OT­TO CAR­RING­TON

Se­nior Re­porter

ot­to.car­ring­ton@cnc3.co.tt

Board mem­bers from four of the coun­try’s lead­ing per­form­ing arts in­sti­tu­tions have ten­dered their res­ig­na­tions.

Yet, one no­table fig­ure re­mains un­moved - Na­tion­al Car­ni­val Com­mis­sion (NCC) chair­man Win­ston “Gyp­sy” Pe­ters. Pe­ters was still work­ing up to yes­ter­day evening.

He cit­ed his con­tract, which he said comes to an end in No­vem­ber this year.

New Min­is­ter of Cul­ture and Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment Michelle Ben­jamin told Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day that those who have re­signed in­clude board mem­bers from the Na­tion­al Acad­e­my for the Per­form­ing Arts (NA­PA), the South­ern Acad­e­my for the Per­form­ing Arts (SAPA), Na­pari­ma Bowl, and Queen’s Hall. These en­ti­ties are col­lec­tive­ly re­ferred to as the Na­tion­al Cul­tur­al Fa­cil­i­ties Board (NCFB).

Sources with­in the min­istry claimed that the mem­bers were in­struct­ed to re­sign “with­out de­lay.”

The re­port­ed mass res­ig­na­tions came just one day af­ter Min­is­ter Ben­jamin spent her first day in of­fice and got ac­quaint­ed with staff and func­tions.

The pro­to­col in the pub­lic sec­tor is that once a new gov­ern­ment comes in­to of­fice, po­lit­i­cal ap­point­ments such as board di­rec­tors and chair­per­sons would of­fer their res­ig­na­tions, al­low­ing the new ad­min­is­tra­tion to take shape.

How­ev­er, Min­is­ter Ben­jamin de­nied is­su­ing any for­mal di­rec­tive to the board mem­bers to leave.

Con­tact­ed on his fu­ture, Pe­ters said he is stand­ing firm. The vet­er­an ca­lyp­son­ian con­firmed that he is still serv­ing as NCC chair­man.

“As of now, I’m still here,” he said, ad­dress­ing ru­mours of a po­ten­tial meet­ing with the new min­is­ter and ques­tions about his fu­ture in the role.

“I have to have some­body to sub­mit a res­ig­na­tion to if I choose to sub­mit it, or wait un­til they give me a di­rec­tive,” Pe­ters ex­plained.

“But as of now, yes, I’m still the chair­man.”

Pe­ters said his cur­rent term is set to end in No­vem­ber 2025.

While he has re­ceived no for­mal in­di­ca­tion of a change, he stressed that his po­si­tion is dri­ven by ser­vice rather than sta­tus.

“It doesn’t make a dif­fer­ence here or there. It’s not that I’m de­pend­ing on any­body or any­thing for any­thing,” he said. “I’m here to serve my coun­try in what­ev­er ca­pac­i­ty they want me to. Any or none, it doesn’t make a dif­fer­ence.”

Af­fec­tion­ate­ly known across the Caribbean as “Gyp­sy,” Pe­ters is a for­mer ex­tem­po monarch. He built a sto­ried ca­reer in mu­sic, pol­i­tics, and pub­lic ser­vice. He al­so served as a MP for Ma­yaro and as min­is­ter of Arts and Mul­ti­cul­tur­al­ism.

Ap­point­ed NCC chair­man in 2018, Pe­ters helped steer Car­ni­val through some of its most dif­fi­cult years, in­clud­ing the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic and its af­ter­math.

“All the things that I do, that are ex­tracur­ric­u­lar, are for my coun­try,” he not­ed. “In any ca­pac­i­ty that I’m called on to serve, I will, re­gard­less of who is there.”