How About A Ministry Of Arts?

THERE were many carrots dangled before us in this election campaign, I suppose as in all previous ones. In fact, I think we bought a lot of half baked bread but I guess that is where desperation leads. I have not been a cheerleader for Allen Chastanet, in fact, I prayed that he would have lost . (Boy, why you saying that in public? You not afraid of victimisation?). “If you live in fear, you are still on the plantation.” I do not live in fear and hopefully Allen is not the massa he accused Kenny of being. But I may be hoping against hope as I have reasoned that having economic power and political power were the pillars of slavery. But now we are at the mercies of the altruism of Prime Minister Allen Chastanet.

The one lesson that can be learnt from all this however is, don’t let anyone tell you, “You can’t.” Not even Papa Vader. So congratulations are in order to Mr, Allen Chastanet and his team. I am there to see “how you form a government with this” , but I am a believer in making the impossible, possible.

As you appoint your cabinet and look at the constitution of government, here’s my little two cents. For one, don’t do like Sir John and give everyone a ministry. That was a folly on his part. There is a need to make government leaner; a little difficult to do when your ascension to the throne is through the machinery of partisan politics. Some have tried to persuade me that Kenny made some hard decisions. I am yet to be convinced. I have digressed. Where was I again? Government has gotten too fat and it sure needs to shed some pounds. There were some created positions that need to be made redundant. Attaché pi si; attaché pa la. (I hope your kwéyól has improved tremendously over the campaign.) These ambassadorial and consulate appointments must be revisited. Positions like executive administrator to the Minister of Infrastructure must be trashed. Consideration should be given to lessening the number of ministries. The benefits of this measure on the public purse goes without saying.

One of the first things that Kenny did when he held the reins of power was to increase the salaries of ministers. How much adoration would your leadership attract if you were to reverse this as well as the two-term pension plan for ministers? Now that’s a hard decision.

While I speak of cutting ministries, I would like to advocate the creation of one; the Ministry of Arts. I may be wrong but there was not much attention given to the creative arts in the manifestoes. If I am wrong, forgive me but these manifestoes came out so late I have not been able to study them at all. Arts is like food and that is the reason why there is a ministry of agriculture. Arts is the food of the soul. Sir Arthur Lewis came to that realisation but our leaders haven’t. Creative Arts cannot be a department. It cannot be treated as a campaign promise (as in the previous elections, 2011) just to lure voters. I can tell that you are not an artiste, Mr. Chastanet, as your campaign was bereft of innovation but you did not have to be. You just need to surround yourself with people who were. So on considering a Minister of Arts, consider a person who thinks out of the box, who does not like the office and pushing paper, who can relate to all classes of people, especially our ghetto youths, who has an understanding of business and entrepreneurship and possesses stick-to-it-iveness as this will be no easy ministry to run. That person must be aware of the struggle of an artiste and I dare say should have lived the life.

Sir Arthur summed it up well: “A society without the arts is like a cultural desert.” Let’s put that in our pipes and smoke it.