The fol­low­ing is Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s Spir­i­tu­al Bap­tist Lib­er­a­tion Day greet­ing:

I wish our es­teemed broth­ers and sis­ters of the Spir­i­tu­al Shouter Bap­tist Com­mu­ni­ty a joy­ful and safe Spir­i­tu­al Shouter Bap­tist Lib­er­a­tion Day 2020.

For many years I have joined this com­mu­ni­ty in com­mu­nal cel­e­bra­tion. This year, as a re­sult of the COVID 19 threat, like many of my broth­ers and sis­ters in the Bap­tist faith I too will be en­gag­ing in prayer for my com­mu­ni­ty, coun­try and the world from the con­fines of my home.

I be­lieve that to­geth­er, you and I, and our Lord, will per­se­vere and live to see the sun rise again over our beloved coun­try. What our coun­try needs now are our prayers.

Spir­i­tu­al Shouter Bap­tist Lib­er­a­tion Day is a na­tion­al event where we cel­e­brate the courage of a peo­ple who fought not on­ly to prac­tice what they be­lieved in, but who unit­ed and stood up for their way of life. To­day, we all stand proud of the ac­com­plish­ments of our Spir­i­tu­al Shouter Bap­tist broth­ers and sis­ters who for 34 years af­ter the en­act­ment of the Shouters Pro­hi­bi­tion Or­di­nance in 1917 valiant­ly kept their be­liefs alive de­spite ma­jor op­pres­sion un­til it was fi­nal­ly re­pealed in 1951.

Six­ty-nine years since the re­peal of this Or­di­nance, the peo­ple of our twin-is­land Re­pub­lic have been tru­ly blessed with the beau­ti­ful, en­rich­ing con­tri­bu­tions by the Spir­i­tu­al Shouter Bap­tist Com­mu­ni­ty to­wards our na­tion­al cul­ture, mu­sic, art­work, cui­sine and be­lief sys­tem. As a re­sult, on this spe­cial day, we should not on­ly cel­e­brate the ac­com­plish­ments of this com­mu­ni­ty but thank them for their con­tri­bu­tions, as with­out them, we would not have de­vel­oped in­to the na­tion we are to­day.

Their courage should con­tin­ue to in­spire us as a na­tion. It was in recog­ni­tion of their con­tri­bu­tions that on 26 Jan­u­ary 1996, Spir­i­tu­al Shouter Bap­tist Lib­er­a­tion was de­clared a pub­lic hol­i­day by the then UNC Gov­ern­ment led by Bas­deo Pan­day.

The Gov­ern­ment I led con­tin­ued to ho­n­our the com­mu­ni­ty and de­liv­ered on a promise to build the first Spir­i­tu­al Bap­tist school - the St Bar­bara’s Spir­i­tu­al Bap­tist Pri­ma­ry school and an Ear­ly Child­hood Care and Ed­u­ca­tion Cen­tre.

The ca­pac­i­ty of the Bap­tist com­mu­ni­ty to per­sist and pros­per in times of sig­nif­i­cant ad­ver­si­ty is an ex­am­ple for Trinidad and To­ba­go as a whole. To­day, as we face try­ing times and chal­lenges in our na­tion, we can look to Spir­i­tu­al Shouter Bap­tists for in­spi­ra­tion, and as they did, seek to keep hope and faith alive.

To­day, we are fac­ing one of the most vul­ner­a­ble and un­cer­tain times with the COVID-19 cri­sis. Let us repli­cate the courage our Spir­i­tu­al Bap­tist com­mu­ni­ty demon­strat­ed be­tween 1917 to 1951 and be­yond, to fight to en­sure the lib­er­a­tion of our na­tion from hard­ship, suf­fer­ing and ill ef­fects which this virus brings with it.

Like our Spir­i­tu­al Shouter Bap­tist broth­ers and sis­ters, we must unite in pur­pose to en­sure the way of life that de­fines us and the fu­ture which we de­sire will not slip away from our grasp but in­stead be­come a re­al­i­ty through uni­ty, so­cial re­spon­si­bil­i­ty and be­ing our broth­er’s keep­er.

Fur­ther, while we fight this glob­al pan­dem­ic, our prob­lems as a peo­ple did not be­gin with COVID-19. We must re­mem­ber that in the past years, in­equal­i­ty, high un­em­ploy­ment, crime, ab­sence of op­por­tu­ni­ty for youth and in­sti­tu­tion­al break down have op­pressed the full lib­er­a­tion of our peo­ple from re­al­is­ing their true po­ten­tial.

There­fore, our fight as a na­tion must be to unite in pur­pose to achieve true na­tion­al lib­er­a­tion where all can en­joy the fruits of their labour, man­i­fest peace­ful­ly in their be­liefs and achieve their goals.

I have no doubt that with the strength, de­ter­mi­na­tion and in­domitable spir­it of our peo­ple that we will over­come this cri­sis, and emerge stronger and more unit­ed.

May God bless our na­tion on this spe­cial day.

Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar,SC, MP

Leader of the Op­po­si­tion