SASCHA WIL­SON

Se­nior Re­porter

Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les has dis­missed claims by Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar that the for­mer Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment ad­min­is­tra­tion failed to sup­port the Spir­i­tu­al/Shouter Bap­tist com­mu­ni­ty, de­clar­ing that “talk is cheap”.

Speak­ing at the PNM’s Spir­i­tu­al Bap­tist/Shouter Lib­er­a­tion cel­e­bra­tion at the par­ty’s con­stituen­cy of­fice in Point Fortin, Beck­les said the State has pro­vid­ed sup­port for the faith through bud­getary al­lo­ca­tions and land grants.

Ref­er­enc­ing state­ments made in Par­lia­ment on Fri­day, she said the Prime Min­is­ter al­leged that the “PNM did noth­ing for the Bap­tist com­mu­ni­ty.”

“Talk is cheap. The Prime Min­is­ter en­tered Par­lia­ment min­utes to 6. Par­lia­ment start­ed at 1:30 pm and of course came in at that time to glo­ri­fy her­self and to say what the UNC did for the Spir­i­tu­al Bap­tists,” the Op­po­si­tion Leader stat­ed.

She re­mind­ed those gath­ered of ini­tia­tives un­der­tak­en by the PNM, in­clud­ing land al­lo­ca­tion for key projects.

“In 2019, un­der the PNM, land was al­lo­cat­ed in Cou­va for the con­struc­tion of a Spir­i­tu­al Bap­tist Cathe­dral and ad­min­is­tra­tive com­plex and a her­itage park,” she re­count­ed. “In March 2025, just last year and ex­act­ly one year ago, the sum of 20 mil­lion dol­lars was hand­ed to the Bap­tist com­mu­ni­ty.”

Not­ing that it has been 75 years since the re­peal of the Shouter Bap­tist Pro­hi­bi­tion Or­di­nance re­peal, which had em­pow­ered po­lice to raid homes with­out war­rants, she said:

“Re­mind­ing you of some­thing they want to do these days? The ZOSO. But broth­ers and sis­ters, the law was re­pealed be­cause those be­fore us stood up, re­sist­ed and en­dured.”

She added: “Like Er­ic Williams, be as­sured that I will fight with every fi­bre of my be­ing to pro­tect you, es­pe­cial­ly from this wicked, vin­dic­tive, dic­ta­to­r­i­al and op­pres­sive Gov­ern­ment.”