Nagamootoo reminisces on Independence
Prime Minister, Moses Nagamootoo waves to the crowd as was being escorted by heads of the disciplined forces Wednesday night    
Prime Minister, Moses Nagamootoo waves to the crowd as was being escorted by heads of the disciplined forces Wednesday night    

…urges cooperation, cohesion

Happy Jubilee to all Guyanese wherever you may be I have known that many many Guyanese have returned from the diaspora to be with us as we celebrate 50 years of our independence and for my brothers and sisters from the Rupununi to the Atlantic Ocean to Marawana to Moleson Creek to all parts of our very huge and diverse country I would like to convey the best wishes of our Government to you on this remarkable celebration of 50 years of independence of Guyana.

This celebration has brought to the fore the love of our people for Guyana, their patriotism, their commitment to go forward as a united country as a free country as a clean country as a green country, as a beautiful country and that is why today I feel so energized, I feel so elated because I have seen the genius of the Guyanese people that they could put all the difficulties behind them and they can look forward to the future with renewed confidence, with a sense of pride, with a sense of commitment , new commitment.

So as I look back on 50 years I recall the night the flag, the golden arrow head, our national flag was hoisted at the national park I was glued like many persons would have in the corentyne would have done or in Essequibo or in the Rupununi or other parts where you didn’t have any television at that time and your hear the voice or bobby more and Rafiek Khan and Victor Insanally as they recount the events that would lead to the unfurling of our independence flag. And so I followed those events very carefully and in fact the independence of Guyana has been a very special part of my life and the struggle for it and the desire for it, I recall at the age of 14 wearing my first long pants, almost like a woman’s jeans I would say.

Motorcade

I went to a motorcade up in Crabwood Creek in 1961 and I joined that motorcade where the intention was that after the 1961 elections Guyana would be independent.  Cheddi Jagan was elected to office then and he led that motorcade then and it was from then that I never looked back, I never falter and I felt that the greatest mission in one’s life is to be able to witness and fight for the freedom of one’s country. It was for me an achievement when Guyana became independent in 1966.

I sat in my home village watching the parade, the march on the road, the procession of people celebrating independence but as I noted on another occasion, for me it was not a happy time as our country was still under a state of emergency and that they were people who are in jail what was called simply hall political prisoners  and therefore for me the occasion of independence was both painful, nostalgic as well as europhic as well as a happy moment a moment that I should be overwhelmed with pride and joy, today I look back at those 50 years since 1966 and I look back at the long journey, the difficult path we have come through and I am more convinced that looking back is not really what we should be doing at this time, we have to look ahead, we have to look to the future, we have to look to see where we are going, it’s good to know where we came from, but I can imagine in the next 50 years I can imagine a beautiful Guyana, my homeland, my mother land, where all our children are properly educated where not a child is left behind, where all our young people, qualified and trained can find gainful employment, where we would have no need to worry that our young people would migrate or they would leave the country with the training and skills – what is called the brain drain.

Where we can look at our mothers and our elderly people and make sure that their needs are satisfied, where we are able to have one of the best or the best health system in the region and nutrition is attended to, why? Why do I say in the next 50 years we could do all of this, we  live in the hope that we can become and oil and gas producing state that you can have more revenues coming from the wealth of our country which is our natural resources, where we can manage our green untapped virgin forestry and we could produce oxygen for the rest of the world and we can be compensated for our supply of oxygen to save this planet for having, perhaps one of the world’s largest natural resort, forestry resort like Iwokrama, a bigger Iwokrama where could use to do all kind of laboratory testing of species that would be good for medicines and all manner of cures of people facing health issues.

Workers being retrained

I can look to our sugar workers being retrained, being retooled for the future so you don’t have to do the back breaking work, that of a mule to be fetching canes on your head, where the sugar industry would be  restructured, where the industry will be rehabilitated and diversified so we don’t have to carry sugar as a national burden, we have to carry the agriculture sector both sugar and rice as potential for the diversification of our economy as the potential for value added products, we would concentrate on manufacturing rather than raw materials extraction, where our young people will put their skills in factories that would produce high quality world quality products commodities from sugar and from rice and from other agricultural products from which our country is richly endowed with soil and water and climate to produce so we can once again become the bread basket of the Caribbean, the bread basket of the western hemisphere.

So I look to the future with optimism, I look the future with hope, I look to the next 50 years with a sense of accomplishment that I have been here on the long journey in the first 50 years and I that I have done all I could and you also, all of you, all of us would have to say that we have done all we could to make Guyana viable for the next 50 years to make Guyana a model of the country we call our homeland, our only home or only paradise, our only resort we have that we can bask in the sunlight, we can enjoy the breeze, we can enjoy the scent and the fume of a clean environment, where you can breathe healthy, stay healthy and live healthy so this is my vision as I bring you these greetings today on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of our independence.

