PM Kamla recognizes struggle of leaders who came before her

Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissesssar said Sunday Indian Arrival day is a time to reflect on the journey of all those who helped shape and develop Trinidad and Tobago as a nation.

She made the comment in an address in south Trinidad to mark Indian Arrival Day.

"We are today beneficiaries of their courage and resilience. It is indeed a proud heritage and one that explains the boundless strength of our nation," she said noting that "Africans and East Indians today stand side by side in pride of their forefathers who through their struggles bequeathed this land to us."

She also spoke of the Syrians, Lebanese, Chinese and Europeans who also made the journey under different circumstances "but theirs is an inheritance of nationhood that they can feel justifiably proud today."

Persad-Bissessar also paid tribute to the original Amerindian community that is "too often forgotten and ignored".

The Prime Minister said, "Over the years what started out as a small recalcitrant racial minority grew and established themselves in Trinidad and Tobago.

"Today the children of the East Indians have preserved so much of the traditions and customs brought with them but they have also created their own unique identity that has been fused into Trinidad and Tobago.

"And much of it has also been integrated with the music and culture of their African brothers and sisters so that they stand and dance proudly beside each other.

"I could think of no greater tribute to our forefathers than that, to have become more than just a part of what they were when they arrived, to have arrived now as Trinidadians and Tobagonians.

"As a people, no one can deny the contribution made by the descendants of East Indians to the social, political, economic and intellectual life across the region."

Persad-Bissessar said, "I know many of you in this audience will take great pride that a woman of East Indian decent is today the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago.

"But while I acknowledge the right for such a perspective to exist may I humbly say that I would rather the nation feel the pride that one of the descendants of our collective experience of hardship and sacrifice today represents their realisation and longing for a better life and for freedom.

"Only then will we truly pay tribute to the tribulations of our ancestors and make it all worthwhile. Such a broader perspective of what it means to be of East Indian ancestry living in Trinidad and Tobago should provide a more holistic understanding of our need for integration into a society made up of so many peoples.

"And this takes nothing away from the proud individual strands that preserve our history, religion and culture. It simply adds to it all.

"And today I would like to recognise those before me who struggled for this recognition and equality. The Capildeos and the Pandays and the Butlers, the Daagas, the original freedom fighters of our nation.

"I am the inheritor of their courageous, inspired battles. I am the heiress of the freedom they claimed in our name, the future generations."