Dear Editor,
The PPP has wasted billions of dollars maintaining a failed enterprise for political ends, ie, holding on to the votes of sugar workers and their families at national and local government elections.
There are political and emotional ties to sugar with its brutal colonial past of slavery and indentureship. The historian, David Granger, must take credit for putting an end to the cry of citizens who live in a modern world but transport sugar cane on their heads. This year’s Emancipation Week celebration must reflect on this cruel system of super exploitation and oppression.
Sugar workers must be adequately compensated by offering them sugar lands where they can plant other crops, which are highly profitable and are in great demand among our citizens and in the Caribbean. Guyana has to explore its huge agricultural potential, something that was completely neglected by the PPP. The sugar workers of Guyana must be placed in the centre of the issue facing the sugar industry, not the product, sugar.
There are certain elements in the current administration, who want to us to further maintain a failed industry ‒ one that is bankrupt. We must not do that. It will be a senseless act representing mis-spending and mismanagement on the part of any government.
Nationalisation hinged on ideology and political expediency, or so it appeared over the last five decades. The PPP and sections of the PNC which claimed to be socialist, nationalised certain private enterprises, without passing them to the people who were employed by the respective enterprises. This was the case with sugar and bauxite, in particular. There have never been any worker-controlled enterprises in Guyana. They all remained state-controlled, and became incompetent, corrupt and bankrupt. The sugar industry was one of those industries that was never placed in the hands of the workers, but managed by PPP leaders, who sat on the board, resulting in gross mismanagement and bankruptcy. They had no experience in running a huge and complex sugar industry.
The Skeldon sugar factory which received billions of dollars, saw no success. This is a graphic demonstration of the total incompetence of Messrs Jagdeo and Donald Ramotar. The former president, Mr Ramotar, sat on the GuySuCo Board for more than two decades and said nothing about the systemic decline of the industry; instead he agreed to pump billions of taxpayers’ money into the failed outfit.
My recent consultation with sugar workers confirms that they want to take over the lands, plant and develop other agricultural products that will be of great value to them and the nation. If these lands are given to sugar workers they can form co-operatives and work them effectively and efficiently, yielding huge profits and reducing the cost of living. The lack of adequate local food supplies is cause for concern.
The current Commission of Inquiry into the sugar industry, which includes Professor Clive Thomas, who has in-depth knowledge of the industry and is a keen advocate of privatisation, must seriously consider the allocation of sugar lands to sugar workers and other working people who have a historical connection to the industry.
No responsible government can afford to ignore the recent information on the demand for cane sugar. The rice industry also cannot be placed in the same position as sugar. The rice industry has never been dependent on taxpayers to bail it out.
In fact, rice is the biggest private sector employer in Guyana and yet has not been given the level of prominence of other industries in Guyana. Rice farmers have experienced a high level of disrespect and contempt from sections of the Guyanese population. The PPP party has shown an opportunistic approach to rice farmers seeing them as voters.
The truth is there are no rice farmers in the current Parliament whom one can look up to with a sense of pride. That will not happen in the future. Rice farmers up and down the country are coming to the conclusion that if we produce a crop that is our staple diet, employ more than a third of the country’s population and earn substantial foreign exchange, then they must be adequately represented in the highest forum of the country ‒ the National Assembly.
The rice industry is the only enterprise that is controlled by the Minister of Agriculture. It is not a private business, despite claims from certain elements who have used the rice farmers. The Minister of Agriculture appoints the Board of Directors on the Guyana Rice Development Board and it is he who appoints the Chairman of the Board, also. The Minister also has to approve key decisions taken by the board. This a very Stalinist approach as practised by the former Soviet Union and other Stalinist states that are now things of the past, but Guyana continues these.
Guyana under President David Granger has got to swiftly move away from the past and devolve powers to the people, first within the organisations of which they are members, and then in the country, as a whole. The recent announcement that there will be local government elections this year by our friend, Ronald Bulkan, is exciting news. It demonstrates the eagerness of the Granger administration to speedily empower our people and allow them to run their own affairs, something the bankrupt PPP was never willing to do. This act of democracy will place the Granger administration in league with other civilised nations of the world.
Yours faithfully,
Jinnah Rahman