Gail Alexan­der

Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress Gov­ern­ment Sen­ate leader Dar­rell Al­la­har was up­beat at Tues­day’s Sen­ate sit­ting, where de­bate on Small Claims Court leg­is­la­tion was brief.

Al­la­har pref­aced his con­tri­bu­tion—which telegraphed con­cerns and pos­si­ble fu­ture moves re­gard­ing pub­lic ser­vice ef­fi­cien­cy—with mirth. Laud­ing sen­a­tors be­ing “bright-eyed and bushy-tailed,” es­pe­cial­ly Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment sen­a­tors, he added, “... I know you all have been out late (Mon­day night), I hope the fete didn’t ‘bus...”

The PNM’s fete he re­ferred to had healthy crowd num­bers with leader Pen­ny Beck­les seen vib­ing to mu­sic. But most PNM team mem­bers are out of next week’s mas.

In­deed, new­ly mint­ed Min­is­ter Nico­las Mor­ris said at yes­ter­day’s Gov­ern­ment brief­ing, it’s been an “ex­tra­or­di­nary” Car­ni­val sea­son. And his pro­mo­tion from Par­lia­men­tary Sec­re­tary in For­eign Af­fairs and the Prime Min­is­ter’s Of­fice, to Min­is­ter in the Prime Min­is­ter’s of­fice, fur­ther demon­strat­ed that.

The oth­er min­is­ter in the OPM—Pub­lic Util­i­ties’ Bar­ry Padarath—is play­ing mas in Bliss and to­day shep­herds his daugh­ter at Kid­dies Car­ni­val.

Oth­er min­is­ters are work­ing, in­clud­ing Rur­al De­vel­op­ment Min­is­ter Kadi­jah Ameen and En­er­gy’s Dr Roodal Mooni­lal, at Guyana’s en­er­gy con­fer­ence.

Boos for Padarath at Wednes­day’s Hy­att Lime dur­ing his stage “per­for­mance” left a sour taste of em­bar­rass­ment in the mouths of or­gan­is­ers and col­leagues, UNC sources said.

Es­pe­cial­ly as it oc­curred af­ter Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar ad­vised mas­quer­aders to avoid do­ing any­thing to em­bar­rass/hu­mil­i­ate them­selves or their loved ones dur­ing rev­el­ry.

Not on­ly did his dis­play, at­tempt­ing to politi­cise the fete, dis­re­gard his boss’ warn­ing, the boo­ing of Padarath—Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s chief aide/proxy/spokesman up to yes­ter­day—be­gan as he start­ed in­tro­duc­ing Min­is­ter Jear­lean John. It height­ened when he stat­ed the “Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar ad­min­is­tra­tion,” re­flect­ing pub­lic feel­ings on said sub­ject.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s covert crit­i­cism of his be­hav­iour was couched in an overt quip on his “ter­ri­ble singing,” to which at­ten­tion was di­vert­ed, down­play­ing the boo­ing when her name was called.

When Cul­ture Min­is­ter Michelle Ben­jamin spoke dur­ing the Au­gust 2025 World Steel­pan Day cel­e­bra­tions, boos were al­so heard when she men­tioned Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s name.

How­ev­er, Mor­ris’ pro­mo­tion to Min­is­ter in the OPM—a mi­nor “reshuf­fle” amid Car­ni­val tem­po—telegraphed the PM’s need for an­oth­er OPM Min­is­ter apart from Padarath and that Mor­ris—a stage vet­er­an with tac­tics mi­nus an­tics—has per­formed sat­is­fac­to­ri­ly in hold­ing Gov­ern­ment’s line at me­dia brief­in­gs.

And it may be a silent warn­ing to Padarath to “be­have.”

Among oth­er “ex­tra­or­di­nary” events, some ca­lyp­so­ni­ans said their piece on politi­cians de­spite TU­CO’s apo­lit­i­cal thrust. Though not all reached to­mor­row’s fi­nals.

He­li­port host­ing pro­vid­ed a “Stink and Dut­ty” les­son for Gov­ern­ment on such lo­ca­tions. An is­sue which re­vealed PNM Min­is­ter Colm Im­bert’s knowl­edge of US megas­tar Tay­lor Swift’s use of sport­ing sta­di­ums. Though he had to Google the “Rose,” cen­tre­piece of Tribe’s con­tro­ver­sy. If nei­ther Im­bert nor the PM com­ment­ed on church views about Car­ni­val con­tin­u­ing to go the way of all flesh, De­fence Min­is­ter Wayne Sturge sent the mes­sage: pub­lic dis­play, penal­ty pay.

Be­yond low key sea­son, Car­ni­val days’ events will show the full ex­tent of pub­lic par­tic­i­pa­tion—mas­quer­aders to spec­ta­tors. Gov­ern­ment’s fee-free Fla­va Vil­lage and North Stand ac­cess from to­mor­row to Tues­day has ac­knowl­edged the pub­lic’s cash-strapped straits in the rough econ­o­my and need for re­lief. High at­ten­dance fur­thered con­firmed the sit­u­a­tion.

The In­ter­na­tion­al Mon­e­tary Fund’s con­clud­ing state­ments—22 points, heavy on cau­tion, light on com­pli­ments—is now T&T’s guide­line. Works Min­is­ter Jear­lean John’s un­veil­ing last Sun­day of 965 ex­pres­sions of in­ter­est for Gov­ern­ment’s Re­vi­tal­i­sa­tion Plan did some “talk­ing” to the IMF.

But it’s ahead how the UNC Gov­ern­ment toes a sim­i­lar line to the PNM ad­min­is­tra­tion—which es­chewed IMF poli­cies for its own pre­scrip­tions to save jobs and hard­ship—or weaponis­es crit­i­cism ef­fec­tive­ly when the Na­tion­al Gas Com­pa­ny’s pro­posed gas price hike could re­sult in in­creased costs for the pub­lic, fur­ther erod­ing the econ­o­my and Gov­ern­ment’s busi­ness ex­pan­sion ef­fort.

Fall­out has seen loss of faith in the T&T Man­u­fac­tur­ers’ As­so­ci­a­tion—a body which last No­vem­ber sub­mit­ted a pro­pos­al to Gov­ern­ment to re­de­vel­op part of the Ca­roni Rac­ing Com­plex. The T&T Cham­ber’s seen it fit to speak pub­licly on the NGC is­sue. En­er­gy Min­is­ter Mooni­lal’s best ef­fort is re­quired, lest he (and T&T) be­come whip­ping boys ahead.

Fete for now—fall­out lat­er.