Mes­sage from the Leader of the Op­po­si­tion the Ho­n­ourable Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, SC, MP, on the oc­ca­sion of Re­pub­lic Day 2020

To­day as we in Trinidad and To­ba­go cel­e­brate our 44th An­niver­sary as a Re­pub­lic, one of the first na­tions in the Caribbean, we do so with the ut­most ap­pre­ci­a­tion of our past lead­ers and pa­tri­ots. In 1976, when we de­cid­ed to cast off the last rem­nants of colo­nial rule, we were dri­ven by the de­ter­mi­na­tion of our peo­ple to cre­ate our own rules for gov­er­nance, and the idea that to be com­plete­ly free to chart our own course, we must have our own Head of State.

On this 44th an­niver­sary we are called up­on to re­mem­ber the sac­ri­fices, great tasks and re­spon­si­bil­i­ties which ac­com­pa­nied this achieve­ment. Our 1976 Con­sti­tu­tion en­sures the rule of law and gives us rights as cit­i­zens of a free de­mo­c­ra­t­ic na­tion. The pow­er lies in the hands of cit­i­zens, but al­so, we have the re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to pro­tect our democ­ra­cy and work to­geth­er to build our na­tion.

As we re­flect on our progress, we are acute­ly aware that we are en­ter­ing a dif­fi­cult pe­ri­od in our na­tion’s his­to­ry. Over the past five years, and long be­fore the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic, our econ­o­my was in a vul­ner­a­ble state. The last few months we have seen the added im­pact of the pan­dem­ic, which is ex­pect­ed to con­tin­ue to af­fect us for some time.

The on­go­ing pan­dem­ic has clear­ly re­vealed that in our so­ci­ety there is ram­pant in­equal­i­ty as so many, es­pe­cial­ly our na­tion’s chil­dren are be­ing left be­hind due to the re­quire­ments of the new nor­mal.

As a re­sult of poor plan­ning and lack of vi­sion, we have thou­sands of chil­dren with­out the means to par­tic­i­pate in on­line learn­ing. Had the gov­ern­ment not cal­lous­ly and thought­less­ly scrapped the lap­top ini­tia­tive, these stu­dents would be able to ben­e­fit from the shift in ed­u­ca­tion that is tak­ing place.

An­oth­er ma­jor chal­lenge is that of in­creas­ing lev­els of pover­ty, as thou­sands of cit­i­zens con­tin­ue to strug­gle, to look on help­less­ly as op­por­tu­ni­ties are tak­en from them, as the gap be­tween the rich and poor con­tin­ues to widen.

Fur­ther, this vi­sion­less gov­ern­ment stopped so many ini­tia­tives de­signed to give cit­i­zens a hand up, choos­ing in­stead to push cit­i­zens fur­ther in­to pover­ty.

To­day, each of us must draw in­spi­ra­tion from our fore­fa­thers and re­main strong and unit­ed. We must each do our part to help our fel­low cit­i­zens in need.

We must al­so jeal­ous­ly guard the tenets of democ­ra­cy which our fore­fa­thers fought for. We must en­sure that there is ac­count­abil­i­ty, trans­paren­cy, and eq­ui­ty in the dis­tri­b­u­tion of our re­sources.

We have an oblig­a­tion to our fore­fa­thers to en­sure that the work­ing class, to­geth­er with the busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty, have a voice in gov­ern­ment in de­ter­min­ing our na­tion’s pri­or­i­ties and di­rec­tion. We must hold the gov­ern­ment and its in­sti­tu­tions to ac­count.

My great­est wish for our na­tion this Re­pub­lic Day is for us to en­sure that each and every cit­i­zen has the abil­i­ty to ful­fil our true po­ten­tial. We must en­sure that every com­mu­ni­ty, every young child, every in­di­vid­ual, re­gard­less of their so­cial, eco­nom­ic or eth­nic back­ground as the op­por­tu­ni­ty to achieve their dreams, af­ter all this is the foun­da­tion of our Re­pub­li­can Con­sti­tu­tion.

We must face our chal­lenges head-on, to­geth­er, with bound­less faith to forge our own des­tiny.

I wish all cit­i­zens a hap­py and safe Re­pub­lic Day. May God bless our na­tion.

Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, SC, MP

Leader of the Op­po­si­tion