Charles Kong Soo

Pro­duc­tion de­tails of the in­au­gu­ra­tion cer­e­mo­ny to­day for the T&T's next pres­i­dent, An­tho­ny Car­mona, are be­ing kept a close­ly guard­ed se­cret so as not to spoil the sur­prise.How­ev­er the coun­try's rich cul­tur­al di­ver­si­ty will be on dis­play and un­veiled in the near three-hour long cer­e­mo­ny from 5 pm at the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um in Mu­cu­rapo.

When the T&T Guardian vis­it­ed the venue where the cer­e­mo­ny is to be held, co-or­di­na­tors from the Of­fice of the Pres­i­dent and var­i­ous state agen­cies could on­ly di­vulge that the cer­e­mo­ny will in­volve 5,000 pri­ma­ry and sec­ondary school stu­dents from across the coun­try, in­clud­ing San­ta Flo­ra Gov­ern­ment School which Car­mona at­tend­ed as well as his al­ma mater Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege, San Fer­nan­do.

Mem­bers of the T&T De­fence Force drilled rig­or­ous­ly in their dress re­hearsal on Fri­day in prepa­ra­tion for their pa­rade. The full-scale re­hearsal in­volved var­i­ous De­fence Force de­tach­ments com­pris­ing the Reg­i­ment, Coast Guard, Air Guard, Air Force and the T&T De­fence Force Re­serves.There was even test-fir­ing for the 21-gun salute.

Mem­bers of the en­ter­tain­ment and plan­ning sec­tion were al­so busy work­ing out chore­og­ra­phy, and work­ers and stu­dents were ar­rang­ing plants and or­na­ments. The stage was be­ing built by set de­sign­ers; and gi­ant tele­vi­sion screens and speak­ers were be­ing set in place and test­ed.

Prepa­ra­tions un­der­way for Car­mona's big day

While de­tails and changes in the in­au­gu­ra­tion cer­e­mo­ny were still be­ing worked out, the T&T Guardian was al­lowed to sit in among a group of NA­PA em­ploy­ees re­ceiv­ing last-minute in­struc­tions from a se­nior of­fi­cial. They will be ush­er­ing dig­ni­taries to their as­signed seat­ing.

Lo­gis­tics were be­ing worked out as for­mer pres­i­dents, prime min­is­ters and chief jus­tices were giv­en spe­cif­ic seat­ing arrange­ments. A colour code will be em­ployed to iden­ti­fy the spe­cial­ly in­vit­ed guests such as blue for the pres­i­dent's par­ty and fam­i­ly, red for the mem­bers of the diplo­mat­ic corps and Trin­i­ty Cross, Or­der of T&T medal hold­ers and yel­low for the hon­orary con­suls and mem­bers of state en­ter­pris­es. What is kept un­der wraps will be an hour-long cul­tur­al pre­sen­ta­tion af­ter Car­mona is sworn in.

What is known is The Ly­di­ans Choir will sing The Bat­tle Hymn for the Re­pub­lic and Ed­die Cum­ber­batch will per­form I Vow to Thee My Coun­try. Mu­si­cal in­ter­ludes will al­so fea­ture sev­er­al lo­cal icons such as Mavis John as well as tas­sa and steel­pan.Four sets of prayers will be read at the cer­e­mo­ny and Ro­man Catholic priest Fr Clyde Har­vey will bless Car­mona, who is Ro­man Catholic.

Jus­tice Devin­dra Ram­per­sad will not be in his ju­di­cial gar­ments. How­ev­er, in his ca­pac­i­ty as a pun­dit and rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the Hin­du faith he will al­so bless Car­mona.Vice pres­i­dent of the In­ter-Re­li­gious Or­gan­i­sa­tion Ha­ji Abzal Mo­hammed will rep­re­sent the Mus­lim faith and re­cite a prayer.IRO pres­i­dent pun­dit Har­ryper­sad Ma­haraj will de­liv­er an in­vo­ca­tion.Pres­i­dent George Maxwell-Richards' term of of­fice came to an end yes­ter­day and was marked by a cer­e­mo­ny in his ho­n­our.

Ac­cord­ing to to­day's draft pro­gramme, the in­au­gu­ra­tion cer­e­mo­ny will start at 4.15 pm. The ac­tu­al in­au­gu­ra­tion is set for 5 pm. The event will start with the ar­rival of a guard of ho­n­our, fol­lowed by dig­ni­taries in­clud­ing Richards and his wife Jean, Chief Jus­tice Ivor Archie and Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar.Af­ter the cer­e­mo­ny the new pres­i­dent is then ex­pect­ed to in­spect the guard of ho­n­our, ac­com­pa­nied by the Chief of De­fence Staff.

Car­mona will then make his in­au­gu­ra­tion speech, fol­lowed by a pres­i­den­tial salute. A re­cep­tion will fol­low at Knowsley.Al­so ex­pect­ed to at­tend are for­mer chief jus­tice and for­mer chair­man of the Caribbean Court of Jus­tice Michael de la Bastide and Se­nior Coun­sel Regi­nald Ar­mour.