Min­is­ter of the Arts and Mul­ti­cul­tur­al­ism Dr Lin­coln Dou­glas has been ac­cused of mak­ing un­in­formed state­ments and at­tack­ing cul­tur­al bod­ies. The ac­cu­sa­tion was flung at him yes­ter­day in a joint state­ment by Pan Trin­ba­go, Trin­ba­go Uni­fied Ca­lyp­so­ni­ans Or­gan­i­sa­tion (Tu­co) and the Na­tion­al Car­ni­val Bands As­so­ci­a­tion (NC­BA).

This fol­lows Dou­glas' state­ments on the pri­vati­sa­tion of Car­ni­val as well as his in­di­ca­tion that he had met with a wide range of cul­tur­al groups since the be­gin­ning of his tenure as Arts Min­is­ter. Last week Sat­ur­day, Dou­glas an­nounced, dur­ing Tribe mas band's launch, that he in­tend­ed to in­vite ten­ders for the pro­duc­tion of Car­ni­val.

"Dr Dou­glas has start­ed his term of of­fice mak­ing the same er­rors as his pre­de­ces­sor, that is, mak­ing un­in­formed state­ments and at­tack­ing the cul­tur­al bod­ies," the state­ment read. The re­lease said Dou­glas had al­so mis­rep­re­sent­ed the tenor of meet­ings called with the three or­gan­i­sa­tions, adding that the meet­ings were called on short no­tice for a meet­ing of in­tro­duc­tion to the new min­is­ter.

"It is pass­ing strange that the min­is­ter should speak of bring­ing the el­e­ments of Car­ni­val to­geth­er when he does not take the time or op­por­tu­ni­ty to hold a meet­ing with rep­re­sen­ta­tives of these el­e­ments as a group," the re­lease stat­ed. "Min­is­ters come and min­is­ters go but cul­tures of the peo­ple will go on...Our in­ter­est is, and con­tin­ues to be the sur­vival, con­tin­u­a­tion and prop­a­ga­tion of our cul­ture in an ever chang­ing in­ter­nal and ex­ter­nal en­vi­ron­ment."

The re­lease said the or­gan­i­sa­tions were pre­pared to hold talks, en­ter in­to mean­ing­ful di­a­logue, and ex­e­cute plans, pro­grammes and events, with any en­ti­ty of like mind and pur­pose. The or­gan­i­sa­tions re­fused to com­ment on the po­ten­tial pri­vati­sa­tion of Car­ni­val but said they stood ready to dis­cuss the is­sue when the min­is­ter ex­plained what he meant. Dou­glas did not re­spond to two phone calls or a text mes­sage to his mo­bile phone.