[www.inewsguyana.com] – Delivering addresses to mark the occasion of Youman Nabi at the Queenstown Masjid and later at the Peter’s Hall Masjid, President Donald Ramotar reminded worshippers that many of the issues that Prophet Muhammad sought to overcome, still exist today.
“What he was fighting for was to end poverty, to give people dignity. He was fighting for justice and freedom. Today we look around the world, we see some of those same things existing, and therefore we need to continue to work to eradicate them in our society,” he said.
The President urged the gathering at both masjids to take inspiration from the example set by the Holy Prophet. He cited conflicts such as that in the Sudan, noting, “what the Holy Prophet was trying to do was show the oneness of humanity, despite the diversity of our culture and our ethnic background, but if you look around the place, you will see many of these wars and struggles that are taking place are covered by differences that are created by people.”
He added, “In our country we still have lot to do, still have to fight to get our people out of poverty and the best way to do that is to try to help them to help themselves… we recognise that we have to do two things that are important; we have to create wealth in our country to satisfy the needs of our people, and we have to able to distribute that wealth so that everyone benefits,” he said.
He noted that Government has moved thus far in this direction, pointing out that Guyana is the only Caribbean nation where 30 percent of the National Budget goes to the social sectors.
“In that way, we believe we can distribute the wealth of society to the broadest amount of people we can find. Most of the 30 percent goes to education, because we see education as the hook that can help people come out of poverty,” he said.
The President also pointed out that a significant amount also goes towards improving health and providing affordable housing.
