After 47 years of Independence, Trinidad and Tobago has descended into tyranny and it is time for citizens to ’defend their country’.

This from Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday in his Independence Day address to the nation.

Panday said the country’s descent into tyranny was further underscored by the present administration’s disregard for the will of the citizens.

He highlighted instances such as the Government’s desire to construct an aluminium smelter plant, despite ongoing protests from citizens, as well as the construction of what he called the Prime Minister’s palace-like home for himself.

In a brief interview with the Express, Panday yesterday said he did not see the use of the word, ’tyranny,’ as an overexaggeration or something that was out of place in his Independence Day message.

He defended his statement, saying: ’Tyranny has degrees. You can be a tyrant when you discriminate. You are tyrant when people can’t get drinking water and you want to put up monuments in your honour.’

He said a particular race of people in the country were being oppressed and that was tyrannical.

In his message he termed the Government’s current fiscal policies as bearing resemblance to a ’feeding frenzy’ where the over-abundance of recent economic wealth led to the rapid use of funds and a loss of transparency.

-Aretha Welch