ARCHIE GUMEDE - A HUMBLE AND GENTLE FREEDOM FIGHTER WHO WAS SUBJECTED TO TWO TREASON TRIALS, BANNINGS, DETENTIONS, RESTRICTIONS AND HARASSMENT

 

ARCHIE GUMEDE  

 

Intro: On June 21 (2024) it was the 26th anniversary of the death of one of the gentle giants of the freedom struggles, Mr Archie Gumede, who was living and working in the town of Pinetown, west of Durban, at that time. Veteran journalist, Subry Govender, who interacted with Gumede since the 1970s to the time of his passing, recalls that Gumede was one of the scores of freedom fighters who put the cause of freedom first before their own personal situations.

 

 

 

(Archie Gumede leading the celebration of the release of Billy Nair from Robben Island Prison.)

 

 

 

By Subry Govender

 

Sometime early in 1995, I had made arrangements to interview one of the doyens of the struggle, Archie Gumede, at his law offices in Pinetown, west of Durban, about his life and the road ahead.

“Hi Subry don’t worry about me,” he said in his usual polite and gentle tone.

“I am just a small cog in the free South Africa now. We have a lot of work to do now to improve the lot of the masses.”

But despite his reservations, I convinced him that I want to record his contributions in the struggles to the overthrow of the former white minority government and the move towards the creation of a non-racial and democratic new South Africa.

At this time, I had just joined the SABC as a senior political journalist and I had decided, in addition to the everyday work of a senior political journalist, to record the lives of many of the activists and leaders I had interacted with during the heightened days of the struggles in the late 1960s, 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s.

Mr Gumede had been appointed an ANC member of the new democratic Parliament after the first democratic elections on April 27 1994. His involvement in the struggles, especially in the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s, had attracted harassment, intimidation, detentions, bannings and treason trial charges from the side of the former dreaded security police.

I already had a great deal of information on Mr Gumede as I had known him at close hand when he was involved with the leaders of the Natal Indian Congress, Release Mandela Committee, the United Democratic Front (UDF) and the alternative Ukusa newspaper.

(Archie Gumede attending the launch of the UDF in Cape Town in the 1980s.)

“Subry, it’s great to see you again. All our work has borne fruit and now the ANC has a major task ahead to bring about social and economic changes for those who had been discriminated and disadvantaged,” he said.

Born as Mtuzela Archibald Jacob Gumede in the district of Pietermaritzburg on March 1 1914, Archie Gumede or “Archie” had been immersed in the political struggles from an early age.

His father, Josiah Gumede, was a founding member of the ANC and was also elected as the fourth president of the organisation.

Archie Gumede became an activist while completing his matriculation in Pietermaritzburg and his law degree at the University of Fort Hare in the Eastern Cape.

He joined the ANC in 1942 but because of his involvement he constantly suffered harassment, bannings, detentions and political trials at the hands of the dreaded security police at that time from the 1950s to the mid-1980s.

While he was being detained under the 90-day detention law in 1963 in the Natal provincial capital of Pietermaritzburg, a senior security policeman approached him in his cell and made the following offer:

"Now Mr Gumede why don' t you behave yourself and be a good chap like Matanzima in the Transkei and we will make you a big shot in the KwaZulu homeland.”

But the genial Mr Gumede politely turned down the offer and told the security policeman that bantustan freedom did not appeal to him and that he was fighting for the liberation of the whole of South Africa.

Immediately after he was released from the 90-day detention, he was served with a five-year banning order and restricted to the district of Pietermaritzburg. He was also house arrested, prevented from attending all political meetings and social gatherings, and had to report to the local police station once a week.

(Archie Gumede leading a UDF Press Conference in Durban in the 1980s.)

The restrictions placed on his political activities was a severe blow because he had been closely associated with the ANC before it was banned in 1960.

Mr Gumede began his political career in 1943 when he became assistant branch secretary of the ANC in Pietermaritzburg. He later became branch secretary and then assistant secretary for the Natal region.

But because the secretary, Mr M. B. Yengwa, and the president, Chief Albert Luthuli, were continually in and out of jail, Mr Gumede used to carry most of the workload in the Natal region.

With a number of comrades,  he launched the Defiance Campaign in Pietermaritzburg and other parts of Natal on behalf of the ANC in 1953. And in 1956 he was one of the delegates to the "People’s Conference" in Kliptown in Johannesburg, where the historic "Freedom Charter",  a document of social justice , was formulated.

