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Speaker:The Honourable Basdeo Panday, Prime Minister of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago
Date: March 30, 2000
Occasion: Remarks at the presentation of the Deed to Land to the Council of Elders of the Baptist Faith of Trinidad and Tobago at the Spiritual Shouter Baptist Liberation Day 2000 Celebrations at Queen's Hall, Port-of-Spain, Trinidad
Ladies and Gentlemen:
Today, two years after you blessed me with Honorary Membership in the Spiritual Shouter Baptist Faith, I again come to you with love as your Brother.
I also come to you in deep humility as your Servant.
Never, not even for one moment, have I ever put aside my obligation to be your Servant.
So, I come to you today in fulfilment of the commitment that I gave to you a year ago, a commitment I gave to Archbishop Burke long before that.
The framework to that commitment goes back in the social history of Trinidad and Tobago.
Exactly 50 years ago, on the 30th of March, 1951, the repressive Shouters Prohibition Ordinance was repealed.
Pivotal to the repeal of that ordinance were the efforts of such people as Albert Gomes, Mitra Sinanan, Audrey Jeffers and Asford Sinanan, who had been petitioned by members of the Spiritual Baptist Shouters Faith.
That was an early manifestation of the harmony in diversity which is our nation�s manifest destiny.
The next major development in the quest for due national recognition for the Spiritual Shouter Baptist Faith was not as readily forthcoming.
After more than 30 separate petitions, and following the passage of two score years and more, requests for a Commemorative Holiday to mark the repeal of the Shouter�s Prohibition Ordinance had gone unanswered.
Though Liberation had been proclaimed in 1951, the recognition of full equality for the Spiritual Baptist Shouters Faith was still to be given formal affirmation by the State, three decades after independence.
The discrimination had not yet ended.
My Dear Brothers and Sisters:
As a product of a Hindu home, and of Presbyterian schooling, and of a Catholic College here in Trinidad, as well as of an eclectic University in the United Kingdom, I have known repression, and I have known discrimination.
I have fought repression, and I have fought discrimination.
It is a fight from which I will never flinch.
I therefore considered it my obligation, on entering the office I now hold, to move swiftly to deal with a debt that was long overdue to the Spiritual Baptist Faith, the Declaration of the National Holiday which the entire nation observes today.
I also saw it as my obligation to find appropriate means of redress for the historical sanctions which had impeded the full flowering of the Spiritual Baptist Shouter Faith from its genesis, and for the generations.
The establishment of the Spiritual Park for African Religions at Maloney is one measure of such redress.
To this end, one year ago, I had the privilege of delivering the Memorandum of Understanding for the formal Transfer of Title to Five Acres of Land at the 25-Acre Spiritual Park for African Religion, to the Council of Elders of the Spiritual Baptist Shouters Faith of Trinidad and Tobago.
I am happy to now confirm that the Deed to the land that I had pledged to you, as signed on the 23rd Day of March, 2000, by Archbishop Barbara Gray Burke, and Elders Dorothy Hercules and Lennard Neverson, has been formally approved and is now properly registered in the name of the Committee for the Council of Elders of the Spiritual Baptist Shouters Faith of Trinidad and Tobago.
One Point Five Seven Zero One Hectares (1.5700) of Land at the area known as the Orange Grove Estate has been transferred to the Committee for an initial period of 30 years at a rental of One Dollar per Annum.
The Lease is renewable for a further 30 year period.
Site designs have been organised and the relevant agencies of the Government have been mobilised to start development work on the Spiritual Park at Maloney.
I stand ready to provide whatever assistance I can render when you have decided on your plan for the use of the property that is now vested in you.
I continue to work for the betterment of all in our country and for the removal of every barrier to genuine equality in our diverse society.
To that end, the abolition of the Common Entrance Examination and the guarantee of a place in a secondary school to every child is a giant step.
The Common Entrance Examination is now history.
The education system is being overhauled and new schools are being constructed for the new school term.
Our religious bodies have a central role in all of this, and I am gratified that the council of Elders has lost no time in setting out to establish a primary School at the Spiritual Park at Maloney.
The declaration of Spiritual Shouter Baptist Liberation Day as a National Holiday is another step in my drive to bring all faiths into the mainstream of Civil Society.
My Brothers and Sisters:
The gift of the land at Maloney is of historical and social significance, and if history is to be accurate great credit for this will go to Archbishop Barbara Gray Burke. She has been a very effective advocate for the Spiritual Baptist Shouters cause.
With all of this, however, "The Journey now start", as Chris "Tambu" Herbert has told us.
Though Trinidad and Tobago has made better progress than most other countries of the world, the journey to a truly unified society in which there will be equal opportunity for all, will be long and hazardous.
As you know, ladies and gentlemen, the management of diversity continues to be the greatest challenge facing the world.
However, my Brothers and Sisters, the effect of Archbishop�s Pantin�s passing gives us hope that we are all capable of putting aside out differences, capable of linking our arms in national endeavours, capable of opening our hearts to one another, and capable of trusting one another.
When we embrace one another in that fashion, it will truly be said of Trinidad and Tobago, "How blessed it is when the Lion and the Lamb lie down together."
In this context, the symbolism of this day, the symbolism of the presentation of the land that is now yours, is a reaffirmation of our belief that every creed and every race shall find an equal place in our society.
It matters not what creed we represent; It matters not which God we worship.
God is a circle whose centre is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere.
If we accept this, we should find no differences to divide us, since we are all part of God�s centre, and God�s circumference.
Archbishop Burke, Elders, Ladies and Gentlemen:
I am greatly privileged to now present to you a copy of the Deed giving you legal title to your land at the Park.
That land is now your land to use for the purpose for which it has been designated.
You have chose, as the initial purpose for this land, the siting of a school. I applaud that decision.
May your use of this land in Spiritual Park enrich the spirit of the members of your faith and of all the people�s in our beloved country.
May the children who will receive learning here be shining stars of their generation.
All glory goes to God.
May God Bless all of your undertakings.