Justice Seepersad urges graduates to put country before self

RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca­s­[email protected]

High Court Judge Frank Seep­er­sad is urg­ing grad­u­ates of Cedar Grove Pri­vate School to mea­sure suc­cess not by per­son­al achieve­ment alone but by the strength of their char­ac­ter and com­mit­ment to serv­ing Trinidad and To­ba­go.

Ad­dress­ing the stu­dents dur­ing their grad­u­a­tion cer­e­mo­ny held at Achie­vors Ban­quet Hall, Seep­er­sad said the cit­i­zen­ship car­ries both priv­i­lege and re­spon­si­bil­i­ty, de­scrib­ing the oc­ca­sion as more than a cel­e­bra­tion of aca­d­e­m­ic suc­cess.

“To­day is a cel­e­bra­tion of your achieve­ments, but it is al­so an in­vi­ta­tion to em­brace one of life’s great­est priv­i­leges and re­spon­si­bil­i­ties, the priv­i­lege of cit­i­zen­ship,” he said.

He re­mind­ed the grad­u­ates that the coun­try’s fu­ture rest­ed with the younger gen­er­a­tion.

“Every na­tion is built twice. It is first built qui­et­ly in the hearts and char­ac­ter of its chil­dren, and on­ly af­ter­wards in its schools, busi­ness­es, courts, Par­lia­ment and in­sti­tu­tions,” Seep­er­sad said.

“As I look across this hall this af­ter­noon, I am re­mind­ed that the fu­ture of Trinidad and To­ba­go is not some­where in the dis­tance. The fu­ture of our Re­pub­lic is al­ready seat­ed be­fore us, wear­ing grad­u­a­tion gowns.”

He en­cour­aged the stu­dents to recog­nise that ed­u­ca­tion ex­tends be­yond aca­d­e­m­ic qual­i­fi­ca­tions.

“Ed­u­ca­tion is not sim­ply about prepar­ing us to earn a liv­ing. Its high­er pur­pose is to pre­pare us to live lives of mean­ing, re­spon­si­bil­i­ty and ser­vice. It should help us be­come cit­i­zens who un­der­stand that they be­long to some­thing greater than them­selves.”

Seep­er­sad said the coun­try’s great­est as­set was its peo­ple.

“A na­tion is far more than its in­fra­struc­ture or nat­ur­al re­sources and the true wealth of this Re­pub­lic lies in the char­ac­ter of its peo­ple. When cit­i­zens be­come more hon­est, com­pas­sion­ate, dis­ci­plined and re­spon­si­ble, the na­tion it­self be­comes stronger.”

He de­scribed cit­i­zen­ship as “the prac­ti­cal ex­pres­sion of stew­ard­ship” and said every cit­i­zen has a du­ty to strength­en the Re­pub­lic.

“In a con­sti­tu­tion­al democ­ra­cy like ours, every cit­i­zen is a stew­ard of the Re­pub­lic. We in­her­it free­doms se­cured through the sac­ri­fices of those who came be­fore us, and we ho­n­our that trust by re­spect­ing one an­oth­er, strength­en­ing our com­mu­ni­ties and leav­ing our na­tion stronger for those who fol­low.”

Urg­ing the grad­u­ates to think be­yond them­selves, Seep­er­sad chal­lenged them to ask: “What do I owe this beau­ti­ful Re­pub­lic, and how can I help make Trinidad and To­ba­go even bet­ter?”

Link­ing his re­marks to the grad­u­a­tion theme, “Shine Your Light – One Spark Lights a Fire,” Seep­er­sad said that mean­ing­ful change be­gins with in­di­vid­ual ac­tions.

“Some peo­ple be­lieve na­tion-build­ing be­gins when we be­come adults. It does not. Na­tion-build­ing be­gins the first time a child choos­es hon­esty over de­cep­tion, kind­ness over cru­el­ty, courage over si­lence and ser­vice over self­ish­ness.”

He con­tin­ued: “A light nev­er ful­fils its pur­pose by draw­ing at­ten­tion to it­self. Its pur­pose is to il­lu­mi­nate the path for oth­ers.”

Call­ing on the stu­dents to recog­nise their in­flu­ence, he said: “Every great fire be­gins with one spark. Every stronger fam­i­ly be­gins with one car­ing heart. Every stronger com­mu­ni­ty be­gins with one re­spon­si­ble neigh­bour. Every stronger na­tion be­gins with one faith­ful cit­i­zen.”

He added, “Nev­er un­der­es­ti­mate your in­flu­ence. One act of hon­esty strength­ens trust. One act of kind­ness re­stores hope. One act of courage in­spires oth­ers. One act of ser­vice strength­ens a na­tion.”

Seep­er­sad al­so told the grad­u­ates that lead­er­ship was root­ed in ser­vice rather than recog­ni­tion.

“The great­est lead­ers rarely seek at­ten­tion, but they qui­et­ly serve oth­ers, and the high­est form of lead­er­ship is stew­ard­ship.”

He urged the stu­dents to val­ue in­tegri­ty above sta­tus.

“Trinidad and To­ba­go does not sim­ply need brighter stu­dents. It needs bet­ter cit­i­zens, and I im­plore you to re­mem­ber that char­ac­ter shapes cit­i­zens and cit­i­zens shape na­tions.”

He en­cour­aged them to “pur­sue ex­cel­lence with de­ter­mi­na­tion, but nev­er al­low per­son­al suc­cess to be­come your great­est am­bi­tion,” in­stead striv­ing for “char­ac­ter be­fore com­fort, ser­vice be­fore self, con­tri­bu­tion be­fore com­plaint and stew­ard­ship be­fore sta­tus.”

The cer­e­mo­ny al­so fea­tured re­marks from En­er­gy Min­is­ter Dr Roodal Mooni­lal, whose son, Nischol, was among the grad­u­at­ing class.