Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo, speaking on Wednesday at the Commemorative Ceremony of the 104th Anniversary of the Rose Hall Sugar Estate Martyrs declared that Guyana’s sugar industry would not be closed.
Prime Minister Nagamootoo during his remarks noted that on the 6th January, 2017 President David Granger designated 13th March as Rose Hall Martyrs’ Day.
The Prime Minister explained the series of events leading up to the killing of the 15 Rose Hall Martyrs. Those martyrs, he noted, were Badri, Bholay, Durga, Gafur, Jugai, Juggo, Hulas, Lalji, Motey Khan, Nibur, Roopan, Sadulla, Sarjoo, Sohan and Gobindei, the only woman.
The massacre, Prime Minster Nagamootoo explained, of the sugar workers brought greater attention to the cruelty of the system of indentureship, under which some 240,000 East Indians were brought to the then British Guiana.
Prime Minister Nagamootoo said that “today we pay tribute to the Rose Hall martyrs and all other martyrs and proclaim that their sacrifices were not in vain. The history of bitter sugar goes back some 300 years and is linked to colonial imperialist greed and conquest.”
Today (March 16, 2017) marks 253 years since 1764 when over 80 African revolutionaries were condemned to death and were executed in horrible ways. In the world today, Prime Minister explained, sugar estates are closing down very rapidly and “we have to ensure that GUYSUCO does not come out of sugar, we cannot give up the effort to transform the industry, to modernised sugar industry.” Prime Minister affirmed that “the sugar industry would not be closed, I do not see this ever happening in my lifetime.”
