Jesse Ramdeo

Se­nior Re­porter

jesse.ramdeo@cnc3.co.tt

Pan Trin­ba­go Pres­i­dent Bev­er­ley Ram­sey-Moore is ex­cit­ed about Pres­i­dent Chris­tine Kan­ga­loo’s call for leg­is­la­tion to for­mal­ly recog­nise the steel­pan as T&T na­tion­al in­stru­ment.

It was one of five items high­light­ed the Pres­i­dent said should be on the par­lia­men­tary agen­da in her ad­dress at Mon­day’s cer­e­mo­ni­al open­ing of the fourth ses­sion of the 12th Par­lia­ment. Ram­sey-Moore, who de­scribed it as a bold step in the right di­rec­tion, said: “I am re­al­ly ex­cit­ed, pleased and very hap­py to know that she would have joined those who have been ad­vo­cat­ing for the steel­pan to be for­mal­ly de­clared the na­tion­al mu­si­cal in­stru­ment of Trinidad and To­ba­go.”

She said Pan Trin­ba­go, through the Min­istry of Tourism, Cul­ture and the Arts, has been en­gaged in on­go­ing dis­cus­sions over a draft bill on the mat­ter.

“We sent the bill to our se­nior coun­sel and he would have sent back his com­ments. We sent it to our line min­is­ter and he would have looked at it and had dis­cus­sions with his par­lia­men­tary coun­sel and I know in a con­ver­sa­tion with him, one of the sug­ges­tion was hav­ing our Pres­i­dent play a role in it and now that she de­clared her sup­port, it will move on faster,” Ram­sey-Moore said.

In 1992, the steel­pan was de­clared the na­tion­al in­stru­ment by the then Cab­i­net but it is yet to be giv­en the of­fi­cial sta­tus.

Ram­sey-Moore said if a bill de­clar­ing the steel­pan as the na­tion­al in­stru­ment re­ceives Pres­i­den­tial as­sent dur­ing the new par­lia­men­tary ses­sion, it wuld be the cat­a­lyst for fur­ther growth and de­vel­op­ment of the in­dus­try.

In an in­ter­view with Guardian Me­dia on Mon­day, Min­is­ter of Tourism, Cul­ture and the Arts, Ran­dall Mitchell com­ment­ed on the pro­posed leg­isla­tive steps for the de­c­la­ra­tion of the steel­pan as the coun­try’s na­tion­al in­stru­ment.

“One of the ways we have dis­cussed is to have Gov­ern­ment mo­tions de­bat­ed and ap­proved in both Hous­es of Par­lia­ment where­by it can be de­clared that the steel­pan is the na­tion­al in­stru­ment of Trinidad and To­ba­go. So the call is for the de­c­la­ra­tion to go through an of­fi­cial par­lia­men­tary process to have the steel­pan de­clared as the na­tion­al in­stru­ment,” he ex­plained.