Minister of Arts and Multiculturalism, Dr Lincoln Douglas, has given the Emancipation Support Committee (ESC) an additional $1 million for its Emancipation Day activities. On Tuesday, at an impromptu news conference at the Emancipation Village, Queen's Park Savannah, Port-of-Spain, ESC chairman, Khafra Kambon, said the committee had declined the $1 million initially offered by the ministry because it was inadequate to meet the cost of the events.
He said that was budgeted to be approximately $7 million and the lack of funding resulted in cancellation of a concert featuring reggae singer Tarrus Riley. Douglas confirmed yesterday the ESC had submitted a budget to his ministry for $7 million. He added: "My ministry does not have $7 million to offer them. We are working with a number of other ministries to up the ante because I think their contribution to T&T is important."
When asked about the National Festival Committee promised last year by Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar and former Minister of Arts and Multiculturalism, Winston "Gypsy" Peters, Douglas said he was reviewing its policy. He added: "The ministry will have that in place shortly, possibly within the next month or two. I know the policy already has been drafted.
"The committee will be responsible for all the festivals in Trinidad and Tobago and the allocation of all resources." The minister said it was not the Government's responsibility to fully fund all NGOs in Trinidad and Tobago. He said, however, the Government supported the development of arts and multiculturalism throughout the country.
Douglas felt Kambon's comments on the matter, as reported in the media, were volatile in a multi-cultural society and called on the ESC chairman to produce data to support his claims. In response, Kambon told the T&T Guardian the ESC tried to avoid comparing the committee to other groups and his statements were not meant to be inflammatory. He said he had referred to the in- built bias in the society against things that were African.
He added: "This is precisely what the committee tries to fight against. There is a knee-jerk reaction built into the society. " Kambon said a popular travel guide described Emancipation Day in one line as opposed to other festivals which were afforded in-depth details. He said society must question why that was so when other festivals were well-documented.
He agreed with Douglas that the ministry must be careful about funding since each group must justify its relevance and impact on the society. Although thankful to the minister for his assistance, Kambon said receiving the additional money late left the ESC in an awkward position. He said many companies now have to ask their employees to work overtime to ensure everything went smoothly for the celebration. The ESC, he said, would continue to insist that the Emancipation festival became a budgeted item.