Dear Editor,
PNCR parliamentarian Mervyn William’s nauseatingly critical letter which appeared in SN of September 15 under the caption ‘Rice Factories Bill will not solve rice farmers’ problems’ is an attempt at pandering to the rice farmers whose livelihoods were ploughed up by the very party he represents. At a time when the PNC is faced with a bleak future of maintaining its place as the political opposition, much less ever returning to the seat of power, one can very well understand Mr Williams’s mindset.
All the amendments to the Rice Factories Act under this government are aimed at bettering the lives of those within its purview. We do not pretend that changes at the ground level can happen overnight, but it is the responsibility of the government to have the necessary regulatory framework in place – amended when necessary – and fully implemented to ensure that our hardy rice farmers are not exploited, as was so evident under the PNC regime. No matter what regulations and laws are in place, there will always be those who would want to flout them. This is the nature of the human being, but the nature of any caring and serious government would be to have the necessary institutional capacity to deal with such violators. Amending the Rice Factories Act is one way of ensuring our rice farmers are treated with respect by both local and foreign millers.
The severity of the challenges which farmers faced during the backward days of the PNC are fortunately gone forever. The minor difficulties which these farmers face today have been brought on partly by globalization.
It is very presumptuous for the PNC to boldly state that the Rice Factories Bill will not solve rice farmers’ problems at a time when the act is yet to be fully invoked against
violators. It is an act of human kindness to work with violators and help them improve, thereby creating an atmosphere of amicability between millers and farmers, but when delinquent millers persist with their illegal acts in using rice farmers as their financial base, then all sanctions and penalties authorized by the act will be applied.
Mr Williams’s attitude is not unexpected of a party which has seen its meagre popularity in its traditional bases declining even more rapidly. The PNC seems to now have the rice sector in its sights, but the rice farmers know too well the sufferings they endured for 28 long years under the PNC government. Mr Williams and his party are hypocritical in stating that “rice farmers are hard-working people facing severe challenges on a daily basis.” Were not the hard-working rice farmers treated like beggars under the PNC government when they had to line up for days and weeks to sell their paddy to the state mills and then beg and bribe to receive their paddy payments months after?
We cannot “picture investors in the rice industry packing up and leaving Guyana… with no market for their paddy.” The fact is that the global outlook for food-producing countries like Guyana is very good and those who have invested and those who are contemplating investing in Guyana know fully well that any such investors here, or anywhere, are subject to rules and regulations by which they must play.
Had it not been for the PPP government, the rice industry, which was haemorrhaging and in a state of helplessness under the previous PNC government, would have bled to death a long time ago and the few investors then would have long ago packed up and left. As a parliamentarian, Mr Williams ought to be aware of the massive amounts of funds that this government has spent in bringing life back to a sector which supports a large segment of our population. He must be aware of the massive growth in the sector from 1992 onwards. The massive overhaul of all the infrastructure in the rice industry, and indeed throughout the rice belt, is at the core of the menu of measures we have adopted to move this country forward. Our hardworking rice farmers are among the thousands of beneficiaries in an enabling environment created by this government.
Mr Williams should realize that when the PPP government closed Gaibank in 1994, it did so with the firm support and advice of multilateral institutions. It was not a unilateral government decision. Gaibank was so mismanaged that its role as a provider of financial and developmental support was undermined by operatives in the very PNC regime under which it was created.
In 1992 when the PPP took office, the euphoria that engulfed all of Guyana did not miss the rice industry. There was a psychological rejuvenation in the rice industry and paddy fields which were abandoned under 28 years of PNC rule were now put back to life, ploughed, watered and planted. Ever since, rice production in Guyana has increased enormously.
Our President went out of his way in September 2009 to get Venezuela to commence buying our paddy at above-world market prices. Part of the agreement with Venezuela in a trade valued in $US millions, involves Guyana using money from the local account of the Petro Caribe fund to pay local suppliers. It would also be useful for Mr Williams and others to know that Venezuela has similar payment arrangements with other commodity suppliers in the region who are beneficiaries under the PetroCaribe initiative.
As one who seems to suffer from amnesia, Mr Williams ought to know that it was the PNC which brought the Kingston rice storage and loading facility to an unceremonious end. Without even a modicum of competent management of state resources for all of 28 years, the Kingston facility was made obsolete and derelict by those who are now seemingly stage-managing their appearance as ‘representatives’ of the rice farmers. The final nail was driven into the coffin that was the Kingston facility during the time that an expatriate rice mill owner was tenanted there. That tenancy agreement came into being during the final days of PNC rule when sweetheart deals were struck with the very expatriate entity regarding the sale and purchase of several rice installations across the country.
The changes have been for the better of all of Guyana. There is no need for the PPP government to pretend that it is working in the interest of rice farmers. Why should there be pretence when the entire world has seen all that has been done for them.
Having endured 28 years of impoverishment under the PNC regime’s oppressive and dictatorial rule, Guyanese rice farmers have learnt at lesson that will last for many generations to come. No amount of spin by Mr Williams or any of his colleagues at Congress Place will ever ensure even a small footing for such a party in any part of the rice belt.
Yours faithfully,
Narine Singh
