Jesse Ramdeo

Se­nior Re­porter

jesse.ramdeo@cnc3.co.tt

For­mer Min­is­ter of Cul­ture Ran­dall Mitchell has joined the na­tion­al de­bate over the can­cel­la­tion of this year’s In­de­pen­dence Day pa­rade, urg­ing the Gov­ern­ment to pro­vide a clear and trans­par­ent ex­pla­na­tion to cit­i­zens.

The Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar-led Gov­ern­ment re­cent­ly an­nounced that the an­nu­al pa­rade would not take place on Au­gust 31, cit­ing safe­ty con­cerns. The de­ci­sion has since sparked mixed re­ac­tions, with ques­tions raised about its im­pli­ca­tions for na­tion­al cel­e­bra­tions.

Mitchell, in a state­ment, said the pa­rade is far more than a rit­u­al and serves as a vi­tal re­minder of the coun­try’s his­to­ry and iden­ti­ty.

“Cel­e­brat­ing In­de­pen­dence Day with our an­nu­al pa­rade isn’t just some fleet­ing rit­u­al. It is an op­por­tu­ni­ty to re­mind our­selves of our na­tion­al sto­ry, sym­bol­ised by our se­cu­ri­ty forces. There­fore, the Gov­ern­ment must co­her­ent­ly ex­plain to cit­i­zens its de­ci­sion to can­cel this na­tion­al tra­di­tion,” he said.

He ques­tioned whether the ra­tio­nale was re­lat­ed to se­cu­ri­ty, cost, or or­gan­i­sa­tion­al chal­lenges, not­ing what he de­scribed as in­con­sis­ten­cies in the gov­ern­ment’s mes­sag­ing.

Mitchell point­ed out that in 2011, the pa­rade was still held dur­ing a State of Emer­gency, sug­gest­ing that al­ter­na­tive arrange­ments could have been made this year.

“As for­mer min­is­ter of cul­ture, the Gov­ern­ment could have done some scaled-down pro­ces­sion, a sym­bol­ic fly-past, a sym­bol­ic flag rais­ing, or some oth­er ac­tiv­i­ty aimed at pre­serv­ing the na­ture of this very im­por­tant cel­e­bra­tion so as to main­tain na­tion­al pride and morale,” he said.

Mitchell warned that the de­ci­sion leaves cit­i­zens un­cer­tain about whether sim­i­lar can­cel­la­tions could af­fect oth­er na­tion­al events and fes­ti­vals in the fu­ture.

“The Gov­ern­ment must di­rect­ly and trans­par­ent­ly ad­dress cit­i­zens by ex­plain­ing how this de­ci­sion was reached, who made it, and whether can­cel­la­tions of oth­er tra­di­tion­al na­tion­al days and fes­ti­vals will re­cur,” he added.

When con­tact­ed, for­mer min­is­ter of na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty and re­tired Brigadier Gen­er­al Carl Al­fon­so not­ed that while he was dis­ap­point­ed by the can­cel­la­tion, he un­der­stood the cir­cum­stances.

“There have been two can­cel­la­tions due to safe­ty con­cerns...I too am a lit­tle dis­ap­point­ed, and I’m sure a lot of young­sters would have been look­ing for­ward to the pa­rade on In­de­pen­dence Day as they march down Fred­er­ick Street, Tra­grete Road, and so on. It is a big thing for a lot of peo­ple, it is a big thing for me, I was there for the first pa­rade way up un­til I re­tired; how­ev­er, I do not ques­tion or chal­lenge why Gov­ern­ment can­celled it be­cause they would have been ad­vised by their re­spec­tive se­cu­ri­ty agen­cies.”

Guardian Me­dia al­so reached out to for­mer pres­i­dents An­tho­ny Car­mona and Paula-Mae Weekes,both of whom de­clined to com­ment on the de­vel­op­ment. Dur­ing his pres­i­den­cy, Car­mona made sig­nif­i­cant changes to In­de­pen­dence Day cel­e­bra­tions mov­ing the na­tion­al awards to Re­pub­lic Day.

Car­mona’s po­si­tion was In­de­pen­dence Dayt should not be a com­mem­o­ra­tion of the strug­gle for in­de­pen­dence.

The In­de­pen­dence Day pa­rade has long been a fix­ture of na­tion­al cel­e­bra­tions, show­cas­ing the coun­try’s armed forces and cul­tur­al pride since 1962.