The leaders of this initiative will have do exceptionally well, however, to pull off a significant publication in time for September 30. Books take an age to produce and if the BDP is yet to commission an author and gather material, it may need to think about getting a slim volume, a quickie, on hand within a few months and something more substantial, later on.
Those who are given the responsibility for gathering archival material both for the proposed book and the proposed museum will be brought face-to-face with the nasty reality of past profligacy, with the disregard and disinterest of key government departments which, during those 50 years, allowed huge chunks of the country’s records, its material heritage to disappear and be lost for ever. The BDP may be expecting to find a mountain of material readily accessible and available. The reality it will discover will be sadly and uncomfortably different. How much material will be found for a book will be one issue, how much will be found for a proposed BDP museum may prove to be something else.
