Daly Bread: Word from the ground, on panyard tours and public service succession

Tonight marks the start of the National Large Conventional Band preliminaries. I have described the magnificence of this evening in the Northern Region. (See for example Magnificent Monday, a column published some years ago and available in The Daly Commentaries.)

In addition to the magnificence of the music, a pleasing note in the management of the Junior Panorama was struck this year and I acknowledge this below.

However, by contrast to the true notes struck on the pan, the false notes of the orchestration surrounding the departure of Dr Keith Rowley as prime minister continue to sound.

I have suggested that there was an orchestrated move to discourage Dr Amery Browne as the Peoples’ National Movement (PNM) candidate for the constituency of Diego Martin West, the seat left open by the Rowley departure. Browne rather quickly withdrew his candidacy.

It seems that the context for Browne’s withdrawal was a push to choose some PNM candidates for membership of Parliament lacking sufficient experience or weight to check and balance the future leadership of the PNM, if necessary, with the public interest at heart.

This was further revealed, in my view, when at a recent farewell function Dr Rowley publicly showed which of the candidates was his choice to succeed him in Diego Martin West.

That conduct infuriated the most eminent and stalwart member of the PNM, Ferdi Ferreira. (See Ferreira’s stinging letter to the editor.)

Of course, in connection with the succession to the office of Prime Minister, there remains the test of the mettle and credibility of President Christine Kangaloo if she is presented with half-baked, stale or contrived evidence of written support for Rowley’s chosen successor, Minister Stuart Young, by the PNM members of the House of Representatives—as a trigger to appoint a new prime minister under section 76 of the Constitution.

I have no qualms about keeping front and centre for my readers this issue of the genuine requirements of the application of section 76. There should be grave concern about the consequences for stability by adding a crisis of legitimacy in the political leadership of the office of prime minister.

This is compounded by the crisis in the leadership in the Police Service.

All top appointments, whether to political leadership, or other crucial leadership positions, must have legitimacy and credibility underlying the process used to select persons to these leadership positions. This is fundamental particularly because the violent criminal element seems to have ascendancy over us.

We are playing with fire at the moment.

The randomness of the violent crime epidemic should not deter visits to the panyards.

Having completed my preliminary rounds of the steelband monarchs of East Port of Spain—Trinidad All Stars, Renegades and Desperadoes (Despers)—my word from the ground is that visiting Despers in their new location is easy if one drives along Independence Square North/Brian Lara Promenade and turns left into George Street and then into the vast parking lot within Despers compound.

It is also easy to leave Despers via George and Queen Streets.

However, the authorities should provide some temporary lighting at the corners of George and Queen Streets, Duke and Charlotte Streets and Oxford and Charlotte Streets to facilitate worry free parking nearby the panyards of the monarchs of East Port of Spain and to facilitate the exiting of pedestrians from them.

Temporary lighting, albeit a bit too intensively, is used throughout the relevant areas of Brooklyn during the Labour Day Carnival weekend.

Last Sunday, the Junior Panorama took place. It is my favourite event of the season.

In recent years overcrowding and the bouffing of patrons in the Grand Stand was experienced. This year the North Stand was erected and made ready in time for Junior Panorama and crowd co-operation was encouraged by public service announcements concerning access to the North Stand. These arrangements represented a positive response to the increasing popularity of the Junior Panorama.

Sorry to repeat this, but we need now to move forward rapidly with significant investment in the panyard model as a nurturing ground for youths and a place fully capable of redressing the imbalance of socio-economic living conditions to which many of them are cruelly exposed.

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Martin Daly

Martin G Daly SC is a prominent attorney-at-law. He is a former Independent Senator and past president of the Law Association of Trinidad and Tobago.
He is chairman of the Pat Bishop Foundation and a steelpan music enthusiast.