It is misguided to believe that production shortfall in the sugar industry is climate related

Feb 10, 2009 Letters

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Dear Editor,
I would like to respond to the missive written by one Tej Singh in the Guyana Chronicle of February 2, 2009, captioned, “Production shortfall in the sugar industry is climate related”.

This statement is furthest from the truth, and whichever clique is pushing this statement is misguiding the Guyanese public. It is unfortunate that such an important issue as sugar is being used by some of us to misguide the people, when there is serious work to be done.

Let me put Tej Singh’s fears to rest – sugar is “all a’we thing”, not the exclusive purview of some; and all patriotic Guyanese want to see sugar recover. Our constructive criticism is not aimed to bring sugar down but to build sugar.

When sugar decides to call on the Treasury, and it will, all taxpayers have to fund the call; so it is our business to concern ourselves with sugar.

Tej is correct in saying that the “prescribed duty of the Government is to make certain policies and decisions”, but with rights come responsibilities. The Government has a responsibility to explain to the population (possibly in Parliament) what has occurred in sugar since 2005, and what they are doing about it, since sugar belongs to the people of Guyana, not to the Government.

The Government is only the caretaker, and should know it has a responsibility to tell the real owners the full story.

Up to today, the full truth about sugar is not out in the open, and if Kaieteur News did not break the excerpts of the real story, these massive abnormalities in GuySuCo would have been kept a secret, and the end result would have been worse.

I want to quote what Vidura (a Minister in Hastinapur and expert in politics) said to Mother Kunti, in the Bhagwat Gita, to expound that misgovernment has no place in building a nation. Vidura said:
“Who can overcome the decrees of fate? What must happen happens. The good and evil that men do have to result in good and evil. How can man be called free when he is bound by this law of cause and effect?
He is a puppet in the hands of this law, it pulls the strings and he makes the movements. Our likes and dislikes are of no consequence. Everything is His Will, His Grace.”

This is the fundamental truth that governs human affairs, be it at the individual level, be it at the corporate level, be it at the Government level. Errors were made in Guysuco after the 2005 floods, and we are reaping the effects of those errors. Bad decisions have resulted in bad performance. Did we do adequate husbandry in the fields?

Did we adequately maintain our factories? The truthful answer to these two basic questions will point us to the source of our problems today, and from that we can formulate our solutions.

It is not too late to save GuySuCo, but the controllers of power at GuySuCo must engage the people with the full truth, weed out the negligence and waste, and GuySuCo will recover. I have no evidence of corruption at GuySuCo, but if it is a danger to the company, then it must be minimised.

The new board owes it to the people of Guyana to drop the hatchet whenever necessary, to preserve the good things and wipe out the evil in GuySuCo. If this is done, good will follow GuySuCo.
The recent importation of sugar from Guatemala makes very good economic sense at this point in the life of GuySuCo.

However, Tej Singh must be appreciative of the perceptive disgrace in Guyana importing sugar. When Hoyte did it in the early 90’s it was a perceptive disgrace then, and under the Jagdeo administration in 2009 it still remains a perceptive disgrace.

Guyana should be able to supply the EU and American markets and still have enough for the home markets. It is an effort in futility to argue otherwise. Spin doctors like Tej Singh really disgust me, because they are trying to change an untruth into a truth.

What is clear is that, after the 2005 floods, GuySuCo’s management was negligent in their agronomical practices, they were negligent in their factory maintenance programme, and they were negligent in their reports to the board.

The board, on the other hand, should have had the covert intelligence, gathered from its foot soldiers (the ordinary field and factory hands), on the state of affairs in the fields and factories.
The board should have taken action on that intelligence, because I am convinced that the sugar workers would have told GAWU what was going on. The facts are the board did too little too late.

This is a good lesson in the art of management – always appoint the best to the board (and the old GuySuCo board had some of the best agricultural and strategic minds in Guyana – Dr Permaul, Donald Ramotar, Komal Chand), always empower the board to ask the hard questions and take the hard decisions, since anything else is a disaster in waiting.

Trying to micro-manage all and sundry in Guyana is a certain path to buttress those with ego issues, but it will certainly lead to impoverishment of the masses.

I know the capability of men like Dr Gopaul and Mr Ramotar. We must give them the mandate to act regardless of the consequences, and believe you me, GuySuCo will experience turnaround.
Any attempt at interference in their work will just have detrimental consequences, and we all know where the buck stops when you know what hits the fan – not at the desks of the poor, hard working sugar workers.
Sasenarine Singh

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