WITH a public debate raging over the operations and management of the Caribbean Press, Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, Dr Frank Anthony, has weighed in and reminded that the combined Opposition had placed its funding for this year under threat but after forthcoming answers the money was approved in the National Assembly.

“We are somehow being accused of mismanagement,” says Dr Anthony, but he reminds that a lot of questions were asked in the Parliament.
He said, “I think people had the wrong perception of what we are actually doing with the Caribbean Press.”
Dr Anthony in an invited comment yesterday reminded that “the Opposition had put in on the Order Paper to cut funding, however I think after a lot of questions and scrutiny, and I answered all those questions,  they were quite satisfied and based on that they had allowed that provision to go through.”
On the issue of the Caribbean Press being mismanaged, Dr Anthony said that “it seems that people are always shifting the goal post…one time we were not publishing contemporary writers, we have dispelled with that myth.”
He drew reference to the fact that, “we have had in the classics, books that represent a broad portfolio of historic and maybe literary value that is the Guyana Classics.”
Dr Anthony said too that “we have also started the series where we are working with contemporary writers and we have demonstrated that there are a number of contemporary writers that we have published.”

He also noted that “it is a remarkable feat that over the last three years or so, that we have been able to publish about 60 books and I think that a lot of people take that for granted.”
However, the sole purpose of it is to get “these books into our school system and to get people reading more about our history and so forth.”
Dr Anthony reminded also that at the ministry just over a year ago the initiative was taken to work with local writers.
“I convened meetings with persons who are interested and we sent out abroad a call to persons who are interested to come and to have discussions with Dr David Dabydeen pertaining to writing and eventually perhaps to do a publication using the materials that we can garner from local writers.”
Professor Dabydeen who heads the Caribbean Press had recently accused local writers of laziness and submitting works below acceptable publishable standards.
He had fingered former winner of the Guyana Prize for Literature, Ruel Johnson, among others in his critique of the local writing scene.
According to Dr Anthony, “A number of persons have submitted and out of that we are now working to produce that anthology…I think it is at the printers so it is a balance.”
He suggested that at the ministry they are trying to encourage people “but at the same time the press will have to maintain a certain standard and a certain level.”
Dr Anthony says that while they would have been working along with local writers, it “really depends on the person and they have to expend energies in perfecting their techniques…it is hard you can give broad guidelines but it is really that individual that would have to do that extra work to perfect those techniques…so in whatever way we can facilitate and help we are doing that.”
He acknowledged he is no expert in the field of writing but noted that Dr Dabydeen serves also as one of the editors of the Press.
Dr Anthony said that the Professor, “has a very strong opinion on some of the writings that are emerging, he is one of the technical people involved with the press …that is his view…I am not competent to judge the quality of writing that is emerging because that is not my field of expertise.”
The minister posited that it is unfortunate, “we keep belabouring this point and we are missing the broader picture…the broader picture is that three years ago nothing existed in terms of formal publishing in Guyana and we have been trying to get it started, get it going and I think a lot of people recognised the value of the collection.”
He said that only recently at the Bookers Festival in Trinidad and Tobago a number of persons lauded the work that is being done in Guyana in terms of trying to publish local materials and “a lot of them said they wish that they had something like that in their country in Trinidad.”
The same, he said, happened in Suriname last year when “we presented the work that we are doing at the inter-Guyana cultural festival.”
The Culture Minister reminded that several of the writers from French Guiana and Suriname believe the Caribbean Press operating in Guyana to be a brilliant idea and “they have been asking whether or not this can be replicated in other countries around the Caribbean.”
Dr Anthony believes that while the Caribbean Press isn’t a perfect institution “it has to grow, it has to evolve.”
He says that there is the potential for growth and the possibility of a number of other initiatives being facilitated through the Caribbean Press “but we must not lose sight.”
He said that the facility is indeed an important one, being recognised by several outside of Guyana “and  (they) would like to use it as an example in their own country….I think sometimes we lose that bigger picture and sometimes we need to bring perspective to these things.”
In lauding the potential of the Caribbean Press and its importance to Guyana, Dr Anthony reminded that the persons who work along with the facility do so voluntarily.
“Dr Dabybeen who is the editor of most of these works doesn’t receive a cent from the ministry…He is doing this free of cost and that is a remarkable thing and he would also recruit other professors to help us in this endeavour.”
He said that the initiative of the Caribbean Press “is not about money, it is about promoting literature, it is about cultural development.”
The minister conceded, however, that that there is always space for more persons to come on board and help and “that is what we are trying to do…I would encourage persons instead of being negative, let us see the positive side of this and see how you can participate to make this a better endeavour.”