Mr. Sharma needs to be better informed

Jan 15, 2014 Letters

Dear Editor,
Just a quick response to the assertions in PD Sharma’s letter “The outlandish content in those letters should have been edited out” (KN, Jan-13).
Mr. Sharma states, “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.” While I was AFC’s Cultural Policy Advisor in the elections of 2011, I am not now or I have I ever been a member of any political party, nor have I sought acknowledgement or latitude from any. My pronouncements on cultural policy require no endorsement other than my own – when it was that the AFC, provided with inadequate information by Anthony, offered de facto support of the Minister’s budgetary allocation of the Culture and Arts fund, I publicly challenged them and the party leadership was magnanimous to take my criticisms into consideration.
The Minister’s letter was a weak attempt to salvage his crumbling public image, and he sought to appear gracious even as he tried to paint me as his “sole critic”, and one with a grudge. This week alone, in addition to the my “overbearing salvos” on the Caribbean Press, Frank Anthony has to deal with Parliamentary questions on the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall being used a slaughterhouse for goats, has been at odds with his National Drama Festival Director over the National Cultural Centre’s upkeep, and participants in the NDF accusing him of underpaying them (over a month behind schedule) for a privately funded festival. Mr. Sharma may consider the following quote from their official statement, signed by 30 people:
“At the time of writing, closer inspection has revealed that it appears that as much as $600,000 of prize money is missing from our collective winnings. Coming out of the festival, members of Lichas Hall – Linden’s version of the Theatre Guild – discovered that an annual subvention for the Hall has been in the Ministry’s budget since 2008. This would be great news if it weren’t for the fact that Lichas Hall up until very recently knew nothing of the subvention and has no record of ever being in receipt of the funds allocated to them. There are also fees due to Lichas Hall for use of the facility during the Linden leg of the festival.”
The Minister has attempted to use the reputable people who volunteered to work on the Caribbean Press as a shield for his own mismanagement and lack of accountability – that is what is besmirching the reputations of those persons, who were involved in the press operations, not my questioning of the Minister.
As to how I want to be ‘remembered’ – even as I continue to write and publish my own work, I have recognised that writers in Guyana can benefit from a far better environment than the one the government, the Ministry of Culture in particular, is preparing for them. As a national man of letters, it is not only my duty to engage in literary activity to probe at the deeper problems which ail us, it is also my duty to actively challenge abusive authority, particularly when its ‘leadership’ believe that they are above criticism as Anthony clearly does.
Borges wrote, “Dictatorships breed oppression, dictatorships breed servility, dictatorships breed cruelty; more loathsome still is the fact that they breed idiocy. Bellboys babbling orders, portraits of caudillos, prearranged cheers or insults, walls covered with names, unanimous ceremonies, mere discipline usurping the place of clear thinking… Fighting these sad monotonies is one of the duties of a writer.”
I acknowledge Mr. Sharma’s past praise and present advice, and hence humbly suggest that he be better informed before he goes out on a limb to make as assertive the comments that he has had in his letter.
Ruel Johnson

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