Speech of the President of the Student Union

(11 Mar 2016)

Dr Dharma Basgeet, Director Implementation and Product

Development, Ceridian Mauritius Ltd
Professor Theesan Bahorun, President,

UTM

Board

of

Governors
Dr. Sharmila Seetulsing-Goorah, Director General University

of Technology, Mauritius
Heads of Schools
Academic and Non-Academic Staff of the UTM
Students of the University of Technology, Mauritius
Members of the media
Distinguished Guests,
Friends,
Ladies and Gentlemen

Good Morning.
It is my pleasure today to welcome you, on behalf of the student
union, to the University of Technology, Mauritius on the occasion
of the Independence Day.
Its with a sense of pride that I stand here today and I see all of
you together under the same rood. I am proud when I see this
cultural diaspora prevailing at the UTM. I have been working for 6
years to reach this level and I intend to continue on this good
path. Theres a lot of good work remaining to be done, and this
road is certainly bricked by hardships all along, but seeing you all
here, I surely know that we will overcome every single obstacle

which we shall encounter in the future... A future belonging

to us, we the youth

You can always count on me to be by your side, be it youngsters
of UTM or youngsters all around. Youngsters of today,
important members of the society tomorrow, we need to
realise right now that we will be the major stakeholders of all
changes which are and will keep happening in the country, be it in
the economic sector, education sector, or even the socio-political
sector, we will be the successors of those before us, and who will
contribute to the progress of the country.

Our forefathers fought for our independence, in view to live as

free citizens and in harmony, which we need to uphold and show
that we are free and are living in harmony, removing every
existing barriers that are preventing us from doing so, and to
become the successors we should start by changing our mindsets, by establishing the culture de partage, de paix et de
lunit at our UTM. A change in the mental attitude of our
youngsters is necessary. As many of them are service-minded,
they do not want to take risks. Incentives by govt needed to
encourage and empower young entrepreneurs. Loan procedures
by DBM and other institution should be revised and simplified.
Workshops should be organized by those institutions to give an
overview to youngsters of the available facilities to setup
businesses. I take the responsibility of organizing such an event
next month here itself on the campus.

I would like to point out that it is our responsibility as youth to

move forward and contribute to the progress of our country.
Society acknowledges generation Y and Z as the facebook

generation, and I believe in this generation, the one that is

identified as being the facebook generation is one which is online,
and is the future of this country. The Textile and Tourism Industries
boost has allowed Mauritius to take off after its independence and
sadly today we cannot rely solely on these sectors. The economy,
on a world wide scale has evolved and thus changed, and we
have to use this generations knowledge and minds to redesign
the national economy, to empower our workforce so that once
again, we prove ourselves to the world, that one small country,
one independent small country, can relies on its youth. With the
soon arriving Heritage City we will need at all cost prevent foreign
experts and employees to work on and in these smart cities.
Today, this Independence Day, I will emphasize on Independence.

Independence is to show our self-reliance and show the world,

what we, the Mauritian Youth, are capable of. I am not denying
that we do not need foreign expertise but we should try to be
independent on all levels, become competent and knowledgeable
so that we become, tomorrow, the pillars of this society. And I
stand uncorrected that success comes from hard work which we
should start right now. Inadequate growth of economic
opportunities: In comparison with the growth of population, the
economic opportunities in the country in trade, industry,
commerce, and agriculture have not proportionally increased,
with the result that there are more young men seeking
employment than there are opportunities to absorb them.

I have many ideas in head and I require your cooperation to

progress with these. I am known to be an impartial man of his
words, and I have never let anyone down in this institution. I have
fought and will continue to do so for the betterment of our rights

and our life on campus and to ensure that we have the best
education possible. We are the future, the builders of Mauritius.
I will close with a quote from Irish singer and social activist and in
2004 winner National Freedom Award, who is well known to most
of us, Bono:
This

is a time for bold measures. This is the

country, and YOU are the generation.

Thank you