His problems with the white minority authorities began immediately after the successful conclusion of the Kliptown conference. In the same year, he was arrested along with 154 other political leaders, including ANC president, Mr Nelson Mandela, Mr Walter Sisulu, Mr Govan Mbeki , Mr Ahmed Kathrada and Mr Raymond Mahlaba, who were all imprisoned for life on Robben Island near Cape Town.

Although Mr Gumede was acquitted mid-way through the five-year trial, he was kept under constant surveillance. And when the South African Government declared a state of emergency after the Sharpeville massacre in 1960, he was detained from March to August at the Pietermaritzburg jail.

In 1963 he was detained again under the 90-day detention law. It was during this period that he was made the "Matanzima offer”.

After his first banning order expired in 1958, he was re-banned for a further two years and restricted to Pietermaritzburg.

During this period, he worked as a clerk in an attorney's office and later qualified as a lawyer. When his second banning order expired, he moved to Pinetown near Durban where he opened up a law practice and set up house in the township of Clermont.

During the late 1960s and early 197Os, police harassment and intimidation was particularly rife and harsh. He kept a low profile and concentrated on building his law practice. But this was not to last too long.

Immediately after the June 1976 uprisings in Soweto and other townships of South Africa, he was invited to join an Education Committee and soon found himself back in the mainstream of resistance politics.

Mr Gumede, despite the many years of detentions, bannings and house arrests, joined the move to heighten the struggles.

(Archie Gumede chatting to Jay Naidoo at a meeting at the Catholic Cathedral in Durban in the 1980s.)

In August 1983, he was elected president of the newly-established United Democratic Front(UDF), which at that time had co-ordinated the struggle against Pretoria's new tri-ethnic constitution. The new scheme was aimed at co-opting the Coloured and Indian people into the white "laager", while excluding the 20-million African majority at that time from all say in the political decision-making processes.

In addition to the UDF, Mr Gumede was also the president of the Release Mandela Committee(RMC) and an official in a host of community organisations and alternative media groups. He had joined leaders such as Griffith Mxenge, Dr A E Gangat, Dr Khorshed Ginwala and this correspondent in the establishment of the Ukusa newspaper. But this newspaper was sabotaged by the security police through bannings, detentions and harassment of its officials.

Mr Gumede, who is the father of seven children, had to pay a heavy price for refusing the "Matanzima" offer by the security policeman.

Although he was entering nearly 70 years in age when I first conducted an interview with him in 1983, he was as vibrant as ever and full of confidence for the future.

As president of the UDF and the RMC, Mr Gumede was on the move all the time and from meeting to meeting. He was revered by young and old alike and was affectionately referred to as "Baba Archie".

But Mr Gumede took this all in his stride when he told me:

"I am only filling the vacuum until our real leaders return from prison and from exile. We can never fill the leadership positions of people of the calibre of Mandela and Sisulu.

"We in the UDF will continue the struggle until our leaders are allowed to return to take their rightful  positions in our society.

"As far as we are concerned there will never be peace and harmony in South Africa as long as our leaders are banned, imprisoned and forced into exile," Mr Gumede had said.

At this time in 1983 he was particularly critical of the role played by the then President Ronald Regan of the United States with the so-called "constructive engagement" policy and the other Western countries.

"Mr Regan will never be able to win our support as long as he tries to maintain the status quo and white rule in South Africa.

"What we would like to know is that why does the United States and the other Western countries always oppose human rights resolutions against South Africa at the United Nations. Is it that they are worried about their kith and kin here? How would they have reacted if the oppressors here in South Africa were black and the oppressed, white?"

Mr Gumede challenged the United States to state whether it was interested in the black people’s  struggles for justice and liberty.

"We will continue our struggles against white minority rule no matter what the Regans or  Thatchers of this world say", he told me.

But soon after this interview, Mr Gumede was detained once again along with Mewa Ramgobin, Paul David, George Sewpersadh, M J Naidoo,  Billy Nair, and Sam Kikine under the apartheid regime’s notorious security laws. But they managed to bring an urgent court action against their detentions and were freed by the Pietermaritzburg Supreme Court.

Soon after their release, they raised the struggles to an international level on September 13 1984 by seeking refuge at the British Consulate which was situated in a building at the corner of the former Smith and Field streets in Durban at that time.

After Gumede and his colleague left the Consulate after a month, he was re-arrested on October 6 1984 on charges of High Treason.

