For­mer cul­ture min­is­ter Ran­dall Mitchell has crit­i­cised Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar af­ter she sug­gest­ed the Op­po­si­tion should in­vite Star Sab­ga and Jen­na Hadeed to per­form at fu­ture Eman­ci­pa­tion cel­e­bra­tions.

Re­spond­ing to ques­tions from re­porters Per­sad-Bisses­sar said: “If the PNM MPs and their sup­port­ers don’t want East In­di­ans to par­tic­i­pate in Eman­ci­pa­tion events that’s their de­mo­c­ra­t­ic choice. Maybe next year the PNM could lob­by UTT to in­vite Star Sab­ga and Jen­na Hadeed for a spo­ken word per­for­mance in­stead.”

She was ref­er­enc­ing a tas­sa per­for­mance and clas­si­cal In­di­an Dance dur­ing an African Eman­ci­pa­tion Day cel­e­bra­tion host­ed by the Uni­ver­si­ty of Trinidad and To­ba­go (UTT) which has sparked de­bate on so­cial me­dia, with some peo­ple ques­tion­ing whether it was ap­pro­pri­ate for an event com­mem­o­rat­ing the eman­ci­pa­tion of en­slaved Africans.