Georgetown: President Donald Ramotar, addressing thousands of patrons of the Indian Arrival Committee’s International Mela, in commemoration of the 175th Anniversary of Indian Arrival to Guyana. He urged that they stand united with the Government, and to defend the strong foundation set by their ancestors, from being reversed by political machinations.
During his address at the Albion Centre Ground, Berbice, President Ramotar reminded that the first East Indian would have been mislead into coming to Guyana, with the promise of a country of ‘milk and honey, and water and gold’, and instead found a society in which slavery still existed. These first arrivals had to live and work under similar conditions as slaves in Guyana.
“Our ancestors persevered and they worked extremely hard and made a contribution to the development of Guyana that today stands as the foundation of the work that they carried out when they came here, building on the work of the slaves, adding to that, and today, we have a platform on which we can develop,” the President.
East Indians, he noted, struggled every inch of the way, not only for a better standard of living and improved working conditions, but to change the system. Their first victory was in 1917, when the entire indentured system was abolished, President Ramotar said.
The struggles continued against colonialism, and the Indian presence was also a great part of the struggle of trade unionism, in the fight for independence and after independence, the general fight for democracy. The latter saw many losing their lives, the Head of State reminded.
“When democracy was returned to Guyana in 1992, we figured that we will be building our country, and that we will transform Guyana in many ways, however there are still many obstacles in the path,” the President said. He then referred to the current situation in Parliament and the Opposition cutting over $30B from Budget 2013, which provides for transformative projects aimed at propelling the country’s development.
“I said, and I am saying again tonight, that we will do everything that we can to ensure that we restore the Budget to its original position, so that our people can have development,” the President said. He then called on Berbicians to support him and the government in this regard.
“…while we celebrate tonight, let us work together, let us stand with strong unity, to prevent the progress that we have made, to prevent it from being reversed, because we see the trend, we see the Opposition, they are not acting like two parties in the Parliament, they are acting as one… therefore, what we want is unity in order to fight to preserve the gains that we have made,” he said.
“We call upon you to support us and let us work together to restore the cuts that were done,” he added.
The President told the Berbicians that Guyana’s development scope must not be reversed, to the days, when Guyanese could not have had flour, bread or roti.
May 5, marked the 175th anniversary of the arrival of East Indians to Guyana. In commemoration of milestone, the IAC held two melas; the first on May 5 on the Essequibo Coast, at the Anna Regina Centre Ground and the other at the Albion Centre Ground.
Both events were highly attended, and patrons well entertained, with the rich Indian culture told through the performance of local and regional (Trinidad and Tobago) artistes.
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