The decision on whether to close or maintain the Wales Sugar Estate should not be guided by profitability but by humanity, which should be the hallmark of developing countries, PPP/C Member of Parliament Odinga Lumumba said during the budget debate last Wednesday.
“If GuySuCo is closed down, what would be the impact on dozens of Indo-Guyanese communities and a mixture of Afro-Guyanese communities throughout this country? Those are the fundamentals. Those are the fundamentals. The fundamental issue is humanity,” Lumumba told the National Assembly.
Lumumba drew parallels between the current state of the sugar industry under the present administration and the decline of the bauxite industry in years past while under PPP/C’s governance. He argued that the PPP/C took the stance to support those affected communities, even while they were in decline and cost millions to be maintained.