Dear Editor,
Last week, timber giant Barama Company Ltd, announced that it will be closing its forestry operations, which will result in five hundred persons being dismissed. This is hot on the heels of the dismissal of some two hundred workers earlier this year by Barama. The dismissal of these workers is as a result of the company contracting its operations. The closure of Barama’s forestry operations (according to reports) is due to its inability to reach an agreement with the APNU+AFC regime. This, of course, is very serious since it will affect the purchasing power of hundreds of families.
However, this is not the only company that is shedding its employees. The regime, against the advice of the Commission of Inquiry they established, has moved to contract the sugar industry. Wales estate has been targeted for closure at the end of this year. Almost two thousand workers will be laid off when this closure takes place. The regime has also closed off all operations at LBI and here again, a sizable number of workers came under the hatchet.
Rumours are rife that the Rose Hall estate is also being targeted for closure in the near future.
These acts taking place in the sugar industry today are nothing short of vindictiveness on the part of the leading party in power, the PNCR. That will have a very negative impact not only on the communities that earn their livelihood via the sugar industry, but on the country as a whole.
Added to this is the crisis the rice sector is being faced with. The fact that the government refuses to lift a hand to help the industry has led to a steady decline in that sector. This will also have a negative impact on production and employment in the sector.
Earlier this year, the Aurora Gold Mines had to let go of scores of workers after the construction phase of the work was completed.
Even before these massive layoffs took place, a CDB study showed that youth unemployment was at 40%. This rate is very high. When you factor in the amount of young people leaving school and seeking employment, then we see that the situation is very dire.
To compound all of this is that many of the government’s policies will contribute to a decrease in production levels. The taxing of kitchen gardeners, horse and donkey cart operators, etc, the rescinding of duty free concessions to farmers and small miners for machinery and other equipment will further contribute to the decline in production. The granting of licences to import eight hundred thousand pounds of chicken will also impact negatively on poultry farmers.
All of these combined will contribute to rising unemployment.
The business community has complained bitterly that business has reached an all-time low. Some businesses had to cut importation from some twenty-four containers per year to ten.
Many businesses have also been forced to lay off workers due to the constipated economy. These are hardly ever reported. All these negative actions will sooner or later have a devastating impact on government resources. The slowdown in business is no doubt caused by a decline in demand by citizens for goods and services, which is due to the decrease in their purchasing power.
This regime, with its propensity to spend heavily on unproductive prestige projects, for example, the D’Urban Park project, and their high lifestyle (the good life) will resort more and more to placing taxes on the working people on the one hand and on the other, they will begin to cut back on social spending and other important areas to maintain their growing top heavy bureaucracy and prestige projects. Already we see them cutting funds for constitutional bodies, including the Elections Commission. The quality of life citizens once enjoyed is fast diminishing.
All this can be avoided if the regime would stop practising discrimination; it needs to stop being vindictive in its attitude toward the sugar and rice industries. They still have time to review their position on closing estates in the sugar industry. This is a colossal mistake that will haunt this nation for many years into the future.
The road the government is travelling has already caused the Guyanese people many hardships. Stubbornly staying on this course will lead to more difficulties.
Hard times loom ahead.
Yours faithfully,
Donald Ramotar
