“East In­di­an cul­ture is dyed in the wool in­to the cul­ture and iden­ti­ty of Trinidad and To­ba­go,” says Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad Bisses­sar says in her mes­sage in com­mem­o­ra­tion of In­di­an Ar­rival Day.

How­ev­er, the Op­po­si­tion Leader ob­served the coun­try still has work to do to tru­ly at­tain a utopi­an lev­els of in­clu­siv­i­ty and democ­ra­cy.

"While we take this mo­ment to cel­e­brate, we must al­so rec­og­nize that our work is not yet com­plete,” she points out.  “Ours is a di­verse na­tion, with a ta­pes­try of dif­fer­ent cul­tures, lan­guages, and tra­di­tions.  It is in this di­ver­si­ty that our true strength lies. As the leader of the Op­po­si­tion, I be­lieve in the pow­er of uni­ty, in­clu­siv­i­ty, and so­cial jus­tice."

Mrs Per­sad Bisses­sar said we must work to­geth­er to ad­dress the chal­lenges that per­sist with­in so­ci­ety.

She chal­lenged cit­i­zens to strive for equal­i­ty, jus­tice, and fair­ness for every­one, re­gard­less of their back­ground or her­itage.

"We must en­sure that every per­son, re­gard­less of their an­ces­try, has equal ac­cess to op­por­tu­ni­ties, qual­i­ty ed­u­ca­tion, health­care, and a chance to thrive," she said.

The Op­po­si­tion Leader said as the coun­try cel­e­brates In­di­an Ar­rival Day, cit­i­zens al­so must re­flect on the prin­ci­ples of free­dom, democ­ra­cy, and re­spect for hu­man rights.

"Let us stand to­geth­er against any form of dis­crim­i­na­tion, prej­u­dice, or in­tol­er­ance," she urged.