Kamla on UNC’s 37th anniversary: Love and loyalty sustained me

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar says the “love and loy­al­ty” of sup­port­ers have sus­tained her lead­er­ship of the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress, as she marked the par­ty’s 37th an­niver­sary with a mes­sage of grat­i­tude, re­flec­tion and re­newed com­mit­ment.

In her an­niver­sary state­ment yes­ter­day, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said the par­ty’s strength over near­ly four decades has been root­ed in the un­wa­ver­ing sup­port of its mem­ber­ship, par­tic­u­lar­ly dur­ing chal­leng­ing pe­ri­ods.

“For six­teen years, I have had the ho­n­our and im­mense priv­i­lege of serv­ing as Po­lit­i­cal Leader of this great par­ty,” she said, adding that the jour­ney has been marked by mo­ments that “test­ed our re­solve.”

“But through it all, the love and loy­al­ty have sus­tained me, and the un­wa­ver­ing sup­port of our great mem­bers who stood firm in every sea­son and who nev­er lost faith in our shared pur­pose.”

She de­scribed that sup­port as the foun­da­tion that has car­ried the par­ty for­ward, ex­press­ing “pro­found” grat­i­tude to mem­bers and sup­port­ers.

The Prime Min­is­ter al­so paid trib­ute to the par­ty’s found­ing fa­ther, Bas­deo Pan­day, re­call­ing the UNC’s ori­gins in the 1988 “Club 88” gath­er­ing in Aranguez, where cit­i­zens ral­lied be­hind his lead­er­ship in pur­suit of democ­ra­cy, jus­tice and rep­re­sen­ta­tion.

She not­ed that the move­ment for­mal­ly took shape in 1989 and was built on the prin­ci­ple that the na­tion “be­longs to all its peo­ple,” with a com­mit­ment to in­clu­sion across re­li­gion, eth­nic­i­ty and com­mu­ni­ty.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said the an­niver­sary comes just days af­ter the UNC marked one year since re­turn­ing to Gov­ern­ment fol­low­ing its April 28, 2025 elec­tion vic­to­ry, which she de­scribed as a “de­ci­sive man­date” for re­new­al and sta­bil­i­ty.

“In this first year, the UNC Gov­ern­ment has be­gun restor­ing con­fi­dence, strength­en­ing in­sti­tu­tions, and de­liv­er­ing mean­ing­ful im­prove­ments in cit­i­zens’ lives,” she said, adding that ef­forts to re­build and repo­si­tion the coun­try are on­go­ing.

Fram­ing the par­ty’s his­to­ry as in­sep­a­ra­ble from the peo­ple it rep­re­sents, she said the UNC’s sto­ry re­flects gen­er­a­tions who be­lieved in a “stronger, more just, and more in­clu­sive” Trinidad and To­ba­go.

Look­ing ahead, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said the par­ty re­mains fo­cused on build­ing a na­tion de­fined by “op­por­tu­ni­ty, se­cu­ri­ty, and dig­ni­ty for all,” while ho­n­our­ing the lega­cy of its founders.

She thanked mem­bers and sup­port­ers for their con­tin­ued ded­i­ca­tion, reaf­firm­ing the par­ty’s com­mit­ment to the peo­ple and its be­lief that “bet­ter days are com­ing.”