Manning: TT is still a free nation

PRIME MINISTER Patrick Manning yesterday condemned persons who portray Trinidad and Tobago as a nation where discrimination is the order of the day and invoked the help of the Baptist community to help Government transform TT into a developed nation. Addressing the Fourth International Convention of the Spiritual Baptists at the Hilton Trinidad, the Prime Minister declared: “TT, as we all know, and notwithstanding the fact that there are those that might be inclined to disagree conveniently, is a land of the free, a place where every creed and race find an equal place, a land where the rights of all the people are respected.

“Out of this we have been making it possible, increasingly, for all to have a decent education, for all to enjoy proper health care, for all to have equal opportunity to succeed and contribute to the society. We have been attempting to reverse every dimension of debilitating social inadequacies and inequities.” Manning explained that this was why Government developed the National Enterprise Development Company (NEDCO) and other enterprises to incubate and develop small businesses. Chronicling the history of the Baptist faith throughout the world, the Prime Minister said it was “a global institution” with Baptists being found from the Caribbean to the South Pacific. “Look to Hong Kong and look to Korea and you will see some of the largest commercial and educational institutions under Baptist ownership and control. It can and must happen in the New World, with determination and vision; and beyond of course what is already happening there,” he stated.

Manning said Baptists in the New World were no strangers to such challenges, having guided the enslaved and ex-enslaved “in the development of a free peasantry in the aftermath of the abolition of slavery and the development of an economy outside of sugar in that period.” Reiterating Government’s vision to transform TT into a developed nation by 2020 through a programme of “national endeavour, national contribution, national prosperity, equity participation and balance,” Manning called on the Spiritual Baptists to join Government in achieving this goal. “My advice to you is to do your research, do your planning, come up with concrete proposals and workable ideas and put them on the table. The doors of the Government are open. In TT, the Government is always willing to help,” the Prime Minister said. Waxing biblical, Manning declared: “But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint. “Put your talents and abilities to work. They are not inconsiderable. For I know that you (Spiritual Baptists) wait on the Lord.”