Opposition to PM: Retract calypso comments

Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les has called on Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar to re­tract com­ments about ca­lyp­so and is­sue an apol­o­gy to the na­tion.

In a state­ment is­sued on car­ni­val Tues­day, Beck­les said the Prime Min­is­ter’s lat­est so­cial me­dia re­marks re­flect­ed “a trou­bling lack of re­straint and judg­ment” and de­scribed them as an “un­hinged and des­per­ate out­burst.”

Beck­les took is­sue with the Prime Min­is­ter’s ref­er­ence to ca­lyp­sos as “hate­ful di­a­tribes” and ca­lyp­so­ni­ans as “po­lit­i­cal stooges,” say­ing such com­ments were of­fen­sive and in­sen­si­tive. She ar­gued that ca­lyp­so has deep his­tor­i­cal roots tied to the ex­pe­ri­ence of en­slaved Africans un­der colo­nial rule and has long served as a ve­hi­cle for so­cial com­men­tary.

Cit­ing records at the Na­tion­al Archives, Beck­les said the term “ca­lyp­so” is de­rived from the West African word “kaiso,” mean­ing to ex­press one­self or make a point. She not­ed that the ca­lyp­son­ian’s role mir­rors that of the African gri­ot, a sto­ry­teller who tra­di­tion­al­ly spoke truth to pow­er.

The Op­po­si­tion Leader al­so raised con­cerns about the han­dling of the Ca­lyp­so Monarch 2026 com­pe­ti­tion. She point­ed to what she de­scribed as cen­sor­ship by state-owned broad­cast­er TTT Lim­it­ed, the hir­ing of pre­sen­ters, the dis­qual­i­fi­ca­tion of ca­lyp­sos, judge se­lec­tions and scores, and re­port­ed dis­missals at the com­pa­ny.

Beck­les said the sit­u­a­tion sur­round­ing Car­ni­val 2026 re­quired ur­gent con­sul­ta­tion with stake­hold­ers in ca­lyp­so, cul­ture and fes­ti­vals. She main­tained that mat­ters in­volv­ing cul­tur­al preser­va­tion, com­mer­cial­iza­tion and free­dom of speech de­mand­ed di­a­logue and re­spect.

“To di­min­ish cul­ture is to mis­un­der­stand his­to­ry it­self,” Beck­les said, adding that the na­tion’s her­itage could not be erased.”