Dear Editor,
I note in President Irfaan Ali’s statement, as released by the Dept. of Public Information, on the occasion of Arrival Day May 5, 2022 holiday that he said: “The 5th of May each year is also observed nationally as Indian Arrival Day”. He used the word “also”. Why was May 5th chosen in the first place (in 2004)? What other momentous event occurred on May 5th in Guyana’s history which is being recognized? Or, is really the recognition of the first Indian indentured labourers’ arrival in then British Guiana on May 5, 1838 – 184 years ago which Mr. Ali refuses to admit? Being an Indians, is he ashamed of crediting Indians by designating the day blandly as “Arrival Day”?
Furthermore, on this May 5, 2022 occasion, the PNCR has grudgingly decided to finally recognize the day as “Indian” Arrival Day. What took them so long, given that by President Granger’s edicts in 2017 he recognized the later arrival of the Chinese indentured labourers as January 12 (1853) as Chinese Arrival Day and then followed up the same year, 2017 by recognizing the earliest of the ethnic groups’ arrival on May 3, (1835) as the Portuguese Arrival Day. Don’t Indians have a standing in Guyana’s history and culture in the eyes of the PPP and PNCR?
Sincerely,
Veda Nath Mohabir
