Dear Editor,
Dr Ian McDonald, in his short letter (‘Still hopeful about sugar’s future’, Stabroek News, March 8) in response to criticism by Mr Rishee Thakur (‘Bitter Sugar continues to hold sway,’ Sunday Stabroek March 5) demonstrates his genteel manners and class by simply stating “Excellent letter in yesterday’s Sunday Stabroek by Rishee Thakur if he is right”. That qualifier “if he is right” from a man who spent his entire working life in some of the most senior positions in the sugar industry in Guyana, speaks volumes.
While Dr McDonald has described Mr Thakur’s letter as “excellent”, I believe sugar workers would consider it as condescending and insulting when Mr Thakur states, “Much of the employment in sugar is nothing more than welfare, paid to produce a commodity that cannot fetch a competitive price on the world market, and, therefore must be subsidized”.
Due to blundering politicians from the time the sugar industry was nationalized until now, and no fault of sugar workers who are simple wage earners, the industry for quite some time has been in need of subsidy to remain viable. Yet, the sugar workers are producing a commodity which is still earning revenue for the national treasury. As such, they are making a contribution to their wages. Sugar workers therefore are not totally dependent on other taxpayers for their wages. It should not be forgotten too that in the past when the industry was very profitable, sugar workers were subsidizing other sectors of the economy through the government imposed sugar levy.
If sugar workers who are producing a commodity that is generating revenue for the state can be seen as recipients of state welfare because of subsidy to the industry, then what is the status of all the public sector employees who do not generate any revenue and whose entire wage packet is wholly funded by the state? Would Mr Thakur, a lecturer at the University of Guyana, Berbice, whose salary is fully funded by taxpayers consider himself a recipient of state welfare?
Incidentally, I believe GuySuCo is the largest employer in Guyana. This would mean that a significant number of civil servants, certainly in the tax department and the National Insurance Scheme, are involved in processing transactions relating to sugar workers. With the planned closure of a number of estates and reduction in the number of sugar workers, will this be accompanied a corresponding reduction in civil servants in the tax department and the NIS?
Yours faithfully,
Harry Hergash
