The outlandish content in those letters should have been edited out

Jan 13, 2014 Letters

Dear Editor,
Minister of Culture, Youth, and Sport Frank Anthony’s official response (SN Letters and GC Top Story, both dated Jan. 11, 2014) to the overbearing salvos from Guyana Prize for Literature winner Ruel Johnson has given that writer a reprieve from hanging himself.
As the Minister pointed out, “no leader in any society would be subjected to a personality that is unpleasant, difficult to work with and insists on juvenile rants and angry outbursts in self-righteous indignation.” As someone who has had to select candidates for staff positions, I know that a candidate’s expertise is not always the number one consideration to take into account.
It is no wonder that no political party would want to be publicly associated with Mr. Johnson, even the party he supports, and even if he is the unofficial culture spokesperson of the party. It would be politically incorrect to acknowledge that; yet, at the same time, the party would give him a long rope to do his thing.
Some may have advised the Minister not to respond as so doing may dignify the very ranting and hatred he deplores. The Minister asserts that he did so because the letters are an attempt to besmirch his person, his honour, and his service. Even though he thinks of Johnson’s behavior as “juvenile,” I was so glad that in defending his work and responsibilities, the Minister acknowledges the prize winner’s “talents as a national man of letters” and congratulates him on his European speaking tour, welcoming the honour it brings to Guyana. Overall, though not without innuendo and sarcasm, the response passes muster and has class befitting the arts and culture portfolio that the Minister holds.
Many people would not acknowledge this but art makes the artist superior to his fellows, in that it places him above the rabble, notwithstanding his pennilessness. Such chosen few live in the clouds (seventh heaven, if you like), far removed from the mundane, pedestrian cuss-down of the lesser many, rich as they may be. Ruel Johnson has not ascended those heights, as yet (emphasis on ‘as yet’).
And this is not to deny the man’s gift with the pen. I myself have savoured his letters and praised them in writing thus: “. . . I believe needless aspersions have been cast on the writings of Ruel Johnson. I do not know and have never met the guy, but the letters he has written are, in my opinion, gems of erudition at its finest” (KN, June 3, 2013, Letters to the Editor). I still think so, in spite of his strident broadsides.
One of the most depressing things about this whole affair is not Ruel Johnson, nor Minister Frank Anthony, nor the Caribbean Press; it is the Guyana Press. Some of the outlandish content in those letters should have been mutually edited out, especially when it comes from someone of such note. It seems to me that however anti-government a section of the press may be, its anti-government program is not advanced by carrying them in their entirety; but I know for sure, looking ahead, neither is the artistry of the writer. The Press in question is much matured, and that makes me wonder whether, to further its own end, it is using Ruel Johnson, who by his own tone, suggests that he has carte blanche from the Press.
When you allow such letters to be published, you call into question not only Minister Anthony, but everybody associated with him in these noble endeavors. In other words, Mr. Johnson’s remarks cast a shadow on all those accomplished professionals listed by the Minister as helpers in the art and culture thrust. And that list is a who’s who of the arts in Guyana. These people’s reputations are also being besmirched.
My question to Ruel Johnson is: Do you want to be remembered as a great man of letters or as a complainer and whiner, forcibly seeking status and a name?
P. D. Sharma
Los Angeles, CA

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