Op­po­si­tion Leader and for­mer Prime Min­is­ter, Kam­la Per­sad-Biss­esaar SC MP, says Eman­ci­pa­tion Day holds pro­found sig­nif­i­cance in our na­tion's his­to­ry, mark­ing the day “when the shack­les of slav­ery were bro­ken, and the spir­its of our an­ces­tors soared free.”

In her Eman­ci­pa­tion Day mes­sage, Mrs Per­sad-Bisses­sar said to­day, the coun­try comes to­geth­er not on­ly to cel­e­brate hard-won free­dom, “but al­so to re­flect on the jour­ney that has brought us this far.”

"It is a mo­ment of re­mem­brance, to ho­n­our the re­silience and courage of those who fought for lib­er­ty and jus­tice, paving the way for a brighter fu­ture for gen­er­a­tions to come," she said.

The Op­po­si­tion Leader said as the peo­ple of T&T gath­er to com­mem­o­rate Eman­ci­pa­tion Day, they must re­mem­ber that free­dom is not mere­ly a date on the cal­en­dar, but a con­tin­u­al strug­gle.

"It is a jour­ney that de­mands our un­wa­ver­ing com­mit­ment to jus­tice, equal­i­ty, and the erad­i­ca­tion of all forms of op­pres­sion,” the Op­po­si­tion Leader stat­ed.  “We must ac­knowl­edge that there are still bat­tles to be fought—the fight against so­cial in­equal­i­ty, eco­nom­ic dis­par­i­ties, and the prej­u­dice that lingers in our so­ci­ety.”

She added: “Yet, let us be in­spired by the spir­it of our an­ces­tors, who nev­er gave up their quest for free­dom. Let their lega­cy be a guid­ing light, urg­ing us to unite as one peo­ple, re­gard­less of our dif­fer­ences, to cre­ate a Trinidad and To­ba­go that up­holds the prin­ci­ples of fair­ness, in­clu­siv­i­ty, and progress for all.”

The Op­po­si­tion Leader called up­on each cit­i­zen to forge a bet­ter fu­ture for our­selves as a na­tion. "To­geth­er, we can build a so­ci­ety that cher­ish­es di­ver­si­ty, em­braces knowl­edge, and fos­ters an en­vi­ron­ment where every­one can thrive. Let us em­pow­er our youth with ed­u­ca­tion and op­por­tu­ni­ties, for they are the ar­chi­tects of our to­mor­row," she added.

Ac­cord­ing to the for­mer Prime Min­is­ter, Eman­ci­pa­tion Day is not just a cel­e­bra­tion; it is a re­minder that we hold the pow­er to shape our des­tiny.

"Let us re-ded­i­cate our­selves to the ideals of free­dom and jus­tice and work hand in hand to cre­ate a Trinidad and To­ba­go that ex­em­pli­fies the true mean­ing of lib­er­ty,” she urged.

She not­ed: “As we ho­n­our our his­to­ry, let us march bold­ly in­to the fu­ture, fu­elled by the col­lec­tive vi­sion of a na­tion unit­ed by the bonds of free­dom.”