Dear Editor,
Dr Frank Anthony seems to be forgetting his place as a public servant, accountable to the people of Guyana. His continued silence on the issues that have been raised on the Caribbean Press has gone from embarrassing to completely disrespectful of local writers as well as the general public whose taxes fund his salary as well as the operations of the Press.
On Wednesday, an article was featured with schoolchildren fetching logs for firewood in the interior. Before the day was out, Minister of Education Priya Manickchand both held a press conference maturely acknowledging the veracity of the incident, and issued a statement outlining her unequivocal intolerance for any such occurrence.
“The Ministry of Education views this as a serious matter. Investigations have not only begun here but across the country to ensure this is an isolated incident which in fact is our information presently.” In contrast, after several letters and articles (including one by Transparency Guyana) seeking clarity on the operations of the Press, Dr Anthony is nowhere to be found, nor has he assigned a representative to speak on his behalf. Considering the seriousness of the charges I have raised with regard to the publication of my work without my permission or knowledge in the Caribbean Press’ fiction anthology, as well as the publication of the work of others in the Press’ poetry anthology, I visited the Ministry of Culture’s website (interestingly created by an Indian company as opposed to one of many local excellent web-designers) in the hope of seeing some sort of response on this issue.
Instead, what I found was a complete whitewash of any reference whatsoever to the Caribbean Press, not even a link to the perpetually under construction blog that the Minister and Dr David Dabydeen claim to be the Press ‘website’.
The independent press has also seemed strangely reluctant to follow up on this. In case there is some doubt about the veracity of my claims, I received the following information from Dr Dabydeen himself.
“From 2010, the Press began to prepare books submitted to it by resident Guyanese writers, and has published six titles to date (two anthologies of stories and poems, edited by Petamber Persaud, containing the work of Radiante Frank, Bobby Fernandes, Gideon Cecil, Grace Chapman, Ras Leon Saul, Jerome Hope, Raule Williams, Yaphet Jackman, Juanita Critchlow, James Anthony Bond, Rochelle Christie, Omar Bissoon, Indrawati Flaks, Edison Jefford, Petamber Persaud, Astell Collins and Monica Thomas; a collection of articles and a book of poems by Ian McDonald; a novella by Ashley Anthony, the first by a Guyanese child in the literary history of Guyana; Cedric Costello’s Rasta song lyrics).”
An additional five names, “writers in the anthology of poetry” was added in a subsequent mail: Kanini Fyffe, Nirmala Narine, Tivia Collins, Natasha Yusuf, and Rosanna Shamshudin. If it is that permission was granted for the publication of work by these people, then the ministry can easily release contracts, records of consent and/or royalty agreements governing the publication of their work.
Perhaps the Minister can get the learned Attorney General to speak on the government’s policy on copyright and the work of local writers, vis-à-vis the Caribbean Press. If the government does not respond, I will ensure that this issue goes regional. The PPP will learn soon enough that the concept of eminent domain does not extend to intellectual property. I again call on the Parliament (government and opposition) to open an immediate investigation into the operations of the Caribbean Press because the reputation of our country is at stake.
As for local writers, particularly those of my generation, your silence and complicity mark you as unfit for the calling that you profess.
Yours faithfully,
Ruel Johnson
