The Op­po­si­tion says it is pleased that the Gov­ern­ment will host Re­pub­lic Day cel­e­bra­tions lat­er this month, adding that pub­lic pres­sure may have in­flu­enced the de­ci­sion fol­low­ing the can­cel­la­tion of the In­de­pen­dence Day pa­rade.

Speak­ing to re­porters at a press con­fer­ence fol­low­ing the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment’s Gen­er­al Coun­cil meet­ing in Pleas­antville, par­ty chair­man Mar­vin Gon­za­les said: “We look for­ward to the Re­pub­lic Day award, and if her Gov­ern­ment has de­cid­ed to cel­e­brate na­tion­al events, we tell the Prime Min­is­ter wel­come, and we hope she con­tin­ues to be pa­tri­ot­ic,” Gon­za­les said.

Deputy po­lit­i­cal leader San­jiv Bood­hu said, “We are pleased that the cir­cum­stances that ex­ist­ed to cause the In­de­pen­dence Day pa­rade not to hap­pen no longer ex­ist. We are very hap­py about that.”

PNM Sen­a­tor Dr Amery Browne not­ed the shift in em­pha­sis be­tween the two na­tion­al days.

“It is un­usu­al that the Gov­ern­ment would de-em­pha­sise In­de­pen­dence Day and put em­pha­sis on Re­pub­lic Day. Some coun­tries, such as In­dia, put more fo­cus on their Re­pub­lic Day. But in Trinidad, we tend to cel­e­brate In­de­pen­dence Day,” Browne said.

He added that over­seas mis­sions ob­served In­de­pen­dence Day while lo­cal cel­e­bra­tions were can­celled, and sug­gest­ed the pub­lic re­sponse may have con­tributed to the re­ver­sal.

“Our mis­sions over­seas host­ed In­de­pen­dence Day cel­e­bra­tions when here at home our Gov­ern­ment de­cid­ed to can­cel the ob­ser­vances. In part, the re­ac­tion of the pop­u­la­tion led by the PNM and sev­er­al oth­er stake­hold­ers who spoke out of con­cern for the can­cel­la­tion of the pa­rade and the im­pact on the psy­che of chil­dren may have had some role to play in the Gov­ern­ment now de­cid­ing to have Re­pub­lic Day ob­ser­vances and the na­tion­al award,” Browne said.

For­mer fi­nance min­is­ter Colm Im­bert added that the events high­light over­lap­ping roles be­tween the Prime Min­is­ter and the Pres­i­dent.

“There is a blur­ring of the lines as it is the Pres­i­dent who is the Com­man­der in Chief who in­spects the troops. This is a pres­i­den­tial func­tion, and al­so the na­tion­al awards are giv­en out by the Pres­i­dent, but the Prime Min­is­ter de­cides who will get them,” Im­bert said.

Mean­while, Gon­za­les con­firmed that the par­ty will be­gin pub­lic con­sul­ta­tions on the Gov­ern­ment’s pro­posed stand-your-ground bill next week, in con­stituen­cies won by the PNM. He al­so said the leg­is­la­tion in­tro­duces lit­tle that is new.