Backward step

Two steps backward for culture is how former Minister of Culture, Sports and Youth Stephen Lashley characterised the axing of the Creative Economy portfolio and the removal of Culture as a standalone ministry.

The development is one of a raft of changes in portfolios and personnel announced Wednesday in Prime Minister Mia Mottley’s first Cabinet reshuffle since coming to office on May 25, 2018.

John King, formerly Minister of Culture, Creative Economy and Sports was relieved of all but the Culture portfolio but was appointed as minister in the Prime Minister’s Office.

But Lashley, whose ministerial tenure lasted eight years in the previous Democratic Labour Party (DLP) administration, voiced his disappointment that Prime Minister Mottley made Culture a “department” sandwiched within a ministry.

Lashley also maintained that the Prime Minister should have removed King altogether from oversight of culture, and appointed someone different at the helm.

The former minister told Barbados TODAY: “My disappointment is in keeping the Minister John King in the Prime Minister’s office with responsibility for the same thing that he obviously has not been able to take forward.

“I think another Minister should have been chosen to give a different focus and a different set of energy to what is required for Culture and the Creative economy to thrive.

“You have Culture and the Creative sector which is essentially a very critical ministry and even as we are observing the impact of the COVID-19, the Government has to give greater credence to the importance of the Creative sector and the Creative economy.

“I think that is important because even although Tourism is vitally important to Barbados, Tourism is also one of the first to be impacted by global shock and we’ve seen that not only now but before.

“We have a creative sector that is in my view in need of attention, it has to be consistent attention.

“I don’t agree with putting Culture or the Creative Economy as a department. I think it should be its own ministry. I have always touted that because there has always been a sense towards elevating Tourism and so on at a level above Culture and the Creative sector.

“Frankly, I think they are too important. I hope the move is only short-term but I believe that the move to put it within the context of a ministry does impact the importance of that sector.

“It has to be given the importance it deserves to be given by making sure that if the minister is not functioning, put a new minister. You send a wrong signal in my view so we await what will happen.”

Further criticising King’s stewardship, the former minister also expressed concern about the disbanded Cultural Industries Development Authority and he questioned whether the National Cultural Foundation (NCF) had the legislative teeth to be the replacement agency.

“That legislation has not been repealed and I am not aware of any enabling legislation that essentially gives the NCF the authority to proceed as it is doing,” said Lashley. “And therefore, this is an excellent opportunity to hear from the Government what is its policy initiative in that regard.”

Nonetheless, the practising attorney appeared to support the PM’s assertion that Culture needed to take fresh guard.

Lashley declared: “What I can say is certainly over the past two years there has been no movement forward in relation to the creative sector or culture since I was  minister.

“But I think it is early days yet, I think we have had two wasted years in relation to what has happened or not happened in the Ministry of Culture and in the Ministry of Sports because there has been no movement forward in those two ministries.

“I think it is a mistake for any government, not only this Government, to de-emphasise the importance of the Creative Economy or the Ministry of Culture in any way.

“We have to look and see what will happen now. To see whether or not any policy pronouncements that come from that office gives the kind of emphasis that is required for the Ministry of Culture and the Creative economy to thrive.”