‘Ignorant” PM has no respect for local authors and honest earners, MP says in response to criticism of his textbook

“Ignorant” is how MP Richard Lewis describes Prime Minister
Gaston Browne’s criticism of an Information Technology (IT)
textbook that he co-authored.

Browne has implied that Lewis’ text received preferential treatment
under the United Progressive Party Administration and asked
whether the book had been put out to tender.

However, Lewis has rejected these implications, saying the
information Browne put out about the textbook shows his
ignorance.

Lewis tells the public that he is an author – not a bookstore –and
that his textbook was recommended by the Caribbean Examinations
Council (CXC) for use in the curriculum, just like texts published by
Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, Pearson
Longman, and others.

However,  the MP says the prime minister could not  be suggesting
that these international publishers go through the tender process to
provide particular textbooks recommended by CXC when the
textbooks can be procured only from these sellers.  

Whether bookstores submit bids to the Board of Education (BOE) to
purchase his textbook is irrelevant in his case, the MP says. What is
required, at the end of the day, is that the bookstores or the Board of
Education is required to procure the text.   

He says it is also very sad that the prime minister has such contempt
for local authors and others who earn their money legitimately
given that he has denigrated the CXC-approved textbook as being
“third-rate.” 

“Unlike the printing of many thousands of copies of my textbook
since 2001, which represents actual value for money,” Lewis tells
Browne, “we still have no evidence that this suspicious [rental]
arrangement with your son is anything but another creative
enrichment scheme.”

Accordingly, he concludes, “perhaps [the prime minister] only has
respect for creative enrichment.”

Ironically, Lewis’ textbook was introduced into the IT curriculum
under the Lester Bird Administration, when Rodney Williams, the
current governor-general served as minister of education.