PM confirms 4 to receive Order of T&T

Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar confirmed Sunday that former senior cabinet minister Kamaluddin Mohammed, 83, will receive the Order of Trinidad and Tobago, the country's highest national award.

Senior attorney Karl Hudson-Phillips will also received the nation's top honour.

The state will also bestow the honour on two deceased national leaders, Dr Wahid Ali who served for many years as President of the Senate, and Pandit Krishna Maharaj, who was the spiritual leader of the country's largest Hindu organisation, the Sanatan Dharman Maha Sabha.

President Richards will hand out the wards Tuesday night.

Persad-Bissessar pointed out that the two posthumous awards are going to leaders who refused to accept the Trinity Cross (the former name of the award) on the basis of conscience.

They both said the cross was a symbol of Christianity. She said the two of them were courageous men who championed inclusion and acceptance of every creed and race in Trinidad and Tobago.

Persad-Bissessar told reporters the honour is in keeping with the spirit of multi-culturalism and multi-ethnicity that both men pioneered.

She noted that the Privy Council agreed that it was unconstitutional and against equity and fairness to force any one religion to accept the Trinity Cross.

She also spoke about the challenges that face her new government and was confident that "we can overcome every challenge...We will work together to build this land, as we celebrate Independence and as we look back at our successes, we know that there is so much we need to do.

“There are a lot of gridlocks and obstacles, but I know with your help, prayers and love, your People’s Partnership Government will overcome.”

Mohammed, who is fondly known as "Charch", is a founder the People's National Movement (PNM) and served in all the top government posts in the various Williams administrations and acted as Prime Minister on many occasions.

He also served as President of the World Health Organisation (WHO).

He was one of the main architects of the regional integration movement and served as CARICOM Ambassador in the Panday administration.

Charch is also one of Trinidad and Tobago's leading cultural ambassadors and the pioneer of Indian culture in the broadcast media, having inaugurated "Indian Talent on Parade" in 1947 on what was then Radio Trinidad.

Hudson-Phillips is one of the country's most respected legal luminaries. He has had an extensive private practice in Trinidad and Tobago and in the Commonwealth Caribbean, as well as before the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London.

Like Mohammed he served in the Williams PNM administration, holding the posts of Attorney-General and Minister of Legal Affairs from 1969 to 1973. He fell out with Williams on matters of principle and was fired.

He later formed his own political party, The Organisation for National Reconstruction (ONR), and fought again the PNM in 1981, failing to win any seats.

In 1986 he dissolved the ONR and joined other political parties to form the National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR) led by A.N.R. Robinson, which created political history in Trinidad and Tobago by winning 33 of the 36 parliamentary seats, sweeping the PNM out of office for the first time since 1956.