NASSAU, BAHAMAS — The Junkanoo Corporation of New Providence (JCNP) Chairman Dion Miller has defended the judging process in response to accusations of bias.
“The judging system that we currently are operating on is the most transparent system that we have ever had in the history of Junkanoo,” Miller said.
This week, the Junkanoo A division group, Roots published a statement titled: “Flawed Junkanoo Judging System” in which they described why they felt as if they were cheated out of second place.
At the New Year’s Junkanoo Parade, Roots came third with a score of 90.61 after Saxons secured the runner-up position of 90.63 points to the first-place winner, One Family.
The group is calling for a complete overhaul of the current judging system and a new one to replace it.
“The Executive Steering Board of Roots Junkanoo Group suggests the abolition of the present judging system in favor of a more objective system,” the statement read.
“We believe, as so many others do, that trained professionals are better able to judge Music, Choreography and Art Design. It remains a myth that only Bahamians can judge Junkanoo and we encourage the inclusion of professionals from North America and other Caribbean nations who may have similar art forms.”
In an interview, Miller maintained that the JCNP takes the judging process very seriously given that the fairness of the process has always been a longstanding concern.
He said that they are constantly revising the system for it to be as inclusive of group feedback and as unbiased as possible.
“At the beginning of every year, we meet with every single group and we ask the groups to come up with recommendations for which type of judging system that they would wish,” Miller said.
“[…] The judging system that we currently are operating on is the most transparent system that we have ever had in the history of Junkanoo.
“Every single group has the ability to observe and see scores as the judges judge the parade so that’s unprecedented, the access that they have to these judges and to the system is unprecedented,” Miller explained.
Miller explained that the selected judges were taught a curriculum consisting of different disciplines agreed on by the various Junkanoo groups.
“The groups are involved in every process of the way, so now for a group to come back after the fact to say that they are not happy with the system, that’s the groups’ prerogative, that’s the group’s right; but from the JCNP standpoint, the process was transparent and every single group was involved in the process and in that instance, we were pleased with the process,” he said.
The JCNP Chairman said he believes there is some misunderstanding regarding the methodology.
“I think where groups have a challenge is the method of judges, for example, the public judging the parade, versus professional judges in the parade.
“I think that is a challenge that the groups are trying to articulate but they lump it all into the system,” Miller continued.
“There is absolutely nothing wrong with the system; there are no calculation errors, […] The system does not judge, judges judge the parade, so it isn’t the system.
“Now groups could say now, and what I think Roots are trying to articulate, is that they don’t like the method of having the public judge the parade, for whatever reason they wish to state, that’s a different kettle of fish,” he said.
Miller said 264 Bahamians applied to be judges for the last parades; however, that number was whittled down to 84 after vetting and group input.
“We started with 264 and after the groups investigated and reviewed the applications they kicked out a vast majority of those judges.
“Those 84 judges that were left then went on to attend a six-week course, the curriculum of this six-week course was agreed to by every single group that performed or participated in the parade.”
Miller added that they do a post-mortem of the parades annually presenting recommendations to the groups in order to determine what the next call of action will be for the parades.
“It isn’t an executive decision, the government isn’t involved in the decision, the groups get to decide that,” he said.
And on the point that was made about non-Bahamians judging the parade, Miller said that it could lead to more expense and complications in the process.
“Who is going to pay the foreigner to come in a d judge the parade? Who is going to pay for the room and board?
“Who is going to pay to train these foreigners and then now after a foreigner judge the parade will we accept what the foreigners say or are we going to say that they aren’t Bahamians they don’t know Junkanoo,” Miller said.
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