Alternative energy

I want to wish you and your families all the best and I wish to assure you that our Government will continue on this path that we have started to make sure that we provide alternative energy, that we become a green economy, where we do not utilise so much of our resources on fossil fuel, on diesel on gasoline, on bunker fuel, that we could have solar panel, we can have wind energy, that we can have water energy hydro energy, so more Guyanese can have monies more disposable incomes in their pockets, that we are able to gear our economies  and gear our industries and gear our productive sector to receiving energy from renewable sources and that will place us as an envy in the world and that is why I believe that you also share that confidence that there is in fact the fact that Guyana could bounce back in the next few years ahead to a bountiful country, self-sufficient the things we need to consume, laying a viable, solid, unbreakable foundation for better health care, better education, better transportation and overall to be able to provide housing, recreational facilities and those leisure’s and parks that people would need to know that they don’t only work in Guyana but they can enjoy moment of leisure and they can walk in the park and they can enjoy some of the richness of being in Guyana and being Guyanese.

I want also to let you know that in one year we have been in Government we have chosen quite deliberately to focus all we can and divert as much resources as we can afford to celebrate with you the golden jubilee because we recognise that the golden jubilee has brought out something in all of us, that we could celebrate together, we could sing, we could laugh, we could dance, we could enjoy each other’s company not as six different races but as one Guyanese but that we are all one people, one Guyanese nation with one obsession, one passion and that is we should all be reunited and all consider ourselves as citizens of our common homeland so you have much to enjoy, you have much to see during these celebrations but also I would ask that in your silent moment that you consider that we have much more to achieve we have just begun this new journey, we are on the door step of a new exciting step for Guyana so once again happy golden jubilee, enjoy being in Guyana, enjoy being Guyanese. Thank you.

Reflections

I remember the big radio set, it was called Phillips and a big battery like a tractor battery so we were listening to the live coverage of the independence in Georgetown, I was in Berbice in my home village Whim and I was glued to the radio listening to the voices of the most remarkable broadcasters and analysts at that time like Rafiek Khan and Vic Insanally relaying what was happening at the National Park, it was there that the Golden Arrow Head was hoisted for the first time so I recall the sound of jubilation and the sound of elation  and I tried to picture that in my mind’s eye to picture graphically what is happening.

British subject

And I believe that apart from an announcement that the flag has been hoisted by a team that had visited that had gone to Ayanganna or Mount Roraima I believe, there was also a report that was bring broadcast and sent in by whatever means that the flag has been hoisted on the crest of our highest mountain, I also remember a part from the hoisting of the flag at the National Park a significant event that was very emotional for me and I believe for most Guyanese was when Forbes Burnham the then Prime Minister and Cheddi Jagan they embraced and I believe that embrace between those two nationalists leaders had become symbolic of the unity we want to achieve in Guyana among our people so I think on the night of May 25, 1966 it has brought just for that occasion a scintilla of hope, a scintilla of pride a sense that we were no longer British subjects, we were no longer british objects.

I was born in 1947 and the first time I recalled having to apply for a passport – the passport was British Guiana literally telling me I was a british subject and I want it to be known as a Guyanese and so independence on May 26, 1966 has given us that right to be Guyanese citizens and not British subjects and that for me is a liberating achievement, also on the next day May 26, 1966 I was in my home village in a shop refer to as Tara Shop – known for selling nice Mauby and I would say the best Salara in Berbice and we were there in the shop looking at people passing and there were people marching and singing praise of Guyana and welcoming independence and so on and some of the people were calling on me to come out but at that time I was with the People’s Progressive Party and there were several members of the People’s Progressive Party in detention so on that day I had embraced the slogan independence yes, celebrations no and so I felt left out, I felt very emotional because here was someone who literally from boyhood days had embraced the concept of independence for Guyana with a passion and when independence came and not celebrating independence because our country was under a state of emergency with the soldiers running around and in jeeps and there were also these prisoners in detention so those are some of the memories I have but going back in my mind and picturing what had happened there I felt that it part and parcel of the pain that independence brought not only the joy and the struggle and the struggle was not even smooth it was difficult in some respect it was controversial the way independence was achieved.

Bitter legacy

It was controversial and we still had for many years had to live with the bitter legacy of what took place during the independence struggle and even at independence time and that bitter legacy included a legacy of ethnic division in Guyana, political polarization so going back to 50 years, while it was good to live through that period while it is good to have been identified with that period it also for me was a mixed cocktail of joy pride with a sense of pain a sense of nostalgia a sense of not having achieved independence that made us a complete Guyanese personality and for years we battled with this question of our identity so when you look back at 1966 we can say now that not only have we survived those difficulties, it shows that we had the strength as a nation to deal with our problems in whatever way we did, sometimes it was done in conflict but most times Guyanese showed the ability that their desire to cooperate was greater than the temptation to create conflicts and that is what inspired me, that part of it that we have this commitment to cooperate, we have this commitment to move forward and to overcome our difficulties.

 

 

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