Carnival is in trouble. This was indicated by Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly, Minister of Community Development, Culture and Arts, as she disclosed declining or very stagnant tourist arrivals and dwindling audiences at Carnival events are what forced the Government to intervene in its affairs.
The minister was responding to an urgent question from Opposition Senator Wade Mark shortly before the adjournment of the Upper House on Tuesday on the issue of the confusion surrounding the roles of Pan Trinbago, Trinbago Unified Calypsonians Organisation (Tuco), the National Carnival Bandleaders Association (NCBA) and the National Carnival Commission (NCC) in the staging of Carnival.
Mark said in direct contravention to a Cabinet Minute of 1997 under the Basdeo Panday administration, the NCC seems to be the body in charge of collecting revenue from ticket sales with special interest groups relegated to only playing minor roles.
Mark said the Keith Rowley administration changed that paradigm after it assumed office in September 2015 and last year went a step further. "They took pan and kaiso away."
He said the "plot was hatched" since December 8, 2016 when Gadsby-Dolly wrote a letter to NCC chairman, Kenny de Silva, making recommendations for the management of Carnival.
In the letter, which follows a meeting between the two parties on Decemver 5, 2016, the minister recommended that while Carnival special interest groups plan and execute events, according to a NCC budget, it was the NCC itself that should handle payments to prizewinners and others.
The minister further recommended the NCC controls the sale of tickets at national events.
"How come, without any discussion with the national community, the Government has taken over the control of Carnival, kicking out Pan Trinbago?" Mark asked.
Noting he found this alarming, Mark asked the Government for clarity on the matter.
Gadsby-Dolly, responding, said Mark did not make reference to the part of the Minute that stated the attorney general should review the NCC Act of 1991 to give effect to the policies set out.
"In order to enact the policy we needed to change the Act," the minister said. She said Carnival ended up in a situation where special interest groups were sitting on the NCC board resulting in role confusion.
"You have pan, mas, calypso and the NCC all trying to do their own thing," adding a "four-headed type of institution" was running the show.