Caption: Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar during prayers in her constituency office on Saturday. Photo: Facebook/Kamla Persad-Bissessar
By Prior Beharry
PRIME Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar says she has “gone to war” for Trinidad and Tobago and will continue to do so with “the weapons of law, truth, courage, and conscience.”
She said, “I went to war for you, not with anger, but with devotion; not for privilege, but for the people; not for power, but for principle.”
Persad-Bissessar said her battles “in Parliament and in the streets” and the “silence of sleepless nights” were driven by the belief that the nation’s “light would return.”
She was speaking during the 28th annual Divali function of the Siparia Women’s Association at her constituency office in Penal on Saturday. The theme of the function was A Journey Of Light — From Village Deyas To A Nation’s Flame: When Small Communities Shine, The Whole Nation Glows.
Also present were members of the diplomatic corps and cabinet members including Minister of Energy Dr Roodal Moonilal, Minister of Works and Infrastructure Jearlean John and Minister of Public Utilities Barry Padarath.
Framing her message through the symbolism of Divali and the Ramayana, Persad-Bissessar likened her struggle to Ram’s fight for truth and Sita’s endurance for love, promising never to turn away from her supporters.
“You were my Ayodhya in exile, the hearts I carried when the halls of power were closed,” she told the crowd, adding that citizens’ faith “was the oil that kept my deya burning.”
The prime minister said the night was a reaffirmation of a collective “homecoming of light,” referencing April 28 general elections as the moment when supporters “raised your deyas high and called your leader home,” which she described as “our Divali of return.”
Persad-Bissessar vowed to “go to war against corruption that steals from our children,” against crime that “stalks our homes,” and “against neglect that mocks our poor and abandons our youth.”
Leadership, she said, “is not privilege; it is protection,” and “love — real love — never walks away when its people are in danger. Love fights. Love endures. Love leads.”
She praised teachers who worked without extra pay, nurses who laboured through storms, officers protecting the innocent, and mothers praying for safety, calling them “our Hanumans” and evidence that “the people’s faith would prevail.” Persad-Bissessar also signalled out Public Service Association (PSA) President Felicia Thomas was also in the audience.
Together, she said, supporters built a bridge “stone by stone of trust, sacrifice, and belief,” a span “made of faith,” like Ram’s bridge to Lanka, “proving that when a people stand united, even stones can float.”
Persad-Bissessar said her return was a servant-leader rather than a ruler. “After ten years in the wilderness, I returned, not to rule, but to serve; not to claim victory, but to rebuild love’s kingdom,” she said.
The PM ended her with her familiar statement on the political husting, when she said, “You have had leaders before me, and you will have leaders after me, but you will never have a leader who loves you as deeply as I do.”
Persad-Bissessar said, “Divali teaches us that light does not hide from darkness; it confronts us.”
She said. “I will never stop fighting for righteousness, for fairness, for safety, for dignity in every home.”
