Senior Reporter
kay-marie.fletcher@guardian.co.tt
Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley yesterday revealed that local designer/ jeweller Gillian Bishop has been given the assignment to draft a new design for the Coat of Arms.
He made the revelation at yesterday’s post-Cabinet media briefing at Whitehall, Port-of-Spain.
He did not reveal how much Bishop has charged for the design, nor when she will deliver on it, but he said it would not cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
According to a profile on her Facebook page, Bishop, wh owns Signature Collection, has worked as a full-time jeweller and craftsman since 1972. She was educated at Bishop Anstey High School and UWI’s Mona Campus and holds a B.Sc. in Chemistry. Her work is also featured in private collections in Canada, the United Kingdom, Brazil, Chile, Venezuela, Nigeria, and South Africa to name a few countries.
Asked if the steelpan could be added to the emblem without having to remove Christopher Columbus’ ships, Dr Rowley suggested it was a matter of space and design.
“There are not too many prominent places on the emblem. There is a certain amount of balance and artistic taste that has to come,” he said.
On whether members of the public can make design submissions, he said yes.
Dr Rowley said, “There is a committee that is working on this whole question of signage, statues and monuments. That work is continuing to completion, and I don’t know how many people have cooperated with them to make submissions to them, but the door is open to that.”
Rowley also again dismissed suggestions that the plan to rework the emblem will be a costly exercise, noting it will not be done all at once. Rather, he said stationery must be restocked and suggested the new Coat of Arms could be printed during this the process.
He said, “Every government department now have stationery and instead of throwing it away because the Government said we change the logo, over that six-month period, you keep using up what you have, and then when you print a new stock, you print the new one. So, there is no question of unnecessarily engaging in millions of dollars.”
He added “I understand that some people don’t agree but I also know that very many people agree that it should be done and, in fact, are quite full of pride that one day we will look at our emblem and see on the Coat of Arms something that we can be very proud of... For those asking, we want we ships, Columbus’ ships, when we put it there by the majority, in the parliament, when you come into government, you’re free to take it off... So, stop pretending that the Government is doing something so horrendous and so detrimental and so on.”
He also admitted that changing the Coat of Arms cannot be a unilateral decision and said he knows there are necessary adjustments to be made first.
He stressed that the decision was not “party private business,” nor was it a hasty decision made on his part.
Dr Rowley said, “We know that we have to change laws to do it. When the necessary adjustments have been made... That will come when we approach the parliament because we know and it was signalled that we understand that it has to be done in that way, otherwise I would never had said when the necessary adjustments have been made and we expect that that could be within a six-month period.”
Though he did not reveal when the recommendation to change the Coat of Arms will be brought to parliament for debate, he said Attorney General Reginald Armour could be the one to introduce it when parliament reopens.
The new term begins on September 13.
He also acknowledged it needs parliamentary approval. A simple majority vote is required to pass the amendments needed to change the emblem.
