The Na­tion­al Mu­si­cal In­stru­ment Bill (2024) which seeks to des­ig­nate the steel pan as the na­tion­al mu­si­cal in­stru­ment of Trinidad and To­ba­go is set for de­bate soon in the Par­lia­ment.

The Bill was laid in the Low­er House of Par­lia­ment by the Gov­ern­ment yes­ter­day in the name of the Min­is­ter of Tourism, Cul­ture and the Arts, Ran­dall Mitchell.

In the pre­am­ble of the Bill, it stat­ed that the Gov­ern­ment is com­mit­ted to de­vel­op­ing, safe­guard­ing and pro­mot­ing cul­ture and the arts and sus­tain­ably strength­en­ing the cul­tur­al sec­tor.

It said the steel­pan was orig­i­nal­ly cre­at­ed and pi­o­neered in Trinidad and To­ba­go by its very own in­no­v­a­tive and en­ter­pris­ing cit­i­zens, mak­ing the steel pan a sig­nif­i­cant source of na­tion­al pride and the un­der­pin­ning of the na­tion’s mu­si­cal soul and rich cul­tur­al iden­ti­ty.

It al­so said it has long been the pol­i­cy of the Gov­ern­ment that the steel­pan be con­sid­ered the na­tion­al mu­si­cal in­stru­ment of Trinidad and To­ba­go.

The pre­am­ble added that the Gov­ern­ment in striv­ing to­wards achiev­ing the sta­tus as a mod­ern state, sees it pru­dent to in­clude this pol­i­cy in­to law.

It al­so ex­plained that steel­pan’s orig­i­na­tion in Trinidad and To­ba­go is in­ter­na­tion­al­ly recog­nised and is fur­ther glob­al­ly ac­claimed through a host of events, schools and fes­tiv­i­ties and has con­tin­u­ous­ly been high­light­ed on the world stage through var­i­ous ac­co­lades, achieve­ments and awards.

Ac­cord­ing to the bill, it is ex­pe­di­ent that the steel­pan be of­fi­cial­ly and legal­ly de­clared as the na­tion­al mu­si­cal in­stru­ment in recog­ni­tion of its fun­da­men­tal val­ue to the Re­pub­lic of Trinidad and To­ba­go and its cit­i­zen­ry.

In Au­gust 2022, Min­is­ter of Hous­ing and Ur­ban De­vel­op­ment Camille Robin­son-Reg­is said that the Gov­ern­ment was very in­ter­est­ed in a na­tion­al de­bate which called for the de­c­la­ra­tion of the steel­pan as the na­tion­al in­stru­ment.

She said that it was be­ing ex­am­ined.

The is­sue was raised by PanTrin­ba­go pres­i­dent Bev­er­ly Ram­sey-Moore one month pri­or, af­ter the steel­pan was recog­nised on Google Doo­dle.

One year lat­er in Sep­tem­ber 2023, Pres­i­dent Chris­tine Kan­ga­loo made the call as she ad­dressed par­lia­men­tar­i­ans dur­ing the cer­e­mo­ni­al open­ing of the Fourth Ses­sion of the Twelfth Par­lia­ment.