Dear Editor,
Mr GHK Lall has penned a third letter about me, the latest being April 1, 2015 (‘A simple straightforward case’).
Here is what Mr Lall wrote in that third missive: “By his own hand, Mr Kissoon has admitted to be the recipient of funding from friends… did he accept funds… having answered yes, he must go the whole nine yards and name the sources of such generosity.”
I have been attacked by countless people in this country but Mr Lall to date is the strangest detractor I have ever encountered. Why do I have to name the friends who have been nice to me? There are seven billion people in this world and maybe without exception, they have received benefits from friends. Why should that be of any interest to anyone?
And why should I arrogate to myself the right to put these people’s names in the newspapers over their private and personal relationships with me? I am not aware that Mr Lall is an employed person in Guyana. I am not interested in where he gets his money from except if he enters politics or if the money is from questionable sources.
I agree my integrity will be called into question if money is taken from dubious sources, but Mr Lall has moved away from that accusation. He says in his second letter, it is either from commercial Guyana or official Guyana. Now in his third letter, he says the money was from my friends. Well, should it not end there? Well, no for Mr Lall. He wants to know who the friends are.
This is where I find Mr Lall not only bizarre but offensive. Why should I publish in the newspapers the confidential transactions I entered into with my intimate friends? Why would anyone want to know that and for what purpose? And will my friends agree to that? Don’t I have to take their feelings into consideration?
The question is why me? Why does Mr Lall want to know the names of the friends of mine who have given me money. I was given a handsome sum by a personal friend to help with the purchase of my first car. Another friend gave another substantial amount when I bought my second car. Does Mr Lall want to know about that too?
But why me? What about other academics who write publicly? What about the journalists in the private media? Why is Mr Lall not interested in the things business people have done for senior editors in the private media; after all are, they just as influential as I am in the media.
Mr Lall’s first letter was published just one day after Ramon Gaskin’s assertion that I took money from businesspeople to build my home. Mr Gaskin fell on his face because I exposed his employment with a very wealthy man.
Yours faithfully,
Frederick Kissoon
