President Christine Carla Kangaloo has urged Trinidad and Tobago to protect its democratic freedoms while confronting crime, warning that fear must not cause citizens to gradually accept the erosion of constitutional rights.
In her Republic Day 2026 message marking 50 years since Trinidad and Tobago became a republic, Kangaloo said the anniversary should be more than a celebration. She said it should also provide an opportunity for the country to examine how power is exercised, disagreement is handled and citizens’ rights are protected.
Kangaloo said the transition to republican status in 1976 represented an important act of national self-determination, placing responsibility for the country’s future firmly in the hands of its people.
She said the deeper meaning of republicanism can be seen in how citizens and institutions conduct themselves, including whether public power is exercised with restraint, disagreement is handled with dignity and every citizen is treated as having an equal place in the country.
The President placed particular emphasis on the relationship between national security and individual freedoms as Trinidad and Tobago continues to confront crime.
She acknowledged the grief and anxiety caused by crime and said the State has a duty to protect life, maintain public order and ensure citizens can live without fear.
However, Kangaloo stressed that security, liberty and the sanctity of life must be protected together.
She said measures introduced in the public interest should remain necessary, proportionate, accountable and subject to the law, while exceptional powers should remain truly exceptional.
Kangaloo also warned against allowing fear to gradually change public attitudes towards fundamental rights.
“Rights surrendered in anxious times are not always easily recovered,” she said.
The President said the strength of a constitutional democracy is measured not simply by its ability to exercise power, but by whether it can do so effectively without losing sight of the dignity and freedom of the people it serves.
Kangaloo also addressed Trinidad and Tobago’s diversity, describing the country’s national identity as one shaped by different histories, cultures and faiths.
She said no citizen should be reduced to a label and no group should be made to feel that its place in the Republic is conditional.
“Equal citizenship means that the Republic belongs wholly and equally to every one of us,” she said.
The President called on citizens to protect the country’s diversity through the language they use, the institutions they maintain and the way they treat people with whom they disagree.
She also said republican government requires an active population willing to scrutinise those in power, defend the rights of others and demand that public institutions serve the entire nation.
As Trinidad and Tobago marks 50 years as a republic, Kangaloo said the question is no longer whether the country can govern itself, but whether it will govern itself well.
She called for courage without harshness, vigilance without fear and national pride without hostility towards people who are different.
Kangaloo described the Republic as more than the constitutional arrangement established in 1976, saying it represents a continuing choice to live together under the law, preserve both order and freedom and maintain an equal place for every citizen.