He was one of the activists brought to appear in the High Treason Trial which was held at the Pietermaritzburg High Court. His fellow accused were Isaac Ngcobo, Mewa Ramgobin,  Curtis Nkondo, Sisa Njikelana, Aubrey Mokoena, Sam Kikine, M J Naidoo, Mrs Albertina Sisulu, Essop Jassat, Cassim Salojee, George Sewpersadh, Paul David, Frank Chikane and Thozamile Gqweta.

Defended by Ismail Mahomed, who later became the Chief Justice of South Africa after the dawn of freedom in 1994, Gumede and all his fellow treason trialists were acquitted on December 15 1985.

Gumede and his fellow struggle stalwarts continued with their struggles to see a number of Robben Island prisoners such as Ahmed Kathrada, Walter Sisulu, and Govan Mbeki being released at the end of 1989 and the release of Nelson Mandela in February 1990. At the same time the ANC, PAC and other organisations were unbanned by the then apartheid President, F W De Klerk.

During the transitional peace talks and the negotiations process from the early 1990s to 1994, Gumede played a significant role in building the support base of the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal.

He was elected as an ANC MP in April 1994 and served in this position until his passing on June 21 1998.

At his funeral in Pinetown, glowing tributes were paid about his contributions and sacrifices for the struggles for a “free, non-racial and democratic South Africa”.

The ANC said in a statement: “The ANC dips its revolutionary banner to this great patriot, freedom fighter, journalist and lawyer. Comrade Archie Gumede was a revolutionary for the ideas of a united, non-racial, non-sexist and democratic South Africa he fought for, for so long and so hard.”

More than 30 years into our new South Africa, I am certain that Mr Gumede would appreciate the commitment of many of our leaders, such as President Cyril Ramaphosa, Mr Tito Mboweni and Dr Zweli Mkhize, in the attempts to improve the social and economic lives of those citizens living on the margins of society. But, at the same time, he would be disillusioned and disheartened with the climate of fraud and corruption that have captured certain of the so-called politicians, civil servants, officials and private citizens. This degeneration is one of the main reasons for the deep levels of poverty, unemployment and inequality that continues to plague the new South Africa, more than 30 years into freedom. Ends – subrygovender@gmail.com Oct 3 2024

 

 

 

 

POLITICAL AWAKENING IN THE SUGAR CANE FIELDS

 

 

In April 2019, veteran political journalist, Subry Govender, published and launched his family’s roots story, which he had researched since the early 1970s.  The family history book, “Flight of Young Lovers”, traces his family’s roots to a little village in Tamil Nadu and how they came to work as indentured labourers at the Blackburn Sugar Estate, near Mount Edgecombe. At a time when we are paying tribute to the arrival of indentured labourers 164 years ago,  Subry Govender, recalls his holiday work in the sugar cane fields in the 1960s and how he went about researching his indentured roots.  

 

 

 

RESEARCHING OUR ROOTS

It was 1960 and I was enjoying the start of the first term of my high school holidays. I was 14-years-old and a pupil at the Verulam High School. The school principal was Mr Simon David, who instilled strict discipline not only among his staff members but also among the school pupils.

My father, Mr Subramoney Munien Govender, was also a strict disciplinarian along the same lines as Mr David.

At this time our parents and our seven brothers and sisters were living in a one bed-room tin shanty in Munn Road, Ottawa, about six kilometres from the neighbouring town of Verulam to the north and about four kilometres from the sugar mill town of Mount Edgecombe to the south.

“I don’t want you to waste your time during the holidays,” my father told me. He worked as a laundry hand at Lever Brothers at the Maydon Wharf in Durban and he was finding it extremely difficult to support all of us and send us to school with his meagre wages.

“You must try to find some work and be helpful to the family.”

I spoke to my close friends, Ruthnam Naidoo, who lived with his family near the Ottawa River, and to Veeran Maharaj, the son of Mr S S Maharaj, the owner of the local Flash Clothing factory situated in School Road of our village.

“I think the three of us should go in the morning to work in the sugar fields run by the Ottawa Sugar Estate,” Ruthnam told us.

While I was overjoyed that Ruthnam would join me to work in the sugar fields, I was a bit reluctant for Veeran to join us.

But his father, Mr S S Maharaj, who was a former South African tennis champion and a local leader, was adamant that his son must join us to work in the fields during the school holidays.

“Veeran is also your friend. So I don’t think there should be any problems for him to join you to work in the sugar cane fields during the holidays.”

