Help build unity --President Jagdeo tells GDF by Sharon Lall Guyana Chronicle September 6, 1999 PRESIDENT Bharrat Jagdeo yesterday said he hopes the reservoir of skills in the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) will not merely serve in maintaining "territorial integrity" but will spill over in the task of unity and nation-building. "We are extremely proud of the achievements of the Guyana Defence Force for the years that it has been in existence," he said addressing a Officers Cadet Open Day, held at Base Camp Stephenson, Timehri. Twenty-three Cadet Officers drawn from Guyana, Belize and St. Kitts converged on the tarmac of Camp Stephenson displaying tactical and survival skills learnt over the last six and a half weeks. The young Cadets, two of whom are females, will undergo the Standard Officers' Course (SOC 32) until their commissioning later this year. Jungle Survival; a five-kilometer Run/Assault Course; Rappelling display; Training Aids display; Weapons display; Fire and Manoeuvre display and Falling Plate Shoot were the routines, painstakingly displayed for visitors including Prime Minister Sam Hinds, Home Affairs Minister Ronald Gajraj and senior Army personnel. President Jagdeo, in congratulating the group, said their impressive performance has proven that within the ranks of the Guyana Defence Force exists some of the brightest minds in Guyana. The Head of State, who is Commander-in-Chief of the army, said he intends to speak with officers and share with them some of the challenges to be confronted and, perspectives on how this country can be developed. The President urged that ranks and officers of the GDF assist in working to reclaim a sense of respect for professionals in Guyana. He explained that due to the many hardships which have gripped Guyana in the past, professionals in the disciplinary and other fields have not been receiving their "due respect". "We have to work together to return that image to all our professions because it would lend itself to some level of orderliness in our society. "It is time for us to promote national unity and forge a Guyanese identity because that is the only way our country can move forward. We do not have time for petty divisions," President Jagdeo observed. He lauded, too, the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) for functioning admirably in its core task in preserving the territorial integrity of Guyana and maintaining a high level of training. GDF Chief of Staff Major General, Joe Singh, said that yesterday's activity is aimed at informing outsiders about what is being done by the army, and more specifically, the happenings at the Colonel Ulric Pilgrim Officer Cadet School. He pointed out that soldiering is a very complex vocation - one which is not an 8 to 4 job or "shift operation" but, instead, requires that lives be "put on the line", proper functioning 24 hours a day and exposes officers to the frontiers, savannahs, jungles, rivers and interaction with the public through regional systems. Major General Singh said the Cadets in training still have to "walk the straight and narrow" and acquire additional skills on management, leadership, information technology and a knowledge of their functions as Commanders in the interior before they are fully commissioned. A © page from: Guyana: Land of Six Peoples