SN failed to provide coverage for commemorative events marking end of indentureship

Dear Editor,

I applaud Sunday Stabroek (Mar 19) for its well written and most apt editorial on the centenary of the ending of indentured labour from India. But the paper cannot escape critique or criticism and must be assailed for its failure to provide news coverage of commemorative events marking the historic occasion.

A centennial is a significant milestone in the history of an event or organization. It is a newsworthy event especially when academics from other countries are speaking at seminars or conventions or at celebrations. Such a significant milestone is usually celebrated or commemorated with a variety of events with the media providing news coverage. Last year’s annual Emancipation celebrations, for example, though not in the same mould as a centennial or 150 or 200 year observance, were given exhaustive coverage in SN, KN, GT, Guyana Chronicle, as well as on TV. But the centenary of the end of indenturedship has been almost totally blanked by SN, KN and GC as well as the electronic media except for GT and TVG (Queens Atlantic Group).

There were a variety of events and programmes in Georgetown, West Berbice, Corentyne, West Dem, Essequibo, and elsewhere commemorating the end of indenturedship. These were released to or announced in the media by organizers. But the major media houses did not find any programme or event commemorating this historic milestone pertaining to Indians worthy of coverage; apart from GT and TVG, no reporters were sent to these events. Press conferences, milestones, cultural events, academic conferences, etc, relating to other ethnic groups get significant coverage but not those relating to Indians. And it will not surprise me if this media does not publish this critique of its lack of reportage of indenturedship centenary events.

The state media provided coverage at two events at which the President and PM attended focusing on their role at the events and in promoting the government. The media did not promote the events but the political leaders were geared more towards state propaganda. The role and performance of others at the events and the programmes themselves were neglected or not covered. The Indian community feels the media is racially biased against it by not providing coverage of its commemorative events, when they have done so for emancipation, Mashramani and other activities.

The media coverage of the ongoing centenary events shows that not much has changed on its reportage of the marginalization of Indians. A hundred years ago and longer, not much appeared in the media on the oppression and brutalization of the indentured. And now, a century later, the media does not have space to print news on events paying tribute to the ancestors or descendants of the indentured as the Indian community recognizes the contributions by the ancestors to the development of the nation. As members of the Indian community note, current media coverage of Indian events is reminiscent of the abuse of Indians a hundred years ago. There were few media reports of the atrocities committed against Indians by the colonial state and the plantation owners and by members of other ethnic groups.

Only the management, editorial board, and proprietors of the current media outlets know the reasons for their reluctance to give media space on events commemorating the centenary of ending the recruitment of indentured labourers. It is a newsworthy milestone on the history of Indians in Guyana indeed throughout the Indian diaspora. It is understandable why the media, because of prohibitive costs, could not send reporters to Trinidad to cover

the four days convention (that drew over fifty delegates from 15 countries) on indenturedship. But certainly SN and other media outlets should have devoted space to the many events held over the last two weeks paying tribute to the ancestors and discussing the future of the Indian community in the Caribbean. Media coverage of commemorative events relating to Indians should receive equal coverage to that given to other ethnic groups by the state owned press. And with the state media marginalizing Indians and not sending its reporters to cover their programmes, the least SN and the private media could have done was to give equity of coverage to the Indian community on this historic milestone. The private and state media coverage of Indian events relating to indenture leaves much to be desired. The Indian community should give serious consideration to having its own media as the state and SN and KN will not give relatively equal space in the written or electronic press. Yours faithfully, Vishnu Bisram

Editor’s note produced a twelve-page supplement in commemoration of the Abolition of Indian Indentureship in the March 19th edition.