Leader of the Op­po­si­tion, Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar SC MP, is urg­ing the peo­ple of this coun­try to re­mem­ber that de­spite the “dark chap­ter” of the 1990 at­tempt­ed coup, lib­er­ty and free­dom con­tin­ue to be up­held in the de­mo­c­ra­t­ic so­ci­ety that is Trinidad and To­ba­go.

In an of­fi­cial state­ment is­sued to­day to ob­serve the 31st An­niver­sary of the events of 27 Ju­ly 1990, the Op­po­si­tion Leader notes “we are called to re­mem­ber this day and ho­n­our those who lost their lives stand­ing against tyran­ny”.

The full text of her state­ment fol­lows…

The mem­o­ry of 1990: The day that our na­tion demon­strat­ed that we can over­come any ad­ver­si­ty.

Thir­ty-one years ago, the strength, de­ter­mi­na­tion and courage of our peo­ple were test­ed when our democ­ra­cy came un­der at­tack.

The 1990 at­tempt­ed coup d’état, which saw our Par­lia­ment come un­der siege is the dark­est pe­ri­od in our na­tion's his­to­ry.  Those who at­tacked the Red House, the Po­lice Head­quar­ters and Trinidad and To­ba­go Tele­vi­sion (TTT) that day on Ju­ly 27 were not just try­ing to wound in­no­cent per­sons, they were try­ing to de­stroy the very fab­ric of our de­mo­c­ra­t­ic so­ci­ety.

But those who sought to de­stroy us soon dis­cov­ered a na­tion unit­ed and res­olute to fight for our de­mo­c­ra­t­ic way of life.  On that har­row­ing day we lost many lives, many brave souls who will be re­mem­bered as he­roes, but it was al­so the day the peo­ple of our na­tion made it clear they would nev­er bow to those would-be dic­ta­tors. Even dur­ing the dark days that fol­lowed, the light of lib­er­ty and free­dom still burnt bright­ly.

Thir­ty-one years lat­er, we are called to re­mem­ber this day and ho­n­our those who lost their lives stand­ing against tyran­ny.

Dur­ing this dif­fi­cult time, fac­ing a pan­dem­ic we must re­mem­ber that there is no hard­ship we can­not over­come as a peo­ple unit­ed. We must al­so take heart that though we are a di­verse, mul­tira­cial democ­ra­cy, we are and al­ways will be, one peo­ple forged from the love of lib­er­ty.

Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, SC, MP
Leader of the Op­po­si­tion 
Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment for Siparia