The next morning, at about 5am, all three of us arrived at the top of a hill where scores of men, women and young boys and girls had gathered to start their day’s work in the fields.

The supervisor, who was referred to as the Sardaar, looked at us with inquisitive eyes and asked whether we also wanted to work in the fields.

He informed us about the work we should do and provided us with hoes.

“You will get paid 30 cents per day, weeding the sugar cane fields from 6am to 1pm,” he said.

When Ruthnam, Veeran and I proceeded to join the other workers, one young woman, speaking in the Tamil language, asked one of her friends:

“Yena intha payengo inga irakerango? Ango vanthe high school porongo.” – (“What are these boys doing here? They are going to high school.”)

We informed the women that we were not special because we attended high school and that we also wanted to earn some money for our families.

We were accepted as one of them and enjoyed the first experience weeding in the sugar cane fields. At lunch time all the women gathered together to share their porridge while the men folk also shared their roti and dhall. Ruthnam, Veeran and I shared our mealie rice and dhall. It was a fantastic atmosphere with all the field workers sitting around and chatting away about their life in the Ottawa “Cotrie” (estate in Tamil).

But this comradeship was not to last for us. On the third day, while busy in the field, I heard the supervisor shouting, screaming and even using swear words at some of the women workers.

At my tender age I was taken aback at the actions of the Sardaar. I placed my hoe down and went out to investigate. The Sardaar was not concerned about the presence of other workers and continued to swear at the group of ladies.

After hesitating for a while, I went up to the Sardaar and asked him:

“Why are you shouting and swearing at the ladies?” The supervisor looked at me and appeared to be somewhat surprised that a young school boy had the audacity to question his actions.

“What has it got to do with you? You are just a school boy. I am not going to answer to you.”

Some of the workers looked on and could not understand the interaction between the Sardaar and me.

I stood my ground and told the Sardaar that he should not be shouting and swearing at the women workers.

But the sardaar was not interested in my views.

“You have come here to work as a labourer and if you don’t want to continue to work, you must just leave.”

I looked at him and picked up enough courage even at the young age of 14 to retort:

“You can stick your job. There’s your hoe. I am leaving.”

I went up to Ruthnam and Veeran and informed them of what had just taken place and that I was leaving the work.

Both Ruthnam and Veeran informed me that if I was not going to continue with the work, then they too would leave. We wished the other field workers goodbye and walked out of the sugar cane field. The workers, especially the women, looked on in dismay. The three of us went back to our village of Ottawa. At the end of the week, three of us received 90 cents each for working three days in the field.

This unfortunate incident in the sugar cane field had a significant effect on me and aroused my interest in the sugar cane estates and its inhabitants as I began to complete my high school education. The school principal, Mr Simon David, and three teachers, a Mr Kissoon, Mr K P Rajoo and Mr P A Pillay also awakened a consciousness in me about the arrival of our forefathers and mothers as indentured labourers.

Mr David, especially, had a strong influence on me whenever I found myself in his office. He always spoke about the importance of attaining an education and how our parents, despite being poor and illiterate, wanted their children to attain a decent education and improve the quality of their lives. Mr David always interspersed his conversations with me with some Tamil phrases.

"YOU FIRGET YOUR ROOTS, YOU FORGET YOUR HISTORY"

After I completed my matriculation in 1964, I began to question my parents about our great-grand-parents and also spoke to my grand-mother, Muniamma Coopoosamy Govender, whenever she visited us.

My interest in our heritage heightened when I started to take an interest in journalism and started to work as a free-lancer for the Post, Daily News, Mercury, Sunday Tribune, and the Indian weeklies,  Leader and Graphic.

After regular conversations with my grand-mother, I found that I too had my roots in a sugar estate not far from Ottawa. I found that it was at the nearby  Blackburn Sugar Estate where my great-grand-parents had worked as indentured labourers for 10 years after they arrived in 1882.

I researched our history and obtained official documents. I found that my great-grand-parents, Kandasamy Naiken, and his “wife”, Thanji, had fled from their village of Navalpore in the North Arcott District of Tamil Nadu after the village elders and the people found that they had conceived a child out of wedlock. In the middle of the night sometime in November 1881 they escaped from the village and arrived in the then city of Madras(now Chennai), capital of Tamil Nadu.

Here they learnt that a ship was leaving for a far- away destination called Natal Colony and the “white man” was looking for labourers. Kandasamy and Thanji reached an agreement that wherever this place Natal  Colony  was it would be a far safer place than Madras. Their parents were looking to kill them because they had disgraced the family by falling in love.

