Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s ap­peal for calm and re­as­sur­ance of safe­ty came at a crit­i­cal junc­ture for T&T. With the US Em­bassy is­su­ing an un­prece­dent­ed se­cu­ri­ty alert warn­ing its cit­i­zens to avoid all Amer­i­can gov­ern­ment fa­cil­i­ties through the Di­vali week­end, the coun­try en­tered the cul­mi­na­tion of fes­ti­val of lights last evening with an un­easy heart.

In her Di­vali mes­sage, the Prime Min­is­ter ac­knowl­edged the ris­ing anx­i­ety among cit­i­zens and as­sured the na­tion that her Gov­ern­ment has been work­ing “qui­et­ly, steadi­ly, and de­ci­sive­ly” to en­sure safe­ty. Her tone was mea­sured, her words de­lib­er­ate — a blend of em­pa­thy and con­fi­dence meant to soothe pub­lic nerves.

But the tim­ing of her as­sur­ance, and the qui­et din­ner with US Em­bassy of­fi­cials last Fri­day evening, in­vite deep­er re­flec­tion on the Gov­ern­ment’s han­dling of a sit­u­a­tion that has both do­mes­tic and geopo­lit­i­cal di­men­sions.

The US ad­vi­so­ry did not arise in iso­la­tion. It fol­lows re­ports of in­creased US mil­i­tary ac­tiv­i­ty in the Caribbean and a se­ries of diplo­mat­ic moves that have un­set­tled re­gion­al lead­ers. Ten­sions have been mount­ing since the start of Wash­ing­ton’s lat­est cam­paign against nar­cotics traf­fick­ing, which has seen a grow­ing mil­i­tary foot­print in Caribbean wa­ters. In that cli­mate, any warn­ing from the US Em­bassy — es­pe­cial­ly one sug­gest­ing an un­spec­i­fied threat — is bound to re­ver­ber­ate loud­ly across a small na­tion.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s mes­sage that her Gov­ern­ment is work­ing be­hind the scenes to keep cit­i­zens safe was nec­es­sary, but it was al­so over­due. Her pro­longed si­lence and lim­it­ed vis­i­bil­i­ty in re­cent days gave the im­pres­sion of de­tach­ment, one that her crit­ics — both in the Op­po­si­tion and with­in her own ranks — were quick to ex­ploit. Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les ac­cused her of “re­treat over re­spon­si­bil­i­ty,” while for­mer min­is­ters Stu­art Young, Mar­vin Gon­za­les, and Colm Im­bert ques­tioned her ab­sence dur­ing a pe­ri­od of pal­pa­ble pub­lic con­cern.

The Prime Min­is­ter’s sub­se­quent re­marks about the coun­try’s chal­lenges — from gun vi­o­lence to hu­man traf­fick­ing — were a re­minder that the threats to se­cu­ri­ty are not on­ly ex­ter­nal. Her Gov­ern­ment’s stat­ed goal “to re­duce the num­ber of vic­tims and ease the heart­break that too many fam­i­lies en­dure,” is one every cit­i­zen can sup­port. Yet, the pub­lic’s trust in that promise de­pends on trans­paren­cy, co­or­di­na­tion, and lead­er­ship that is seen and felt.

Com­pli­cat­ing mat­ters fur­ther is T&T’s now un­easy po­si­tion with­in Cari­com. While the re­gion­al bloc is­sued a uni­fied state­ment reaf­firm­ing peace and di­a­logue, Port-of-Spain chose to re­serve its po­si­tion. That de­ci­sion, though per­haps strate­gic, risks iso­lat­ing the coun­try from its clos­est al­lies and rais­es le­git­i­mate ques­tions about the di­rec­tion of its for­eign pol­i­cy. Sup­port for US mil­i­tary op­er­a­tions in the re­gion may bring short-term se­cu­ri­ty co­op­er­a­tion, but it al­so de­mands care­ful cal­i­bra­tion to en­sure sov­er­eign­ty and re­gion­al har­mo­ny are not un­der­mined.

Still, amid the crit­i­cism, Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s ap­peal to Di­vali’s eter­nal mes­sage — that light tri­umphs over dark­ness — car­ries res­o­nance. Her call for courage, uni­ty, and moral re­solve is pre­cise­ly the kind of re­minder the na­tion needs in a mo­ment of un­cer­tain­ty.

But words must be matched by vis­i­ble ac­tion. Cit­i­zens need not on­ly re­as­sur­ance but al­so clar­i­ty — about the na­ture of the risks fac­ing the na­tion, about how the Gov­ern­ment is ad­dress­ing them, and about where T&T stands in a shift­ing re­gion­al and in­ter­na­tion­al land­scape.

As deyas burned across the coun­try yes­ter­day, they il­lu­mi­nat­ed more than homes — they cast light on the re­spon­si­bil­i­ty of lead­er­ship it­self: to con­front fear not with se­cre­cy, but with truth.