Geisha Kow­lessar

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has of­fered to build a sec­ondary school for the Spir­i­tu­al Shouter Bap­tist com­mu­ni­ty but in the same breath she said this can­not not be achieved with­out their "help" in se­cur­ing her a sec­ond term in of­fice.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar, who was dressed in an elab­o­rate red and gold out­fit with match­ing head­wrap, made the com­ments at Spir­i­tu­al Bap­tist cel­e­bra­tions held at the Em­pow­er­ment Hall in Mal­oney yes­ter­day. She told the large gath­er­ing that the Peo­ple's Part­ner­ship Gov­ern­ment was will­ing to build the sec­ondary school but at the same time "one hand could not clap."

"There is noth­ing in this world that can lift you and your chil­dren in a way that ed­u­ca­tion can. We didn't just give you a pri­ma­ry school but al­so an ear­ly child­hood cen­tre as well. So you got two schools in one go.

"God's will­ing we will part­ner to­geth­er to do what next you want which is your sec­ondary school. Will you help me to build that school? Do you want a sec­ondary school for your chil­dren? Be­cause every­body else has it. Are we chil­dren then of a less­er God that the chil­dren of our faith must not have a school? And that is why to­day I com­mit to you with your help...that to­day I com­mit to you but one had can­not clap. We need the both hands so let us put the two hands to­geth­er as part­ners."

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said she was al­so will­ing to work with the Spir­i­tu­al Bap­tist el­ders to present draw­ing plans and scope of work to the ed­u­ca­tion min­istry so that the sec­ondary school could be a re­al­i­ty."It is com­ing, for I am a woman of my word, and all my promis­es to serve the great peo­ple of our na­tion, I make sure to de­liv­er," Per­sad-Bisses­sar said.But while mak­ing the pledge Per­sad-Bisses­sar said she was not talk­ing pol­i­tics but rather of faith and of brethren and sistren.

"We can work to­geth­er to build a bet­ter na­tion and were every creed found an equal place so we can­not be chil­dren of a less­er God be­cause we are Spir­i­tu­al Bap­tist."Per­sad-Bisses­sar, who likened her­self to "one" of the Spir­i­tu­al Bap­tist com­mu­ni­ty, said it was the first time the faith had "a per­son of you and from you in the high­est of­fice of this land as prime min­is­ter."

"You may say I don't look like you but I tell you the blood that flows from my veins is the red blood and I am a child of God as you as all chil­dren of God," Per­sad-Bisses­sar said.De­scrib­ing the Spir­i­tu­al Bap­tist hol­i­day as one is one of the most sig­nif­i­cant hol­i­days in this coun­try the Prime Min­is­ter said it was not on­ly a day of re­li­gious ded­i­ca­tion, but al­so a day to cel­e­brate T&T unique ca­pac­i­ty to demon­strate tol­er­ance, re­spect, equal­i­ty and love for every­one.

"I note too that this year's cel­e­bra­tions takes place in the Holy week of the Chris­tians, the week of East­er, when our Lord Je­sus Christ was prepar­ing for the ul­ti­mate sac­ri­fice for hu­mankind, to give his life on the Cross for our sal­va­tion, and I re­mem­ber the cross­es we all had to bear as in­di­vid­u­als and a peo­ple, and how our deep faith in our God's good­ness and glo­ry have nev­er failed to see us through."

She said T&T would be the on­ly coun­try in the world to cel­e­brate a pub­lic hol­i­day for the Spir­i­tu­al Bap­tist faith but next year would al­so be the on­ly coun­try glob­al­ly to have three State schools for this faith.

Spir­i­tu­al Shouter Bap­tist Arch­bish­op Bar­bara Gray-Burke, who echoed Per­sad-Bisses­sar's sen­ti­ments, called on mem­bers of her faith not to be un­grate­ful to the Peo­ple's Part­ner­ship.She said fol­low­ers had en­dured a long, dif­fi­cult strug­gle adding that even in the days of for­mer prime min­is­ter Er­ic Williams the Shouter Bap­tist com­mu­ni­ty was not recog­nised.

pm blanks me­dia

When ap­proached by mem­bers of the me­dia for fur­ther com­ments on the sec­ondary school, Per­sad-Bisses­sar sim­ply waved and en­tered her wait­ing car.She al­so did not re­spond to ques­tions whether she would be fir­ing Min­is­ter of State in the Min­istry of the Peo­ple and So­cial De­vel­op­ment Ver­nel­la Al­leyne-Top­pin who claimed in the Par­lia­ment that Op­po­si­tion Leader Dr Kei­th Row­ley was a child of rape.