AS International Day of Peace approaches, Minister within the Ministry of Housing and Water, Susan Rodrigues, is making a special plea for Guyanese to promote harmony and brotherhood amongst one another.

On Saturday last, the minister participated in the Junior Chambers International-Guyana (JCI) ‘A Peaceful and Sustainable Guyana’ seminar. The event was held at Outback Adventures, Canje, Region Six.

During her feature address, Minister Rodrigues stated that the division of the country along racial lines, drawn by opportunistic politicians has affected the rate of the country’s development for far too long and must no long be tolerated.

“With Guyana on the cusp of major transformational change, and the Influx of foreigners who will be looking to capitalize and to take advantage of every opportunity that is created, I cannot think of a more appropriate time to make peace, racial harmony, sustainability and the protection of Guyanese on the top of our agenda,” the minister was quoted as saying in a press release from the Ministry of Housing.

While diving into the country’s colonial background, Minister Rodrigues also underscored that Guyanese have never been inherently racist. Referencing an independent report presented in 1962, she said there was no evidence of segregation amongst any ethnic groups in Guyana. However, she noted that this was used as a tactic on the rise to British Guiana’s independence and handed down through generations by self-seeking politicians.

In this regard, the minister noted that our youth must now be the ones to erase these racial lines, as she complimented JCI on its continuous efforts.

In her calls for peace, she said that while racism is one of the main factors affecting the country, everyone must simultaneously seek to eradicate division in the forms of gender, economic, disability and other forms of discrimination, to achieve the President’s vision for ‘One Guyana’.

At the end of the event, the minister and team from JCI signed peace balloons, with their wishes for a peaceful Guyana. International Day of Peace is a United Nations-sanctioned event observed annually on September 21.