Dear Editor,
My recent letter about servant leadership in Guyana and the need to find a win-win solution for Guyanese taxpayers and GuySuCo was turned into a magnificent masquerade by a letter written by the bosses of GAWU. I say bosses, because the definition of the word ‘leadership’ is a mystery to GAWU.
It is this type of lack of economic understanding and ethnic politics that have led us to a point where after being notified 15 years ago by the European Union that subsidies would end, and after billions of dollars provided by the EU to transform the industry, that ethnic politics built around creating a dependent voter block for the PPP has left us with a GuySuCo which is $77 billion in debt, and which needs $45 billion in investment if it is to produce 300,000 tonnes of sugar under existing conditions. Even with that subsidy, if the government were producing 300,000 tonnes it would have to subsidise GuySuCo by a further $5 billion per year.
Mr Seepaul Narine, General Secretary of GAWU must have been reading some other letter and not the one I wrote when he said, “Mr Phillps also points to government support to the sugar industry. We posit, however, that the contemporary support cannot be disconnected from the support, financial and otherwise, that the industry in the past and present has and is contributing to Guyana and its people. So far there has not been any mention of those contributions in the discussions on sugar. Nevertheless, our union accepts that the government cannot support the sugar industry ad infinitum”.
Editor, the main thrust of my recent letter was the 5 elements necessary in Guyana for equitable sustainable development and social cohesion, and the need for servant leaders in the government, private sector, civil society and the media to step forward from a cowardly silence to find a win-win solution, because GAWU is not interested in win-win. At least, perhaps responding to my letter, the Private Sector Commission seems to have woken up from their Rip van Winkle slumber of the last decade and have asked for the government to hold up so that 5 years after the problem has started they will provide a solution. I wonder how many of these businessmen will run a business at $1 billion a month in losses. At least the people of Guyana will look forward to their contributions.
Mr Narine, the government and people of Guyana cannot afford to subsidize GuySuCo as it is currently operating, and the sooner GAWU and the PPP realize this, the better for all.
GuySuCo needs right-sizing, diversification and business unit portfolio management. GAWU should also realize that diversification is an investment and needs billions of dollars. Hopefully, the private sector will bring some of this ‘bread’ to the table.
Yours faithfully,
Eric Phillips
President
The African Business Roundtable
