Asha Javeed

Con­tribut­ing Writer

asha.javeed@guardian.co.tt

An event to mark Di­vali cel­e­bra­tions at Par­lia­ment, which the Prime Min­is­ter and her min­is­ters claim as his­toric, has raised ques­tions about who or­gan­ised and fund­ed it.

Both House Speak­er Jagdeo Singh and Deputy Speak­er Dr Aiy­na Ali told Guardian Me­dia that the Par­lia­ment staff or­gan­ised the event.

How­ev­er, Colleen Hold­er, Par­lia­ment’s Di­rec­tor of Cor­po­rate Com­mu­ni­ca­tions and Pro­duc­tions, told the me­dia yes­ter­day that it was an out­side event which they fa­cil­i­tat­ed.

“While the event was held at the Par­lia­ment, it was not or­gan­ised by the Par­lia­ment,” she told the me­dia yes­ter­day.

When con­tact­ed, Singh said: “I had noth­ing to do with the fund­ing or the arrange­ments of it. That is the Par­lia­ment staff.”

For her part, when con­tact­ed, Ali ini­tial­ly told Guardian Me­dia that Par­lia­ment or­gan­ised it.

How­ev­er, when pressed fur­ther about her role, Ali said she helped with the plan­ning and co-or­di­na­tion of the event. When asked about fund­ing for the event, she said she did not have those an­swers but that in­for­ma­tion could be ob­tained through the Free­dom of In­for­ma­tion Act (FOIA).

Hold­er de­scribed it as a “spillover from the sit­ting.”

Asked specif­i­cal­ly by Guardian Me­dia who fund­ed it, Hold­er re­spond­ed: “It was not or­gan­ised by Par­lia­ment, so I can­not say.”

The event, which in­clud­ed both the Gov­ern­ment and Op­po­si­tion mem­bers as well as chil­dren, was held on Fri­day fol­low­ing the con­clu­sion of the day’s sit­ting of the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives. It was joint­ly host­ed by Singh and Sen­ate Pres­i­dent Wade Mark.

Ac­cord­ing to so­cial me­dia posts by Par­lia­ment, state tele­vi­sion sta­tion TTT, MPs Bar­ry Padarath and Sad­dam Ho­sein, the event in­clud­ed speech­es by Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar and Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les, a re-en­act­ment of Ram­leela, deya light­ing and a pa­rade of mur­tis (stat­ues of Hin­du Gods) on trucks along Aber­crom­bie Street. At the event, Beck­les-Robin­son was gift­ed a to­ken from the Prime Min­is­ter.

A hand in stag­ing

In seek­ing to dis­tin­guish Par­lia­ment’s role in the host­ing of the event, Hold­er ex­plained that oth­er sim­i­lar events are usu­al­ly held at Par­lia­ment.

“The event was held at the Red House. Con­sul­ta­tion took place be­tween Par­lia­ment staff and the pre­sid­ing of­fi­cers as al­ways hap­pens with such events,” she said. She ob­served that Par­lia­ment host­ed a creche bless­ing event in the same court­yard last year, al­so in con­sul­ta­tion with the pre­sid­ing of­fi­cers.

Asked by Guardian Me­dia to iden­ti­fy the or­gan­is­er of the Di­vali event, Hold­er re­spond­ed: “I do not have that in­for­ma­tion” but that they “are in the know and had a hand in stag­ing.”

In the past, she not­ed, Par­lia­ment host­ed many events by or­gan­i­sa­tions which are not di­rect­ly re­lat­ed to the Par­lia­ment, like the First Peo­ples’ smoke cer­e­mo­ny, which hap­pens on Oc­to­ber 12 every year.

“Once the req­ui­site re­quests are made, dis­cus­sions held and ap­provals grant­ed. It is af­ter all the Peo­ple’s Par­lia­ment,” she said. Most re­cent­ly, Par­lia­ment host­ed the an­niver­sary launch/dis­cus­sion of the TTPS 1990 doc­u­men­tary and every Thurs­day, it hosts wed­dings on be­half of the Min­istry of Le­gal Af­fairs.

Asked then, if Par­lia­ment didn’t or­gan­ise it, whether a host­ing fee was paid, she re­spond­ed: “The Par­lia­ment is not a re­ceiv­er of rev­enue, so no fees are paid. As I in­di­cat­ed, var­i­ous re­quests are made, dis­cus­sions held and re­quests may or may not be grant­ed. Each re­quest is con­sid­ered on its own.”

Par­lia­ment was al­lo­cat­ed $162 mil­lion in the 2027 Bud­get 2027.

At the event, Per­sad-Bisses­sar de­scribed it as a proud and mov­ing mo­ment as it marked 60 years since Di­vali was de­clared a pub­lic hol­i­day.

“To our chil­dren here and every­where, I say this: Par­lia­ment be­longs to you. You don’t need rich par­ents, or elite con­nects to mat­ter here. You mat­ter here to­day sim­ply be­cause you are a child of our beloved na­tion. Your name, your faith, your fam­i­ly’s in­come or where you live can nev­er make you less de­serv­ing of its care,” she said.

Mean­while, Beck­les ap­pealed for greater na­tion­al uni­ty.

“Our di­ver­si­ty is not our weak­ness; it is our great­est strength. As Leader of the Op­po­si­tion, I wish to make a spe­cial ap­peal to our na­tion on this sa­cred oc­ca­sion: let us choose uni­ty over di­vi­sion, let us choose un­der­stand­ing over tol­er­ance, and let us choose hope over de­spair,” Beck­les said.