CHESTER SAM­BRA­NO

Lead Ed­i­tor – News­gath­er­ing

“2024 is a new chap­ter in our life’s book, wait­ing to be writ­ten,” says Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar.

In her New Year mes­sage, she fo­cused on the crime sit­u­a­tion in the coun­try.

“It can on­ly be a hap­py new year if we work to­geth­er across all di­vides and take back con­trol of our coun­try to stop the dai­ly ter­ror in­flict­ed on our cit­i­zens,” she stat­ed.

"I de­clare to­day that it is the mis­sion of the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress to do what this cur­rent gov­ern­ment is ei­ther un­will­ing or un­able to do—re­store law, or­der and pros­per­i­ty to our great na­tion. A safe and pros­per­ous Trinidad and To­ba­go must be the state's foun­da­tion for its cit­i­zens," she said.

The Op­po­si­tion Leader said in prepa­ra­tion for the pos­si­bil­i­ties of the new year, it is nat­ur­al to re­flect on the past year, its tri­umphs and tragedies, its promise and dis­may, its laugh­ter and lessons.

"It is with a heavy heart that we ac­knowl­edge the chal­lenges that have be­set our beloved na­tion in the past year. The record num­ber of mur­ders, home in­va­sions, rob­beries and miss­ing per­sons, a de­clin­ing econ­o­my, in­creased costs of liv­ing, im­pend­ing prop­er­ty tax­es, and the loom­ing in­crease in elec­tric­i­ty and wa­ter rates have un­doubt­ed­ly cast a shad­ow over our col­lec­tive well-be­ing,” she point­ed out.

Mrs Per­sad-Bisses­sar said the UNC has been pre­sent­ing con­crete plans and pol­i­cy al­ter­na­tives aimed at ad­dress­ing the press­ing chal­lenges fac­ing our na­tion.

"We are com­mit­ted to craft­ing so­lu­tions that pri­or­i­tize the well-be­ing of all cit­i­zens, ir­re­spec­tive of back­ground or cir­cum­stance," she as­sert­ed.