After all is said and done, the interests of Pan Trinbago will be best served by strong, stable and committed leadership to steer the organisation out of its current crisis. It is essential that narrow self interests be put aside so that efforts can resume to promote this dynamic musical form around the world.
Pan is suffering terribly right now. If 2017 was the steelband body’s annus horribilis, this year isn’t looking much better with ongoing upheavals and an apparent coup following a membership meeting on Tuesday evening. There are threats to legally challenge the outcome of that meeting, where there was consensus on the removal of the central executive and installation of an interim committee.
For more than a year, pan players have been expressing open and public dissatisfaction in the leadership of Pan Trinbago. A breakaway faction, led by Dane Gulston, was formed and there were the high profile resignations of former assistant secretary Cindy Rosemin and vice president Byron Serrette. Allegations of questionable financial transactions and concerns about the steelband body’s large and growing debt have been increasing.
Getting Pan Trinbago back on track demands that a leadership team be installed that will operate with transparency.
The current discordance is particularly worrying because Pan Trinbago is an international organisation with a mandate to gain universal recognition and acceptance for T&T’s national instrument.
More top cop worries
This country has not had a Police Commissioner since August 2012 when former Canadian law enforcer Dwayne Gibbs quit the post and returned to his homeland. That makes it six years that Stephen Williams, who is now hinting at early retirement, has been holding on during what now looks like a flawed process for recruitment of a new top cop.
In the annals of local law enforcement history, this will go down as a forgettable period of missteps and blunders which have hindered the crime fighting abilities of the T&T Police Service.
Add to an already bad situation the current disconnect between the Police Service Commission and the Police Complaints Authority and it looks like this long and painful process is far from over.
Progress at the ports
Finally, after years of resistance and red tape, container scanners have been installed at one of the country’s major ports. That promising development at the Point Lisas Port comes just ahead of good news—that scanners will soon be operational at Port-of-Spain.
