Electoral Bois for PP Government in 2015
By Dr. Kwame Nantambu
June 27, 2014One of the most unforgiving and egregious mistakes the People's Partnership (PP) government has made to date is the obscene, abject rejection of the request by the Trinbago Calypsonians' Organization (TUCO) to fund the National Calypso Monarch winner's prize money to the same $2 million level of the Chutney Soca Monarch and the Soca Monarch winners.
The fact of the matter is that this decision is a de jure violation of both the lyrics and spirit of the nation's national anthem. These revered lyrics specifically and definitely state that in Trinidad and Tobago "every creed and race find an equal place." Ergo, this PP government cabinet decision speaks volumes to the stark reality that under its rule and mandate, every creed and race will neither find an equal place nor receive equal treatment, period.
Truth Be Told: As such, this writer is calling on Lutalo "Brother Resistance" Masimba and the entire executive of TUCO to resign immediately from office so as to send an overt message to the PP government to the extent that its Euro-centric, colonial Divide and Rule, albeit divisive, modus operandi in the cultural arena is totally unacceptable, period.
In addition, this writer is also calling on all calypsonians to boycott the annual Calypso Fiesta in Skinner Park, San Fernando. As the Mighty Sparrow once issued this salient, poignant decision: "who want to go could go up dey but me ent going no way."
Now is the time for all members of the calypso fraternity to stand up and protest/fight against this blatant, unjust, ridiculous and despicable decision by the PP government.
Furthermore, this writer is taking this decision to the next obvious level by calling on all culturally conscious and concerned citizens to inflict heavy electoral bois, as in political blows, on the PP government when constitutionally designated general elections are due to be held in 2015, period.
Culturally conscious and concerned citizens of Trinidad and Tobago must ensure that this PP government never returns to power, period. Culturally conscious and concerned citizens must also vote en masse to ensure that this PP government is driven out of office in 2015. In addition, culturally conscious and concerned citizens of this country must ensure that victimization , albeit persecution, in the public policy decision-making process remains totally unacceptable and will never be tolerated, period.
The salient reality is that the national calypso monarch competition is the spinal cord of the Dimanche- Gras show /program on carnival Sunday night. Ergo, the disgusting decision by the PP government to reject TUCO's equal funding request devalues, demeans and marginalizes the national calypso monarch, period.
This is totally unacceptable and PP government must be made to pay and ultimately suffer the political consequences.
The fact of the matter is that the Pp government represents a clear and present danger for the future and development of calypso and by extension, carnival in this country. As such, culturally conscious and concerned citizens should never allow that to happen.
Truth Be Told: As Dr. Hollis "Chalkdust" Liverpool, a former eighty-time national calypso monarch winner, once aptly admonished (2010): "There is a mask in calypso, a mask in our traditions, in which, as people of Afrikan descent and as people who are bathed in Afrikan traditions, we disguise our feelings with a special vocabulary ; we stress in the language of calypso the double entendre whereby we say one thing and we mean a next; we play one thing and we mean something else."
The fact of the matter is that this calypso mask does not belong and must never allowed to be controlled by any government, period. This calypso mask belongs to We the People----keep Euro-centric divisive polytricks out of We calypso mask.
In the final analysis, the PP government must be made to understand and realize that calypso is a vital "part of the study of Caribbean literature." Ergo, culturally conscious and concerned citizens of Trinidad and Tobago must not allow the PP government to neither disrespect nor destroy this mask, period.
Shem Hotep ("I go in peace").
Dr. Kwame Nantambu is a part-time lecturer at Cipriani College of Labour and Co-operative Studies.
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