National Carnival Commission Chairman, Winston ‘Gypsy’ Peters, is calling on the Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr Amery Browne and the Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley to intervene in the issue surrounding the crowning of a Venezuelan national to represent this country on an international stage next month.
Peters, speaking on a radio talk show programme on Thursday, he said: “This cannot happen.”
He said while it is okay for anyone to hold a pageant and make it open to all, it cannot be okay for any and everyone to represent T&T in a national pageant or an international pageant.
“In order to represent a country, it has to be sanctioned, first of all by the country, and it has to be that the person representing your country has to have some local, some legal standing, not really a resident but you could be a foreigner but you must be a citizen of the country because once you become a citizen of a country you become part of that country,” he explained.
Peters added: “I cannot sanction and I don’t think that the Government of T&T would ever sanction a foreigner representing T&T where our National Anthem will have to be played, where our flags and emblems would have to be displayed in terms of making sure that the representation of a country is complete,” Peters said.