The Re­pub­lic of Trinidad and To­ba­go has ex­ist­ed for 48 years, a mile­stone cel­e­brat­ed to­day with a pub­lic hol­i­day.

This oc­ca­sion may not have the pomp and pageantry of In­de­pen­dence Day, but there will be an op­por­tu­ni­ty to cel­e­brate out­stand­ing cit­i­zens at the Na­tion­al Awards cer­e­mo­ny at Pres­i­dent’s House to­day.

Af­ter al­most half a cen­tu­ry of Re­pub­li­can sta­tus, how­ev­er, the sig­nif­i­cance of this mo­ment in T&T’s his­to­ry is not ful­ly un­der­stood by many. It is about much more than re­mov­ing the British monarch as head of state. The quest for re­pub­li­can sta­tus was sparked by a grow­ing sense of na­tion­al iden­ti­ty decades ago.

Au­gust 1, 1976, the day T&T of­fi­cial­ly be­came a Re­pub­lic, was a sig­nal event in our jour­ney of in­de­pen­dence and self-gov­er­nance, which be­gan 14 years ear­li­er, on Au­gust 31, 1962.

The hol­i­day is ob­served to­day be­cause it was on this day in 1976 that T&T’s Par­lia­ment con­vened for the first time un­der the Re­pub­li­can Con­sti­tu­tion.

Even with all the chal­lenges the coun­try cur­rent­ly faces, Re­pub­lic Day is still an event worth cel­e­brat­ing with pa­tri­ot­ic fer­vour. There are many ad­van­tages to be­ing a Re­pub­lic, key among them be­ing com­plete sov­er­eign­ty and po­lit­i­cal au­ton­o­my.

T&T is fur­ther along this path than many of its Caribbean neigh­bours, but many cit­i­zens still do not un­der­stand or ap­pre­ci­ate the ben­e­fits of hold­ing the po­lit­i­cal pow­er to elect our rep­re­sen­ta­tives.

In many ways, this is still a na­tion strug­gling to shake off the ves­tiges of colo­nial­ism, as has been re­flect­ed in re­cent con­ver­sa­tions on the Coat of Arms change. Progress over the years has in­volved some dif­fi­cult po­lit­i­cal, so­cial and eco­nom­ic ex­pe­ri­ences and in many ways, T&T is still adapt­ing and ad­just­ing.

But as the na­tion ex­pe­ri­ences its lat­est bout of grow­ing pains caused by crime and in­se­cu­ri­ty, it is im­por­tant to ap­pre­ci­ate the im­por­tant and nec­es­sary steps that led to that first Re­pub­lic Day and the lead­ers who guid­ed that de­vel­op­ment.

Sir El­lis Clarke, who had the dis­tinc­tion of be­ing the on­ly per­son to serve as Gov­er­nor Gen­er­al and Pres­i­dent of T&T, played the key role of sign­ing the procla­ma­tion that ush­ered the coun­try in­to Re­pub­li­can sta­tus.

Much more than that, he was the ar­chi­tect of the In­de­pen­dence and Re­pub­li­can con­sti­tu­tions, lay­ing the ground­work for the free­doms and rights so many now take for grant­ed.

He presided over a tran­si­tion that was nei­ther smooth nor swift, as many cit­i­zens ob­ject­ed to the change from monar­chy to re­pub­li­can sta­tus — it was as con­tro­ver­sial as the change from colo­nial­ism to In­de­pen­dence just a few years ear­li­er.

As the work of deep­en­ing our democ­ra­cy and de­mand­ing more ac­count­abil­i­ty from our elect­ed rep­re­sen­ta­tives con­tin­ues, to­day is the oc­ca­sion to give thanks for na­tion­al progress.

This is no or­di­nary pub­lic hol­i­day but a day when cit­i­zens across this na­tion, a unique blend of eth­nic­i­ties, cul­tures and be­liefs, should ral­ly around the red, white and black to cel­e­brate our many achieve­ments and progress.

The many dis­tin­guished in­di­vid­u­als among us will be pre­sent­ed with medals, well-de­served recog­ni­tion of their ster­ling con­tri­bu­tions to the de­vel­op­ment of T&T. In their var­i­ous fields of en­deav­our, they have demon­strat­ed that the chal­lenges of crime, pover­ty and eco­nom­ic un­cer­tain­ty are not greater than the ca­pac­i­ty to over­come and move on to bet­ter days.

To­day is the day to give thanks to them and the many bless­ings this na­tion still en­joys. We cel­e­brate them all.