Shas­tri Boodan

Fi­nance Min­is­ter Dave Tan­coo has ap­pealed to na­tion­als liv­ing abroad to re­turn to Trinidad and To­ba­go to help re­build the na­tion.

He made the call on Sat­ur­day while de­liv­er­ing the fea­ture ad­dress at the open­ing of the 38th An­nu­al Di­vali Na­gar cel­e­bra­tions at the NCIC Na­gar in Ch­agua­nas.

Tan­coo likened the ab­sence of cit­i­zens abroad to the ex­ile of the Hin­du God Lord Ra­ma be­fore his re­turn to Ay­o­d­hya.

“Across the seas live thou­sands of our sons and daugh­ters — the Trinidad and To­ba­go di­as­po­ra. They are schol­ars in Lon­don, doc­tors in New York, teach­ers in Toron­to, en­tre­pre­neurs in Mi­a­mi, en­gi­neers in Dubai, and pro­fes­sion­als in every cor­ner of the globe. To you — our broth­ers and sis­ters around the globe — I say this: your ex­ile is over, and your Moth­er­land, your jan­ma bhoo­mi, calls for you to come home,” he said.

He urged the di­as­po­ra to in­vest, teach, and men­tor, say­ing their re­turn would strength­en na­tion­al de­vel­op­ment.

“T&T calls its peo­ple: raise up this land with your vi­sion, your gifts, your pres­ence. Re­turn to your Trin­bag­on­ian roots, whether they lie in the hills of Trinidad or the shores of To­ba­go. Let the world see what can be built when a peo­ple, scat­tered across the globe, come home to light up and lift up their na­tion,” Tan­coo said.

He al­so paid trib­ute to the late Sen­a­tor De­oroop Teemal, for­mer NCIC pres­i­dent, de­scrib­ing him as a man de­vot­ed to ser­vice, her­itage, and faith.

“His lega­cy will live on in every deya lit, and in every act of se­va per­formed in the name of cul­ture and faith. May his soul find eter­nal peace, and may we keep his spir­it alive by nur­tur­ing the light he so pas­sion­ate­ly kin­dled,” Tan­coo said.

He com­mend­ed the NCIC for decades of pre­serv­ing na­tion­al her­itage and pro­mot­ing com­mu­ni­ty ser­vice.

Mean­while, NCIC pres­i­dent Su­ru­jdeo Man­ga­roo said cit­i­zens must ad­dress the “de­cay­ing el­e­ments” of so­ci­ety, warn­ing that ris­ing in­dis­ci­pline among chil­dren re­flects deep­er na­tion­al is­sues.

“Across our schools and com­mu­ni­ties, we are wit­ness­ing trou­bling pat­terns of be­hav­iour among our chil­dren. Dis­re­spect, in­dis­ci­pline, vi­o­lence, and a weak­en­ing of moral val­ues are be­com­ing too fre­quent. This is not just a school prob­lem; it is a na­tion­al con­cern,” Man­ga­roo said.

He said ed­u­ca­tion must ex­tend be­yond aca­d­e­mics to in­stil val­ues of re­spect, com­pas­sion, dis­ci­pline, and ser­vice.

Man­ga­roo not­ed this year’s Di­vali Na­gar theme, Lo­ka San­gra­ha — Wel­fare of the World — calls for col­lec­tive re­spon­si­bil­i­ty and com­pas­sion.

“It re­minds us that our ac­tions must be guid­ed by jus­tice, sol­i­dar­i­ty, and re­spon­si­bil­i­ty, for the wel­fare of the world be­gins with the wel­fare of our fam­i­lies, our com­mu­ni­ties, and our na­tion,” he said.

Man­ga­roo added that Di­vali Na­gar re­mains a “liv­ing class­room” where chil­dren learn val­ues through cul­ture.

“Di­vali Na­gar teach­es us that cul­ture is not en­ter­tain­ment alone; it is ed­u­ca­tion, in­spi­ra­tion, and trans­for­ma­tion through our the­mat­ic pre­sen­ta­tion. It is here that the light of knowl­edge can dis­pel the dark­ness of ig­no­rance,” he said.

He called on the Gov­ern­ment, ed­u­ca­tors, and faith lead­ers to recog­nise Di­vali Na­gar as a na­tion­al in­sti­tu­tion for cul­tur­al and moral de­vel­op­ment.