WIN’s Primus roasts govt on lack of policy at Culture, Youth and Sport Ministry

Last Updated on Friday, 6 February 2026, 21:47 by Writer

General Secretary of We Invest in Nationhood (WIN), Odessa Primus on Thursday slammed the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport for its failure over the absence of any policy and copyright legislation to ensure artistes are properly rewarded for their works.

“How could you have a ministry and have not one single policy of that ministry whether it be youth, whether it be sport or whether it be culture? That in itself says that there exists a flaw,” she told the National Assembly on day five of debate on the GY$1.558 trillion dollar budget.

In his rebuttal, Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, Charles Ramson, who largely focussed on the fragmented state of the opposition after last September’s general and regional elections, said a draft sport policy has been completed and would be approved by Cabinet this year.

He also noted that the Horse Racing Act was passed, and the National Trust Act would be passed before 2030 “to help us with the preservation of our culture and our heritage.”

Herself a stage performer, Ms Primus lamented the absence of a copyright law that adequately protects the works of content creators and ensures that they are adequately rewarded for their works through royalties. “In other words, it means that the government and by extension the minister has a problem with accountability because that facilitates evaluation,” said the WIN party executive member.

She noted that the now late Henry Rodney and Habeeb Khan died as paupers. “What the government is promoting is poverty. You cannot tell me that poverty is what you want for your own people,” she said.

Similarly, she said coaches were not being properly rewarded and high-performing sportsmen and women were not being incentivised on their return with medals.

A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) MP Nima Flue-Bess has already tabled a motion in the National Assembly for the establishment of a bipartisan committee to review the existing legislation and eventually lead to the drafting of a new copyright act.

APNU and the incumbent People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPPC) last year campaigned on the promise of a new law to replace the 1956 British Copyright Act.

The WIN General Secretary also criticised the Irfaan Ali administration for not using the National Museum to educate Guyanese about their cultural icons such as Mighty Rebel, Daphne Rogers, Dave Martins, Andre Subryan, Ron Robinson, Rodney and Khan, “Where have we ever ventured to ensure that their contribution to our culture is preserved?” she asked.

Apart from the President and other persons attending their funerals and lauding their contributions, Ms Primus said nothing was being done to recognise their life-long contributions to the cultural industry.

She said when Guyanese artistes die all they get are funerals at the National Cultural Centre.

Among the living legends she said ought to be recognised are Desiree Edghill, Vivienne Daniels, Margaret Lawrence, Paloma Mohammed , Malcolm De Freitas, Jennifer Thomas, Simone Dowding, Yoruba Singers, Gem Madhoo-Nascimento and Eddy Grant among others.

Ms Primus said the culture minister’s idea of culture are one or two One Guyana concerts, in addition to the scrapping of the National Drama Festival that helps to save the culture, grow new talent and allow them an opportunity to earn.

But Mr Ramson said the government and drama stakeholders have developed a mechanism that sees the government funding their drama plays emerging from the Guyana Prize for Literature. “We fund that and all of the revenue is kept for them,” he said.

Since then, he said nine highly acclaimed plays had been staged. The Institute of Creative Arts, he added, has been accredited by the National Accreditation Council.

She offered to assist the Minister of Culture to marry culture with tourism. Indigenous Amerindians, she said, should be trained to compete in swimming because they are part of a natural environment with rivers and creeks.

Ms Primus said rather than build bigger police stations and prisons, the government should have invested in youth rehabilitation centres.

Other recommendations made by the WIN MP include teaching of Guyanese history and folklore in schools, grants for stage plays, films and documentaries, dancing and painting as well as tax breaks for artistes. The countrywide training and hiring of coaches was also proposed by Ms Primus.

Speaking immediately after Ms Primus, Mr Ramson said his ministry over the past five years lit 145 grounds, started a national sport academy, built strong relations with sport associations, modernised the National Sports Hall, hosted 33 international sport activities, developed athletes and coaches, recruited 15,000 participants in the learn-to-swim programme, constructed the Guyana’s doubles squash court and reintroduced the Inter-Guianas Games that APNU “killed”.

Mr Ramson said that to “unlock new talent”, a Guyana talent search was held, in addition to Guyana’s participation in CARIFESTA, World Expo in Dubai and Japan. “We had the best performances there. Persons, who are involved in our programmes, are doing better now than they have ever done before. They are earning a good living. They are buying homes, they are buying cars, they are doing renovations. All of that is happening,” he added.

He also said more than 1,000 persons have been trained at youth culture camps, and the Guyana Prize for Literature that APNU abandoned has been restarted with new categories and a literature festival.