Min­is­ter of Land and Le­gal Af­fairs Sad­dam Ho­sein has re­ject­ed at­tempts to pit slav­ery against in­den­ture­ship, say­ing both sys­tems in­flict­ed suf­fer­ing on gen­er­a­tions of peo­ple and should not be treat­ed as com­pet­ing his­tor­i­cal ex­pe­ri­ences.

Re­spond­ing to com­ments by for­mer ed­u­ca­tion min­is­ter Nyan Gads­by-Dol­ly, Ho­sein said the com­par­i­son was "not a com­pe­ti­tion."

"All of our an­ces­tors strug­gled and suf­fered at the hands of our colo­nial mas­ters," he said, adding that at­tempts to rank one ex­pe­ri­ence above an­oth­er on­ly fu­el di­vi­sion.