PM urges public officers to serve every community fairly

Akash Sama­roo

Lead Ed­i­tor–Pol­i­tics

akash.sama­[email protected]

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has urged pub­lic of­fi­cers to serve every com­mu­ni­ty fair­ly, say­ing in­tegri­ty and re­spect­ful treat­ment are es­sen­tial to strength­en­ing pub­lic con­fi­dence.

Speak­ing at the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter’s Di­vali cel­e­bra­tion at the Diplo­mat­ic Cen­tre, St Ann’s, yes­ter­day, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said the re­li­gious fes­ti­val’s mes­sage should be re­flect­ed in the dai­ly work of those serv­ing the coun­try.

“We serve every com­mu­ni­ty and we have a spe­cial re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to set an ex­am­ple of the re­spect and uni­ty we cher­ish in Trinidad and To­ba­go,” she said.

The Prime Min­is­ter told staff that every­one ap­proach­ing the of­fice for as­sis­tance should feel wel­come, stress­ing that this de­pend­ed on their pa­tience, pro­fes­sion­al­ism and will­ing­ness to see mat­ters through.

“In­tegri­ty strength­ens pub­lic con­fi­dence when peo­ple see, when peo­ple see that they are treat­ed fair­ly,” she said.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar linked Di­vali’s themes of light over­com­ing dark­ness, knowl­edge over­com­ing ig­no­rance and good over­com­ing evil to the re­spon­si­bil­i­ties of pub­lic ser­vice.

“Knowl­edge be­comes use­ful when it helps some­one find an an­swer. Com­pas­sion be­comes mean­ing­ful when it helps some­one,” she said.

Ad­dress­ing an au­di­ence that in­clud­ed Cab­i­net min­is­ters, par­lia­men­tary pre­sid­ing of­fi­cers, per­ma­nent sec­re­taries and pro­tec­tive ser­vices lead­ers, she ac­knowl­edged the work re­quired to trans­late gov­ern­ment de­ci­sions in­to de­liv­ery.

She thanked Per­ma­nent Sec­re­tary to the Prime Min­is­ter and Head of the Pub­lic Ser­vice Natasha Bar­row, along­side oth­er se­nior of­fi­cials, for guid­ing teams, pro­vid­ing ad­vice and man­ag­ing pub­lic re­sources.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar al­so recog­nised staff whose re­spon­si­bil­i­ties range from prepar­ing briefs and main­tain­ing records to re­ceiv­ing vis­i­tors, trans­port­ing teams and main­tain­ing sys­tems.

“I know the de­mands can be con­sid­er­able. Ur­gent mat­ters arise, dead­lines change and your fam­i­lies some­times share the sac­ri­fice. So please know we ap­pre­ci­ate your ef­forts,” she said.

While thank­ing pub­lic of­fi­cers for their con­tri­bu­tions, the PM ac­knowl­edged that fur­ther im­prove­ments were need­ed.

“There is so much more to do and I’m grate­ful to have you work­ing along­side us,” she said, call­ing for a more re­spon­sive of­fice and more ef­fec­tive ser­vice.

Her ad­dress al­so em­pha­sised re­li­gious har­mo­ny, with Per­sad-Bisses­sar re­it­er­at­ing her view that “all re­li­gious paths lead to the same God.”

She said peo­ple prayed in dif­fer­ent lan­guages and ways but ho­n­oured God through their kind­ness to­wards one an­oth­er.

The PM praised Hin­du fore­par­ents for pre­serv­ing Di­vali through hard­ship and sac­ri­fice, al­low­ing it to be­come a cher­ished na­tion­al cel­e­bra­tion.

She al­so paid trib­ute to the pro­tec­tive ser­vices, link­ing their work to the fes­ti­val’s mes­sage, and wished fam­i­lies peace, health, hap­pi­ness and pros­per­i­ty for Di­vali.