pollster (out of eight) to accurately predict the outcome of that nation’s general elections last November; everyone’s findings were the opposite of mine. But I got it right. That can’t be the work of someone who does not know how to conduct polls.
I received similar accolades in Guyana when I travelled around to gather data for my poll in April. People were surprised that I actually go around interviewing them. So people don’t question my honesty, objectivity and professionalism in conducting polls. But one will always find an Anand Persaud or a Freddie Kissoon (who discredit my work in a separate letter and will receive a separate response) who impute motives to me. With an almost 100% accuracy in polling (ie, predicting the outcome of elections), I can’t quite figure out why Persaud or Kissoon would think I would risk my credibility to make up numbers and present them as findings. I urge both Persaud and Kissoon to please conduct polls so we can have figures to compare with the NACTA’s findings. It is not enough to say that a poll is wrong or not credible; there must be alternatives with which they can be compared. Persaud did not present any numbers to discredit my work.
Instead, he has questioned my honesty.
As previously stated, the poll used a standard intercept contact method to gather data. Polls generally utilize two methods of interviewing – by phone or personal live interviews. I do not like phone polls because I do not think they accurately represent the voting population. I am sure Persaud reads about polls in the NY newspapers if he lives in the city. Does he question these polls which at different times show Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama in the lead for the Democratic presidential nomination, or those polls which show Republican nominee John McCain defeating Obama and Clinton defeating McCain for the presidency? It is standard to expect that a poll was conducted and properly done when the findings are published. If after twenty years of conducting polls, Persaud does not feel I know what I am doing and he is questioning my honesty, then I do not know what I can do to convince him about my work.
Myself and several interviewers gathered the data. People were interviewed at random. SN had nothing to do with the arrangement or the conduct of the poll or paid anyone. It was all my work and organization. I was satisfied with the work of most of my interviewers. In cases where I had doubts, data is excluded from the analysis. I urge Persaud to trust my judgment and experience.
Yours faithfully,
Vishnu Bisram
