This was Culture Minister Frank Anthony’s message to guests at the Indian Monument Site, Church and Camp Streets on Sunday evening at ‘Pushpanjali 2010’, which is an annual event held in celebration of the arrival of East Indians to Guyana.
The Minister of Culture Youth and Sport urged Guyanese to ‘stand tall’ on the contributions made by their ancestors and work towards the prosperity of their country.

Dr. Anthony noted that Arrival Day was especially set aside to remember the persons who were transplanted from their homeland to Guyana.
He said that persons who came from Asia, Africa and Europe brought their cultures and rich diversity to Guyana.
“May 5 celebrates our rich diversity as a people, and I think because of the exposure that we have had, living with each other and enjoying each other’s culture, we can truly say as Guyanese that we are blessed,” Dr. Anthony said.
The Culture Minister stated that despite the harsh conditions experienced by Guyanese forefathers during their service as labourers in the then British Guiana, they were able, through resolve, to make substantial contributions to the development of the country.
“In every sector of this country we have seen that they have contributed – almost in all spheres you would have seen the indentured labourers. Our ancestors have enriched the Guyanese culture – the beautiful clothing, music, food, festivals have now been accepted as part of the Guyanese culture,” he said.
Minister Anthony told the gathering that, as they reflect on the significance and contributions made by their ancestors, they have much to be proud of since they (ancestors) have laid a strong foundation for Guyanese.
This is the message that President Bharrat Jagdeo repeats, almost as a litany, at practically every national forum at which he officiates.  However, throughout the length of our history, divisive elements with varying agendas have used our diversity to drive wedges between us as a people.
During colonial times the plantocracy tried to create divisions between the freed slaves and the Indian labourers to propagate their own interests.
This divide-and-rule strategy became inherent in the dynamics of plantocracy policy, then by the dictatorial administration, which owed its genesis to this strategy that created rifts in the PPP, which, up to that time, had been mobilizing Guyana’s workforce to agitate as a united body, for the democratization of the Draconian systems guiding the principles of governance then prevailing under colonial rule.
This country has never quite recovered from the distrust deliberated and fostered by the ambitious malcontents in the various races against each other – especially the two major ethnic races in Guyana, and until now dirty politics continue to derail the momentum of unity driven by the dynamics of nationhood that has been forged by shared experiences, interracial marriages, and acculturation of the Guyanese people.
Throughout our history, presidential aspirants have had no qualms in creating divisions and distrust in this nation, and the greatest treasure of our nationhood, which is our diversity, that should make us a force to reckon in the spectrum of regional and international dynamics, is being used as a barrier to national unity, thus weakening us as a people who speak with one voice at international fora.
Unless and until we recognize that if we do not stand united as one nation, using the strands of our diversity to forge us into tensile steel, our development will always face impediments, because external agents can (and have) create gigantic fissures from our national rifts and tear our nationhood asunder, derailing the momentum of our aspirations for achievement and detracting focus from our developmental imperatives.
Our National Motto should not be mere words on paper, but should be the guiding principles dictating our behaviour, and the mantra for our co-existence as one people, one nation, with one destiny.