Dear Editor,
I do not agree with Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo’s view that trust in the Guyanese society is so low and as such, the environment is not conducive for shared governance or for the parliamentary political parties to develop a 10 – 15 years national development plan, as Mr. Nigel Hughes has indicated should be done. People can only go as far as their leader or leaders can take them. An organization, institution, political party and even a country takes on the dominant form of its head, its leader, or leaders. It is my view that our political leaders, particularly the Vice President, has trust issues. Let us examine some of the Vice President’s trust issues.
I have no doubt that the PNCR, AFC and APNU have issues and are not perfect. However, for the Vice President, in 2024, to suggest that the PPP/C government cannot work with the Opposition and are not keen on shared governance and that the parliamentary political parties cannot work together to develop a 10-15 years national development plan for the benefit of the people of Guyana, I strongly disagree with him on this. In fact, I think that Guyana and the Guyanese people are ready for shared governance and for the parliamentary political parties to develop a national development plan. Mr. Jagdeo’s view on this, based on the current Guyana context, is outdated, unsubstantiated, artificial, and mostly convenient for him and the PPP/C.
One area in which the parliamentary political parties can develop a bipartisan agreement instead of playing politics, is the sugar industry. GuySuCo’s management under the APNU+AFC government was significantly more productive than the management from 2020-2024. The total annual tonnes of sugar in 2016 was 183,615, in 2017, 137,298, in 2018, 104,641, in 2019, 90,246, and in 2020, 89,000. However, the total annual tonnes of sugar in 2021 was 58,995, in 2022, 58,025, and in 2023, 60,204. So far, for 2024, according to recent news reports, the figures as of October, show that only 26,783 tonnes of sugar has been produced from a very low yearly target of 59,108, which means that 6,737 tonnes of sugar was produced for the first crop and so far for the second crop, 20,046 was produced, this is totally unacceptable.
The coalition government had a good plan for reorganizing the sugar industry, even during the period of reorganization the industry was producing two to three times more sugar per year. The plan had two key aspects – Maintain the three operating estates – Blairmont, Uitvlugt and Albion, and there was a diversification programme for the four closed estates – Wales, East Demerara, Rose Hall and Skeldon. The plan was to produce 143,000 tonnes of brown sugar per year by 2021 from the three operating estates and those estates were to be reconfigured to also produce about 50,000 tonnes of white sugar annually.
Another economic activity in the new Business Model and Strategic Business Plan was sugar tourism. The then management developed a ‘Cultural Heritage (Sugar) Tourism Strategy’ and product, as a new business line. GuySuCo was going to reconfigure the three operating estates to be production sites for sugar and other products and services, as well as tourism sites. The company had already started to charge a fee of US$50.00/G$10,000 per person for visits to these sites. On the social side, the company developed the Sustainable and Resilient Communities Programme (S&RCP) which was divided into three components: Economic Resilience, Social Resilience and Environmental Resilience. The Economic Resilience component included the Alternative Livelihoods Programme.
Last week I read a letter in the press by the former President Donald Ramotar where he stated that ‘Up to today, the fate of the industry [sugar] remains uncertain because of what the PNC-APNU/AFC did’. Indicating that it was because of the APNU+AFC Coalition Government reorganizing the sugar industry that it is performing badly in 2024, Really Mr. Ramotar, what about being accountable? The coalition government handed the PPP/C government a sugar industry that produced 89,000 tonnes of sugar in 2020. So, how is the coalition government responsible for the poor performance in the industry in 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024?
Let us return to trust in the Guyanese society. Everyday men who are working in the interior send money and other valuable items to their families with their other workmates, people go the bus parks and send money and other things to their families who are living out of the city or in the city, people from all across the country send money and other items to their children who are going to schools in Georgetown, people pay the mini bus conductors every day and most of them do not count the change, and people collect monies from the bank and money transfer agencies and do not routinely count it. Every day in Guyana people do monetary and other transactions and do not sign formal agreements or even count the money being given to them. What does this say about trust in the Guyanese society? It says that trust among ordinary people in the society is relatively high, but the real trust issues are at the institutional level; and the authority to change that and build greater trust at the institutional level, reside with our politicians and leaders, like the Vice President.
Therefore, if the Vice President is of the view that Guyana is not ready for shared governance and a bipartisan national development plan, then he should demit office and make space for others to at least try, for the sake of the Guyanese people and the country. It is my view that we can transform this high trust among ordinary Guyanese to the institutional level but with leadership that is willing to at least try.
Sincerely,
Citizen Audreyanna Thomas
Presidential Candidate 2025