I was entirely correct to describe Mr Hosein as complicit

Dear Editor, I write first of all to thank Mr. EB John for his courteous letter (SN 27 July) in support of mine on National Gallery issues (SN Sun 22 July), which was in response to an initial article by Alim Hosein (SN May 27 last) .

I appreciated Mr. John’s oblique reference: my ‘studiously crafted account’: to my reluctance, stated many times previously in the press, to treat in the public domain with the serious issues regarding Castellani House. But as I stated in my initial letter of response, it was the many inaccuracies noted in Mr. Hosein’s article on the gallery’s history which compelled my very particular corrections and additional facts, to place these matters in wider, and correct, context, for the additional knowledge of readers.

Having noted Mr. Hosein’s response (SN 1 August) to the ‘minutiae’ of my letter, I must admit to having a difficulty accepting the reasoning of his ‘thesis’ on nation-building which was meant to justify the contents of his article on the gallery’s 25th anniversary. Otherwise, I apologize for appreciably reducing the number of meetings he was involved in during his tenure as Chairman of the gallery board; but at the same time am happy to note that he does acknowledge, in his fashion, his incorrect reference to ‘the last three years’ of committee meetings, when the last two of those ‘three’ had not occurred.

Mr. Hosein rightly confirms that both he and I were appointed to the board in existence from August 2014 to July 2016. Having myself received two official documents which referred to my own committee service, as stated in my previous letter, I felt that I had every right to comment on such matters given my expected continuation to serve on the board; but which, via typically bizarre and aggressively imposed events, I had been unable to do, relatively soon after receiving this confirmation.

In noting therefore Mr. Hosein’s apparent outrage at being referred to by me as being ‘complicit’ in events which prevented committee service on my part, it is with the sparsest details necessary that I justify this reference: the word in fact having a clear and simple definition, which encompasses acts as well as omissions.

In fact after a series of events regarding my office as Curator during much of 2014 the highest possible offices in the government of Guyana had advised those involved that any actions being taken had to follow proper procedures, and had kindly advised me some time after that a current matter was ‘on hold’. Looking forward therefore to a meeting at which many serious matters might be usefully resolved, I was once again taken by surprise one morning by another sudden and unpleasant turnaround in circumstances at my office, further to which the Curatorial Assistant could only tell me that he did not know anything and that I was to speak to ‘either Mr. Hosein or the Minister’.

Though I was unable to make any contact with either party, Mr. Hosein that afternoon stepped into the gallery to advise the staff, and the security guards (yes, it was also a matter of security), of how Ms. Bissember, from that point on, should be regarded.

I was therefore entirely correct to describe Mr. Hosein as ‘complicit’, as he was a part of, or taking part in, these actions begun earlier that day against me, and having been sent in later to the gallery to underline, and to complete these actions in fact, for the instruction of the persons assembled there.

Further to this, I could not in any meaningful way fulfil my duties as Curator, and therefore, by extension, my function in the key position on the board that I was meant to hold: sitting solely in my ex officio capacity as Curator (the CEO of the gallery) and Board Secretary; that is, the person in charge of executing the gallery’s business. It is for this reason that I questioned the work of the board, however important Mr. Hosein says this was, when there was no substantive office holder in the position of the CEO/Secretary in attendance during this period, to report on or to begin execution of any of such issues. Indeed, Mr. Hosein seems to have a persistent mental block in acknowledging this (my role as the person in charge of the gallery, and the reason that I was obliged to be on the board), by referring to me as ‘a committee member’, as though I was simply one among those several persons appointed to the board to represent the various interest groups and agencies affiliated