Opposition Leader: Be wary of threats to Trinidad and Tobago's sovereignty

OPPOSITION Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar has said the country must be vigilant to identify any threats to the sovereignty of present-day TT. She said globalisation has increasingly become a threat to Trinidad and Tobago’s national sovereignty.

In her Independence Day message, Kamla Persad-Bissessar gave prayers of gratitude to “all our fore-parents for their devoted labours to build and develop TT’s economic, social, and political pillars. We salute them for promoting the values of freedom, harmony, tolerance and diligence within our national consciousness.”

She called on the population to draw strength from the memories of their fore-parents, work to regain sovereign decision making and preserve TT’s independence.

Persad-Bissessar said globalisation has eroded the ability to make independent decisions on national governance.

“International colonial masters have been replaced by international corporate masters. A proper analysis will show that our behaviours on governmental and personal levels have moved from being previously controlled by other nations to now being controlled by global corporations and international oversight bodies particularly through the financial, food, medical, energy and IT sectors.

She said the international financial, energy and IT industries have been weaponized by large nations so that organisations controlled by them dictate the laws TT enacts internally in order to access financial capital, energy markets and global technological connectivity.

The Opposition Leader also said TT’s covid19 response was driven by global hysteria.
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“Driven by global hysteria and not proper medical science we ceded control and decision making over the sovereignty of our own bodies during covid. We saw the World Health Organization (WHO) coerce independent nations to lockdown citizens and mandate the acceptance of a vaccine that was later proven to be ineffective.”

Persad-Bissessar said the internet has become the greatest tool for interference in the internal affairs of independent nations.

“The large social media companies and search engines, influenced by their corporate advertisers and Governments, censor free speech by categorising opinions opposite to their beliefs and interests as hate speech.

“They dictate what morals and values are appropriate, they erode your religious liberties and online mobs determine which causes and groups are just and which are evil. Important national decisions that are inimical to our citizens' best interests are being influenced by feelings and not facts because of online social re-engineering and propagandas enabled by global internet connectivity.”

The Opposition Leader said while TT had been independent in name for 62 years, it was clearly still yoked to its colonial masters due to its inability adequately and self-sufficiently address needs in areas of finance, health, national security, poverty alleviation, education, and technological advancement.

“Our duty to future generations mandates us to fix our internal issues with local innovation and ingenuity as a matter of urgency, thereby gaining full control of our future and eliminating any threats to our nation’s long-term independence.

“Let us embody the spirit of personal responsibility, invention, and unity of purpose to set our country on a path of self-sufficiency and self-determination. Undoubtedly, we will face serious challenges, but we must have faith that we will overcome them all once we work together, with a common resolve.”

Editor's note: The Health Ministry said it used covid19 vaccines approved by the World Health Organization (WHO). No vaccine was used until it had undergone rigorous scientific and clinical testing in keeping with the highest vaccine testing standards, as do all other vaccines used in TT.

In the frequently asked questions section of its website, the ministry advised, “By getting vaccinated, you are reducing your risk of disease, hospitalisation, severe complications, and even death, for both you and your loved ones. The trial results for the approved vaccines showed that they were very effective at preventing moderate and severe disease, and in most cases, preventing symptoms all together.”

A compilation of studies by Yale Medicine showed the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and the Moderna vaccines showed 95 per cent efficacy for preventing symptomatic covid19. The Astra-Zeneca vaccine had an efficacy of 72 per cent, the Sinopharm vaccine had an efficacy of 72 per cent and the J&J vaccine had an efficacy of 76 per cent.

In 2021, the Pan American Health Organization said the use of vaccines had been politicised in many countries.