Dear Editor,
I would like to thank the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport’s new PRO, Ms Tekia Hanover, for her letter, ‘Two new books from Caribbean Press delivered to the Ministry of Culture’ (Sunday Stabroek, March 2). Ms Hanover asserts by virtue of the tenuous assurance that two of the promised books that I queried about were “recently delivered to the Ministry” and will be announced to be launched “soon”, that the Caribbean Press as so far managed by Dr Frank Anthony and Dr David Dabydeen is not a failure.
I humbly suggest that Ms Hanover educate herself on the history of the Caribbean Press (promises versus results), best practice in other jurisdictions, and basic accountability with regard to the stewardship of public projects before she engages in her no doubt unenviable job of defending incompetence and shoddy accountability.
She might consider, for example, the Stabroek News editorial ‘Our cultural patrimony’ (March 5, 2010), which praised the initiative on “The 11 books by Guyanese authors or about Guyana that have been republished in the first phase of the initiative,” and continued with, “The Guyana Classics Series itself should be completed over the next two years with the republication of some 25 more seminal works deemed critical to the preservation of our country’s rich literary heritage.”
In so far that the Caribbean Press has not delivered on what was its founding purpose, the publication of local writers, it is a failure – even after the goalposts were moved from publishing local writers to a two-year (2010-2011), 36-title first phase of ‘Guyana Classics’, which the editorial refers to, they were further shifted so that now, after five years and 66 titles, we only have the promise of two local anthologies to be launched “soon.”
Then there is the issue of process – I have publicly and privately asked Reverend Gideon Cecil, said alternately to be the compiler and editor, how it is that he came about the poems for the several volumes of children’s poetry to be published, and he has failed to answer. There has been no public call for children’s poetry in the past two years that I know of, and the ministry has been equally silent on how the poems were procured, yet we have Volume One recently delivered.
There is the issue of accountability – the Minister was incapable of accounting for the number of books actually in the country as of June last year. With now 68 titles at what we have been informed is 400 copies each, we are talking about 27,200 physical books that the Minister has failed to account for with regard to shipping, delivery notes, distribution, storage and sale. Neither the general public nor parliament can say whether we have 400 copies of each book or just 40, and that does not account for the Minister’s failure to account for what appear to be completely inflated graphic design and layout costs as I dealt with in previous letters.
Then there is the issue of oversight. In 2009 we learnt that there is a board that includes “Derek Walcott, Pauline Melville, and Earl Lovelace,” yet letters I wrote in subsequent years querying the actual existence of that board went unanswered until last year when we learnt that there is no board and editorial decisions are the sole ultimate responsibility of David Dabydeen – that is unheard of in any reputable publication venture, particularly one that uses public funds. The board promised at different times last year by Dabydeen, Anthony and President Donald Ramotar has so far failed to materialize, even in the form of an interim advisory board.
What the Minister is doing is trying desperately to buy time – I first enquired about the promised anthologies of poetry and short fiction in July of last year, six months after we were assured that they would be delivered within the year. Now, the best that Dr Anthony can come up with, through his PRO and after I had to query again about the books, is that one of them, the poetry anthology, will be launched “soon.”
My closing questions: What is the status with regard to the publication of the collection of short fiction for which apparently stories were already collected, and a cover already designed? When will the Minister to provide – either to the public or our parliament – what he has failed so far to deliver, a verifiable and detailed account of precisely what was spent on the Caribbean Press, where, and proof that was paid for was actually received? And when will there be an oversight body in place to both audit what has so far taken place with the Caribbean Press and to chart a way forward?
Yours faithfully,
Ruel Johnson
