Parvati’s parvanimity

July 17, 2012 | By KNews | Filed Under Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

In April 2004, the internal affairs department of the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) initiated a probe into duty free concession letter for vehicles. It was driven by the discovery of a SUV that had no proper documents. The inquiry revealed that the Secretary of the Treasury, Nirmal Rekha, signed over fifty duty free letters that did not have bureaucratic legitimacy. In other words the letters were fraudulent. Mr. Rekha is still in that identical occupation.

Why was he not sanctioned even with a token transfer? Is it possible that Mr. Rekha did nothing wrong in terms of personal gain but merely signed what was put on his desk by his political superiors – Mr. Big , Mr. Bigger and Mr. Biggest? Why would Mr. Big, Mr. Bigger and Mr. Biggest seek to discipline and in the process disgrace Mr. Rekha when he actually did nothing wrong from his own standpoint but had to accede to powerful but venal people?

Do we have an identical situation with Parvati Persaud-Edwards and the racist Chronicle editorial? She has not been dismissed. All that happened is that she will no longer write editorials. And how do we know that? Persaud-Edwards is still working at the Chronicle. Why? We probably have a repetition of the Nirmal Rekha drama. I was interviewed by the media during a demonstration outside the Ministry of Finance directed against Juan Edghill. My specific statement then was that I did think Persaud-Edwards wrote that editorial.

Why disgrace Persaud-Edwards when all she did was accede to a request from Freedom House? I contend it was for this reason; Parvati Persaud-Edwards is very much alive and well at the Chronicle. But in this drama, there is something that no one has put one’s fingers on. Why would the Chronicle have Persaud- Edwards as a free lance journalist when the Chronicle has its quota of journalists? The Chronicle’s journalistic staff is larger than that of the other three daily newspapers.

What news can a state paper’s journalists not bring in that Persaud-Edwards could? It just does not make sense. The Chronicle essentially transmits governmental business. It follows the Ministers and the President, the PPP hierarchy and high state officials wherever they go and reports what they do. In addition, PPP bigwigs and the Ministers are always calling the Chronicle to get their faces in the pages.

Why then would the Chronicle need to have Persaud-Edwards working as a freelance reporter? My question is not centered on a denial of her part-time status. I simply want to know what type of void is she filling when one considers the nature of the news the Chronicle is engaged in.

Gerhard Ramsaroop of the Alliance for Change in a public exchange with Persaud-Edwards accused her of writing anonymous columns for the Chronicle and told her he has the proof. This makes the story of Parvati Persaud-Edwards a bit macabre. Parvati Persaud-Edwards is a dyed-in the wool PPP supporter and mentally is in the same league with people like Ravi Dev and Rickey Singh. Why would someone so openly embracing of a powerful government whose Ministers she adores hide her name when writing in support of her own government?

You have to call in the Freudian expert here? Why would Dr. David Hinds obscure his name when praising APNU? I know him. He wouldn’t do that? Why would Gerhard Ramsaroop mask his real identity when eulogizing the AFC? I know him. He wouldn’t do that? Why would Lincoln Lewis use a pen name when showering panegyrics on the labour hero, Hubert Nathaniel Critchlow. I know him. He would never do that.

So it brings us to the fascinating question; why a fanatical admirer of the PPP would comfort herself in the deception of a pen name when praising her own government in the government’s own newspaper? In political theory, we call it the Nazi syndrome.

These people are afraid that if one day the tyranny is toppled then they cannot live in guilt because of the exposure and permanent degradation that would follow. So they do their nasty thing while hiding their name.

Do you know, there is a pure Indian racist in Guyana who does columns for the Guyana Times under a pseudonym? I will give you a clue as to who he is. This guy writes about me and resents me because he thinks I am stupid to criticize my fellow East Indians. No, you are wrong. He is not Vishnu Bisram. Bisram is far less poisonous than this man. I’ll give you another clue. Since 1990, no one knows how he gets his income.