‘Leadership means service to society, not ourselves’

-Anna Ramdass

‘help build society’: Kamla Persad-Bissessar

Those who aspire to leadership must do so not for power and material comfort, but for the people of the country, says Siparia MP Kamla Persad-Bissessar.

Persad-Bissessar was speaking last night at a fund-raising banquet at the Chinmaya Mission in Couva.

The candidate for United National Congress political leader said people who desire to lead a nation must pay attention to the teachings of the Hindu holy book, the Bhagavad Gita, ’to remind ourselves that we lead not to gain power or material comforts, but to lead the way and help build a society based on service in which all of us are seen only as children of God’.

She said in her own private life and public career she had difficult moments where she had to rely on the scriptures to resolve conflict.

’The Gita teaches us that in defence of what is righteous, we sometimes have to fight our own kin. And in the end, the righteous always wins. God’s promise to humankind is that whenever evil takes root in a society, He will manifest himself to restore order,’ she said.

Today, she said, the nation is facing its darkest moment and the people need to pray for God’s intervention to deal with this menace.

’Those of us who lead or wish to be leaders in our society must accept that leadership means service to society, not to ourselves. It is that selfless devotion that is demonstrated in the work you have been doing here at the Chinmaya mission,’ she said.(Trinidad Express)