My fel­low cit­i­zens,

Fifty-nine years ago, Trinidad and To­ba­go was grant­ed in­de­pen­dence from Great Britain, giv­ing the peo­ple of a fledg­ling new na­tion the free­dom to chart their own des­tiny.

To­day, we con­tem­plate the many achieve­ments over the past 59 years, and the progress we have made in ad­vanc­ing our democ­ra­cy. Look­ing back, it is safe to say we have in­deed come a long way, but we still have far to go.

No doubt the com­bined cul­tures that ex­ist here in Trinidad and To­ba­go, draw­ing from the great­est of an­cient so­ci­eties across the world, have equipped us with every­thing we need to build a great na­tion. We have weath­ered mul­ti­ple storms, hold­ing stead­fast to the prin­ci­ples es­poused in our na­tion­al an­them. We are a peo­ple forged from the love of lib­er­ty.

Side by side we will for­ev­er stand as one peo­ple.

We have seen cru­el­ty from past ad­min­is­tra­tions seek­ing to si­lence and op­press the voic­es of the peo­ple who dis­agree with the Gov­ern­ment of the day. How­ev­er, we found so­lace in the rights en­shrined in our great con­sti­tu­tion that have de­fend­ed our rights and free­doms through­out the years.

Most mem­o­rably we re­call the at­tempts to crim­i­nalise in­dus­tri­al ac­tion through the In­dus­tri­al Sta­bi­liza­tion Act,—A move that is still re­mem­bered to­day.

How­ev­er, noth­ing of the past can com­pare to what our cit­i­zens are be­ing sub­ject­ed to to­day. It is an in­sult to our con­sti­tu­tion and the pi­o­neers of our in­de­pen­dence that on In­de­pen­dence Day 2021, all our cit­i­zens’ rights are sus­pend­ed for no good rea­son.

The Ex­ec­u­tive Arm has full au­thor­i­ty to utilise these emer­gency pow­ers but with good rea­son. Im­ple­ment­ing the State of Emer­gency—the ul­ti­mate leg­isla­tive tool ren­der­ing all rights and free­doms non-ex­is­tent must on­ly be used as a last re­sort.

There­fore, this In­de­pen­dence Day is a solemn one. For whilst we mark 59 years an in­de­pen­dent na­tion, we do so with none of our con­sti­tu­tion­al rights and free­doms. I how­ev­er re­main con­fi­dent in the col­lec­tive will of our peo­ple to get through this dark pe­ri­od in our his­to­ry.

We draw the strength and re­silience from our fore­fa­thers who would have weath­ered many great storms to safe­guard the rights and free­doms we once en­joyed. This is why, even as we face great un­cer­tain­ty, I am con­fi­dent that to­geth­er, we will get through this cri­sis.

To­day whilst our na­tion bat­tles the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic, we are led by an in­com­pe­tent Gov­ern­ment in­ca­pable of lead­ing us out of this cri­sis. The past two years have been dif­fi­cult. We have lost loved ones, friends, col­leagues. And thou­sands have lost their liveli­hoods.

We are at a crit­i­cal junc­ture, aside from deal­ing with COVID-19, we are well on our way in­to a ma­jor Eco­nom­ic Pan­dem­ic. Our liveli­hoods, our well­be­ing, even our very democ­ra­cy have all nev­er been un­der greater threat than they are to­day.

We can­not do as the PNM Gov­ern­ment is do­ing, bury­ing our heads in the sand, lock­ing down the coun­try, and hop­ing the virus goes away. There must be a clear plan to cre­ate jobs, gen­er­ate rev­enue, and de­vel­op the right en­vi­ron­ment to en­cour­age new busi­ness de­vel­op­ment. The UNC has a pre­pared plan that will en­sure re­silient eco­nom­ic re­cov­ery and growth en­sur­ing a re­bound­ing econ­o­my.

To­day, on the 59th an­niver­sary of our in­de­pen­dence, I call on each cit­i­zen to recom­mit to work to re­build, re­store and re­new our great na­tion. We will face the chal­lenges to­day as we have done in the past, side by side. Unit­ed, we will over­come the chal­lenges be­fore us, and re­build and re­new our na­tion. Whilst our rights and free­doms re­main sus­pend­ed on pa­per, these are God-giv­en rights and they can nev­er be tak­en away by any in­di­vid­ual.

Thank you, and Hap­py In­de­pen­dence Day, Trinidad and To­ba­go.

Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar,

Leader of the Op­po­si­tion