Miss Universe Guyana 2013; Miss India DEAREST Friends, families and fellow Citizens of Great and beautiful Guyana:

I note the tensions, fears, annoyances, hates, bitterness and yes, even excitement as we draw closer to May 11, the time of National Elections in Guyana.
Some are preaching gloom and doom. Others want gloom and doom it will appear. Yet others fear and withhold their investments due to fear of gloom and doom, which can cause economic pain and even loss.
My people, fellow Guyanese, this Land of many Waters is our country, we must never try to sabotage it. It is not a pageant where an individual alone could be hurt when some people try to bring her down, hurt and damage her; it is an entire nation, a whole country of people with children, and futures, with ambition.
The day after elections, regardless of who wins, we all have to cook our food, go to the market, and get to work, even shower, put on our clothes, make out beds, and exist as always, just as we did all our lives. People should have control of their emotions, not get excited politically, even to the point of violence or intolerance. Violence can be even the use of harsh words.
We are a great people I heard my Father say often; we are a nation of many peoples who have co-existed for many, many years. Why it is at elections we tend to create annoyances amongst ourselves.
This is a beautiful country with people from great civilisations brought under difficult but similar circumstances, so we must be like one big family, sharing each other’s pains, successes. With the exception of the Amerindians, we all came in ships, so we must care this sacred land Guyana, which we call home.
We should never be intolerant to any group, as in this small, yet large and diverse nation, we have learned to live together, work with each other, serve and pray with each other. We cry and laugh together.
Let us think of our similarities and not differences, and for a thing like elections, never be uncaring for another. We have breathed the air together, we ate food from the land, grown by various persons; we give blood without asking which party its owner voted for, or what race was he or she. Similarly we all buy from each other and sell to each other.
I ask the Political parties to be mature, not to use blaring and vulgar music or cursing, thinking that will attract voters. Sorry, this chases them away. The people of this country are not interested in foreign entertainers and big parties, where alcohol will flow copiously. The people of this country want excellent articulation; refined speeches; wisdom at its peak and love to overflow the land. The people want progress, peace, and goodwill. So give them that. They say they have too many parties and vulgarities already.

This message is to all political entities and personalities involved in the election machinery, those seeking offices of power, and also to voters who tend to get emotional at election time.

Katherina Roshana
Ambassador of Peace
Universal peace Federation
(From College, New York).