PM Kamla: No reverse discrimination; let's build a nation

Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar told supporters in Port of Spain Friday night there is no room for discrimination in the People's Partnership and she invited everyone to work together.

"There will be no reverse discrimination" she said. The Prime Minister reminded her audience they they voted against discrimination and she will ensure that no one if left out.

"Let's build a nation together," she said as she invited everyone to join the People's Partnership's revolution of change.

She reminded her audience of Nelson Mandela, the retired South African president who had been imprisoned for decades by the leaders of the country's Apartheid regime. He was eventually freed and became the country's first president in the post apartheid era.

Persad-Bissessar having endured the worst discrimination ever, Mandela was determined to forgive and move on, preferring not to practice the same kind of discrimination that the white regime had used to divide the country.

The Prime Minister spoke of Mandela's invitation to everyone to work together for a new South Africa and said it is a message she wants everyone in her cabinet to heed.

Mandela was dedicated to unity at all costs. "I detest racialism, because I regard it as a barbaric thing, whether it comes from a black man or a white man," he said after his release.

In that context Persad-Bissessar said Trinidad and Tobago needs to move on and added that people should not be worried about discrimination so long as they are prepared to work together to build the country.

At the same time she spoke out against corruption and reiterated there will continue to be zero tolerance on that issue with no one being exempt. "No one is above the law," she stated.

The People's partnership ends its formal Local Government Election campaign at a mass rally Saturday at Skinner Park in San Fernando, beginning at one in the afternoon. On Friday Persad-Bissessar and several cabinet ministers took part in a whistle-stop motorcade that began in California in Central Trinidad, covering central and eastern areas with a final stop for a public meeting in Port of Spain.

The motorcade made several stops along the way to greet supporters and to allow politicians to deliver stump speeches.