They signed up to work as indentured labourers and boarded a ship called Mars for the then town of Port of Durban. They arrived on January 30 1882 and were recruited to serve their “grimmit” of five years at the Blackburn Sugar Estate. Here their first child, Muniamma, and second daughter, Yellammah, were born.

After serving another five-year term from 1887 to 1892, the Kandasami Naiken family signed on for a white businessman to work for him and his family in Ladysmith. But here they were soon caught up in the Anglo-Boer War and were forced to return to the Port of Durban.

After moving from one district to another in the Port of Durban town, the Naikens and their two daughters finally settled in Dayal Road, Clairwood. Here they toiled as market gardeners and it was from here that Muniamma and her sister, Yellammah, were married.

Muniamma and her husband, Coopoosamy, from the Mount Edgecombe Sugar Estate, produced 14 children, 11 of them survived to give birth to the larger Muniamma family that runs into six generations and more than 500 descendants today. Yellammah did not have any children and her sister, Muniammah, allowed one of her daughters, Patcha, to be raised by her.

This roots story has been captured in a family history book, Flight of Young Lovers, that Subry Govender published and later celebrated at an extended family gathering of more than 200 people at the Enchanted Gardens conference at the former Durban Airport in April this year. I had written the family history book primarily to remind our third, fourth, fifth, sixth and future generation descendants not to forget their rich legacy and roots. Their ancestors left their village in Tamil Nadu, India, under trying circumstances and arrived in South Africa to seek a better life. The descendants have to be reminded that if they forget their roots, then they would forget who they are and would not know the road ahead. ENDS – subrygovender@gmail.com Oct 2 2024 

RECALLING A SPEECH I DELIVERED AT MY FORMER VERULAM HIGH SCHOOL 20 YEARS AGO

 

INTRO: Twenty years ago in October 2004, I delivered a speech to pupils at my former Verulam High School, north of Durban. I found this speech while researching through my files. I am re-publishing the speech as I believe it may be of some assistance to high school pupils today who are on the verge of entering the world outside.

SPEECH DELIVERED AT  VERULAM SECONDARY SCHOOL, ON FRIDAY, OCTOBER 10 2004

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Good afternoon boys, girls, teachers and all others present here.

 

It gives me great pleasure to come here this afternoon to say a word or two.

 

When one of your class mates, Tyrone Naicker, telephoned me and asked to deliver an address to you I was more than pleased to do so. I am very excited that the young boys and girls of this school have established the Student Development Association - the name itself gives an indication that there are some young people here who are concerned about the social conditions in which they find themselves.

 

I am happy to be here today.

 

I attended this school from 1961 to 1965 when it was known as the Verulam High School. At that time the school principal was one of the great educators and community leaders of that era, Simon David. The school was staffed by some of the most dedicated teachers who graced the classrooms at that time. I am certain the teachers today are just as dedicated and committed as those of our era.

And the pupils at that time came from all the areas in and around Verulam and from all social backgrounds, languages and religions. Most of the pupils were from poor and disadvantaged backgrounds where their parents worked as labourers in factories and sugar cane fields and where they lived in houses built of tin and wood.

 

For example I came from an area in Ottawa known as Tin Town. My father worked as a labourer for a large soap company in Durban and my mother worked at a clothing factory in Ottawa.

 

Life was tough - with my parents having to take care of seven children and in addition - two adopted children.

 

I used to fetch water from the nearby river on two tin drums and carrying them in what we used to call a banga.  I also used to fetch coal from the railway line which we used for fire. At that time we did not have running water,  electricity or flush toilets.

 

You must be wondering why am I telling you all this? What is Mr Govender worrying us with what happened so many decades ago? It was your time. Why are you telling us all these nonsensical things?

 

Boys and girls don't be alarmed.

 

My purpose in giving you a little picture of what was life in the early days is to show you that nothing came to people of our generation on a plate.

 

The vast majority of the pupils who attended Verulam High during my time and for many years after that - all of them did not allow their poverty or social and economic disadvantages to be an obstacle in their desire to attain a decent education and improving their lives.

 

Most of the students of that era went on to become teachers, doctors, lawyers, engineers, business people, and other upward mobile social careers. Many also entered the technical field.

 

I was one of the few who entered the field of journalism.

