In my remarks at the event held at the National Cultural Centre (NCC) on March 3, to mark the centenary of the abolition of Indian indentureship, I said that we have the “politics of one ‘upmanship’ that serves egos rather than country and people.” This statement was met by applause.
It resonated with the audience as did other statements made by other speakers. When Mr Ravi Dev reminded the audience that the NCC was built by President Forbes Burnham with monies from the Indian Repatriation Fund and that it was “our” Cultural Centre, this also drew applause as did his remarks on the plight of the sugar workers with estates facing closure.
Acting President and Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo also spoke as did Social Cohesion Minister, Dr George Norton. Their addresses stayed close to the script of the occasion’s historical significance as did the Indian High Commissioner’s remarks on the night’s theme, “Garv Aur Izzat” (Pride and Dignity).
But when People’s Progressive Party (PPP) MP Adrian Anamayah, representing Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo, took the stage and waded in to the politics of sugar estate closures a few Indian Guyanese in the audience felt that his speech was too political and that it was neither the time nor the place.
When the Indian Guyanese community is facing down threats to their livelihood and wellbeing in every area, from the rice and sugar industries to the business sector to private school fees being taxed in what might be a move to end what has been referred to as “education apartheid” – it is always the time and place to speak; and if not at a ceremony to mark the hundredth year since indentureship was abolished, then when?
When we stand on platforms and speak of the Indian martyrs who gave their lives for the sake of our future, everyone applauds. To speak of our fore-parents’ resistance against colonialism is safe and commendable.
For us to embrace that legacy of resistance and act on it, however, is met with vexation. But if we do not yet feel that we are free to speak and act when our community is under threat, are we then still tied to a bound status?
Perhaps, the critics feel they have much to lose if they do not subsume their current fears and anxieties about our future. But it is such submissiveness which denies our community garv aur izzat, not resisting injustice.
It is always the right time to resist prejudice and injustice and had the situation arisen then of Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo being arrested along with other PPP members by SOCU for misappropriating State assets, the remarks might have been even more political.
If crimes were committed, there should be consequences for sure but the hypocrisy of a wholly corrupt Government accusing the previous PPP/C Administration of wrongdoing is not lost on anyone and Indian Guyanese all along the coast are angry at what they view as political vindictiveness against their leaders.
That the arrests were timed to this particular moment when we are marking a historic centenary cannot be purely coincidental either.
The subject of my address at the NCC was: “Where we are; where we are heading” and I started with a quip that we came on ships and are leaving on jet planes then proceeded to give the reasons for our departure, the main one being that a safe and secure future is denied us in a country that we have worked for and died for.
I made an appeal to the Government and Opposition members present and said that they “can change the direction of our country if there is the political will” and spoke to the continued marginalisation of the Indian Guyanese community in the national narrative vis a vis cultural presentations, and in our history and literature texts.
We were also accused of wallowing in victimhood when neither I nor Mr Dev nor Mr Anamayah wrung our hands and bemoaned our fate, and that comment actually contradicts another that we were calling for an “uprising”.
Indian Guyanese have long transcended the past of indentureship and colonial horrors and anyone who heard wallowing in our fighting words is likely projecting their own feelings of victimhood onto us.
I said in conclusion: “We are a people of strong faith and enduring values – we have overcome before. Perhaps, we can hope to overcome again.”
Today, March 12, is the date that the Abolition Act was signed in India 100 hundred years ago. Now is the time to take a brave stand.
There is no garv aur izzat if we fail to do so.
