KEVON FELMINE

Se­nior Re­porter

kevon.felmine@guardian.co.tt

“Rights flour­ish on­ly when re­spon­si­bil­i­ty is em­braced.”

That was the cen­tral mes­sage from Jus­tice Frank Seep­er­sad as he chal­lenged cit­i­zens to re­flect on how they have used the free­doms gained since in­de­pen­dence.

De­liv­er­ing a ser­mon at the Mara­bel­la Pres­by­ter­ian Church yes­ter­day, Seep­er­sad said in­de­pen­dence was more than an an­niver­sary to be ob­served, de­scrib­ing it as a “sa­cred trust” that each gen­er­a­tion must pre­serve, strength­en and pass on to the next.

As the coun­try marks its 64th an­niver­sary of In­de­pen­dence to­day and, with­in weeks, the 50th an­niver­sary of Re­pub­li­can­ism, Seep­er­sad said the mile­stones rep­re­sent more than changes in po­lit­i­cal sta­tus.

“In­de­pen­dence gave us free­dom. Re­pub­li­can­ism deep­ened our self-gov­ern­ment. But nei­ther could guar­an­tee what we would be­come. That choice was left to us, and it re­mains ours,” Seep­er­sad said.

Seep­er­sad ar­gued that free­dom should not be un­der­stood as the right to sat­is­fy every de­sire with­out con­se­quence, but as the ca­pac­i­ty to choose what is true, just and good.

“Free­dom was nev­er free­dom from con­se­quence,” he said, warn­ing against con­fus­ing lib­er­ty with com­plete au­ton­o­my.

While cit­i­zens right­ly cher­ish their rights to dig­ni­ty, equal­i­ty, con­science, ex­pres­sion, due process and de­mo­c­ra­t­ic par­tic­i­pa­tion, Seep­er­sad said those rights could not flour­ish in a cul­ture that re­ject­ed du­ty, ex­cused mis­con­duct or de­mand­ed ac­count­abil­i­ty from every­one ex­cept it­self.

He said the true mea­sure of T&T should be found not on­ly in its econ­o­my, re­sources or in­sti­tu­tions, but in the hon­esty with which peo­ple con­duct their af­fairs, the jus­tice ex­tend­ed to the vul­ner­a­ble and the re­spect shown to those with whom they dis­agree.

Seep­er­sad al­so turned his at­ten­tion to racial and po­lit­i­cal di­vi­sions, urg­ing cit­i­zens to re­sist the temp­ta­tion to make iden­ti­ty the ba­sis for po­lit­i­cal crit­i­cism.

“Scruti­ny must nev­er be racialised,” he said, adding: “No com­mu­ni­ty pos­sess­es a mo­nop­oly on suf­fer­ing. And no com­mu­ni­ty pos­sess­es a mo­nop­oly on prej­u­dice.”

He called for cit­i­zens to crit­i­cise con­duct with­out con­demn­ing com­mu­ni­ties, chal­lenge de­ci­sions with­out at­tack­ing iden­ti­ty and dis­agree strong­ly with­out deny­ing one an­oth­er’s be­long­ing.

Seep­er­sad said T&T’s di­ver­si­ty, en­com­pass­ing dif­fer­ent peo­ple, his­to­ries, cul­tures, re­li­gions and tra­di­tions, should be re­gard­ed as a gift rather than an in­con­ve­nience.

He point­ed to the mo­ments when cit­i­zens unite be­hind na­tion­als rep­re­sent­ing the coun­try in sport, cul­ture, schol­ar­ship, the arts and in­ter­na­tion­al com­pe­ti­tions.

“If we can stand to­geth­er when one of us car­ries our flag abroad, sure­ly we can learn to stand to­geth­er while build­ing the coun­try that flag rep­re­sents.”

Seep­er­sad al­so re­ject­ed the idea that na­tion­al re­new­al rests sole­ly with Par­lia­ment, Cab­i­net, the courts or oth­er in­sti­tu­tions.

“Democ­ra­cy does not trans­form cit­i­zens in­to spec­ta­tors. It makes us par­tic­i­pants,” he said, stress­ing that na­tion­al re­new­al be­gins in homes, class­rooms, work­places, com­mu­ni­ties and places of wor­ship.

He urged par­ents, teach­ers, pub­lic ser­vants, busi­ness lead­ers, mem­bers of the pro­tec­tive ser­vices and re­li­gious com­mu­ni­ties to recog­nise their re­spec­tive re­spon­si­bil­i­ties in shap­ing the coun­try.

And he left his strongest ap­peal for the gen­er­a­tion that will in­her­it the Re­pub­lic.

“The child who will in­her­it this coun­try does not in­her­it our speech­es. That child in­her­its our choic­es,” Seep­er­sad said.

He called on cit­i­zens to choose uni­ty over di­vi­sion, du­ty over in­dif­fer­ence, truth over false­hood, ser­vice over self-in­ter­est and hope over fear.