 

I want to show you that life is not easy and no matter the circumstances - all of us should concentrate on our education, and strive to attain the highest qualification possible.

 

Once you have attained an educational qualification you can then stand on your own. You don't have to rely on your parents, your family members or the government to give you a job.

 

You can take care of yourself and stand on your own two feet.

 

Your utilmate aim should be to become an Entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs are are a special group of people that start businesses and create their own opportunities. They not only improve their careers and financial prospects but also contibute to the growth and development of others and our beautiful country. Why become an "employee", when you could be an "employer" and create jobs and opportunities for others.

 

But before you do this - we have to remember that you have to steer clear off all types of anti-social activities that are having a detrimental effect on our youth. We have to respect our parents, our elders and most of all our teachers.

 

The great Mahatma Gandhi once said: "Live the Life you want to be."

In other words, it is not up to others but you yourself to decide what you want to be. If you concentrate on your education and attain the highest qualification possible - then there's no doubt that your life will be better.

 

But at the same time if you feel that your parents will always be there to take care of you and attaining a decent education is not your priority - then life will definitely be different. You will not be ready for your life ahead and the cruel world out there.

 

Fifteen years into our new democracy - we today face many challenges and it is up to all of us to play our part. South Africa is pregnant with opportunities in all areas of life and it is up to you take advantage of the new conditions. We did not allow our social conditions to deter us and so should you.

 

If you fail to attain a decent education then you will only be contributing to the many challenges we face today.

 

LIFE IS NOT EASY OUR THERE.

 

In my work as a journalist - I have noticed that young people face many problems today - there are peer pressures,  drugs, smoking, alcohol, and other anti-social activities. You must decide for yourselves what you want in life. If you become caught up in anti-social activities then you must realise that you are not going to enjoy life to the exent that your colleagues who will graduate to become engineers, Information Technology specialists, doctors, lawyers, media practitioners, artisans like electricians, plumbers, builders and other fields.

 

Let me give you an example. A 16-year-old girl pupil from this very school a few years ago found that having a boy-friend was far more important than her studies. She ignored the pleadings of her family and within a matter of months became pregnant. Now more than two years later she - a child herself - is the mother of a girl child. She now spends her time looking after the child while her husband to be, who also does not have a decent education, works as a waiter in a hotel in Umhlanga. Now ask yourself what is the future of this young girl, who is a child herself?

 

If she does not continue with her education, she is going to rely on her waiter husband or her parents to survive? One just hopes that this little girl will have the determination to continue with her studies for her own good and her future.

 

You have to guard against becoming involved in anti-social activities that will only ruin your lives.

 

As young people - you must get yourselves involved in sporting activities. There are many opportunities today - football, cricket, tennis, squash, athletics, golf and other sports.  I hope you are doing this now in school and also during off-school hours.

 

You must remember that if you keep yourself physically occupied then you will also have a healthy mind.

 

"An idle brain is a devil's workshop."

 

In conclusion, I want to leave you with another of Mahatma Gandhi's inspirational verses.

 

He said: "You come into this world only once, any good you could do, do it now, because you will not pass this way again."

 

He also said and I quote:  "There are many causes that I am prepared to die for but no causes that I am prepared to kill for." 

 

Don't follow the reckless noises of a person called Julius Malema. Do you know who this thug is? Yes he promotes himself as a leader of the youth. But he's not. He's no example to our young people today.

 

I want to leave you with another wise advice from Mahatma Gandhi. He said:

 

"I ask nobody to follow me. Everyone should follow his or her own inner voice."

 

Boys and girls, I am deeply concerned that some of our young people are taking life for granted. Once again - if I have to repeat for the umteenth time - please remember that the only way you are going to take care of yourself and lead a decent life in this materialistic world of ours - is by attaining a decent education. Please please please concentrate on your studies, follow the advice of your parents and elders, and strive to become constructive and productive citizens of our country.

 

Please remember that only with a decent education you will be able to compete in the world out there.

Our parents and forefathers did not give us wealth or money. Their legacy was the importance of education.

Don't allow yourself to be mis-led by anti-social elements in our environment. Rise and rise above all these to become a productive citizen of our beautiful country and the world.

 

But always remember where you came from and the sacrifices your parents and others have made for you to have a better life. 

 

I know you will be going out into the world soon - if you want me to answer some of your concerns about our social and political conditions - I am only too willing to do.

 

I hope I have given you some food for thought.

 

Thank you very much for giving me a patient hearing.

 

M. Subramoney