Political leader of the United National Congress (UNC) and Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar says the leadership of the party must never fall into the hands of weak men and women.She said finesse and diplomacy must be backed up with steeliness and savagery when required to define the party’s membership.In an Independence Day message to the ‘UNC family’, posted to social media on Monday, Persad-Bissessar said ‘a UNC leader must never allow our party to be hijacked by the local drug mafia and the fake eat-a-food elite as happened to the PNM’.“More than just a party, the UNC is a belief system rooted in the spirit of resistance, freedom, equality, justice, unity, hope, and faith. It is a spirit that lived in our poor, marginalised ancestors, yet who never allowed themselves to fall by the wayside,” she continued.Persad-Bissessar said, on the nation’s 64th anniversary of Independence, she wrote this message to ‘specially acknowledge the most important people to me, the UNC family’.“I say thank you for the honour of leading our great party and country. I love each one of you, and I will love you all till the day I leave this life,” she added.She acknowledged the mothers, fathers, grandparents and great-grandparents, who she said endured suffering in ‘the lagoons, cane fields, and oilfields to give us a fighting chance pre- and post-independence’.“We remember that our membership was born of people mired in poverty who, at times, survived on salt and rice, while drinking water from ponds and springs. Sometimes eating one meal a day to make the sacrifices needed to educate us in cowsheds and church annexes.‘They fetched water in box carts and bull carts, used flambeaus for light, had no healthcare, possessed one outfit of clothes for going out, and usually had to walk or ride a bicycle for miles in the sun or rain to reach any government service. They were objects of ridicule and hatred in this country for years under the PNM, post-1962 Independence,” she continued.Over the 64 years, she said, they fought to educate their children to ensure that we owned our rightful place as equal citizens in this country.“We must keep working for our sons and daughters to qualify themselves to have better lives than ours. We must never stop learning, working and improving. You must strive to be owners and entrepreneurs, not simply satisfied with being workers or living on state welfare,” she said.She also urged them to have ‘love in our communities’, adding that it was the most valuable key to success.“Never allow your heart to become small and bitter; rather, share it, and it will grow and warm everyone and everything around you. While I encourage you to live with love in your heart, I also say do not crawl on your belly for anyone. It's either peace or total war, nothing in between,” she said.Stating that it was her honour to be the party’s leader, she said she was committed to working tirelessly to ensure their voices were heard and the nation moves in the right direction.