The RPA is no-one’s ‘toothless poodle’

Mar 24, 2009 Letters

Dear Editor,
This letter is in response to a letter appearing in the Stabroek News and Kaieteur News, purportedly written by one Mr. Harry Rampersaud.
The long-standing champion of rice farmers whom Mr. Jinnah Rahaman continuously alludes to and quotes in his relentless campaign to convince rice farmers to abandon the RPA because its General-Secretary is a PPP MP is Dr. Cheddi Jagan; but even while Dr. Jagan served as President of the RPA he was simultaneously, not only an MP, but head of the PPP and of the political opposition in the National Assembly, so Mr. Rahaman himself invalidates his contentions on this issue.

I presume that Mr. Jinnah Rahaman has an alternative with whom he proposes to replace Mr. Seeraj, and I am convinced that this person would be the toothless poodle of the political party to which belongs both himself and a prominent rice miller, who is currently purporting to be championing the rights of those very rice farmers, which is an anomalous reality and a contradiction of word and deed, and which can only fool a handful of troublemakers in the industry who think everything should be handed to them on a silver platter, without endeavouring on their own behalf, or making any real or sustained effort to work along with the Government to make the industry sustainable during this period of global recession.

These malcontents refuse to consider and recognise that the Government’s several interventions and continuous involvement in the sector is a direct result of the RPA’s informed and educated briefs, evaluations, and representation, from which they have benefited either directly or indirectly.

During an RPA/GRDB-sponsored exchange visit in Crane someone raised the issue of VAT refunds on zero-rated items that are supposed to benefit rice farmers. Mr. Seeraj explained that the RPA had lobbied for padi to also be included in the zero-rating of inputs, or whatever expenses are incurred in the production process within the sector, because previously the regulation had only applied to rice, but that the process to recoup the VAT on the farmers’ outlay from the GRA has been structured to disallow abuse of the concession while enabling registered farmers to be refunded their VAT payments within three months.
The regulation also provides for a penalty whereby GRA is required to pay interest for outstanding balances and late payments to farmers.

It was apparent that a few persons were plants who deliberately attempted to provoke contention and discord at the behest of someone with vested interests in a well-planned, well-orchestrated ploy to manoeuvre Mr. Seeraj into a defensive mode, but it could not succeed because the General-Secretary of the RPA is no walkover and is capable at all times of adumbrating interventions and programmes that have been, and continue to be structured to make the rice industry sustainable, because it is a major sector in the nation’s economy and its continued viability is vital to Guyana’s fiscal imperatives.

So no Jinnah Rahaman, or whomever he is representing, needs to tell the RPA and its administrative and operational arms, nor the Government, that creating enabling synergies to sustain the sector, even while the international trading demographics are unfavourable, is a necessary adjunct to national developmental strategies, and that is why the powerbrokers of the sector, including the Agricultural Minister and the RPA General-Secretary, can confidently state, with supreme conviction, to what extent the Government is prepared to cushion the impacts of the prevailing global trading dynamics so that our rice sector can survive this period of crisis and emerge relatively unscathed when the global variables and factors reconstruct to enhance productivity and profitability within the industry once more.

And one wonders where this gentleman was during the long years of wilderness, when the farmers had been forced to abandon their fields in droves, to the extent where rice had to be imported for domestic consumption.
The RPA, including current General-Secretary Seeraj, who joined the organisation as a young boy in 1989 and has consistently served the rice farmers and the rice sector until now, has been in the forefront of the struggle to restore viability in the industry, despite a hostile administrative environment and extremely constrained resources.

The rice farmers themselves chose Mr. Seeraj as being the most competent of the contenders to represent their interests as GS of the RPA, and it is his aggressive advocacy that has catapulted him into the several decision-making bodies, of which being MP is merely one, which better equips him to advocate on behalf of the farming community, and most rice farmers have unequivocally voiced their satisfaction that their representative is in a position where he can influence policy-decisions that affect the industry at the highest levels; and it has been proven, time and again, that Seeraj’s representation, in both his individual and official capacities, is integral to the survival of the rice industry in Guyana, especially within the prevailing trading climate.

Today, when both the sector and the RPA have endured and prevailed, wannabes who have ignored the industry, the farmers, and the nation, during its critical years are now stridently proclaiming themselves champions and saviours of the rice industry in Guyana.
And will the real Harry Rampersaud stand up to be identified? Because it could hardly be a coincidence that in a computerized data-base of rice-farmers, which lists in excess of 8000 farmers, there is no Harry Rampersaud, who proclaims himself to be an established rice-farmer; nor does anyone out of an approximate 300 rice farmers who have been polled know of him; and the rice-farming community is a close-knit one, so it is hardly likely that any such person exists, or at least exists within the rice-farming community.

As for The Farmer, a magazine which is the RPA’s organ, of which I am editor, no producer of any journal of such quality spends time and effort to promote positions inimical to the interests of the sector that they represent, in this instance the rice sector, and I will quote an excerpt from the editorial of the first edition.
“’The Farmer” has been produced at the behest of RPA’s GS Seeraj to give Guyana’s food producers – of whatever product, a voice. This is the RPA’s tribute to a largely-unappreciated section of the Guyanese community and we invite your contributions.”
So the letter-writer’s contention that farmers have no say in “The Farmer” is obviously erroneous, especially in view of the fact that we have a “Farmers’ Mailbox” section.

Whether the magazines are gathering dust and the contents can enlighten the farmers I leave to the reader to determine, because we are completely out of stock of the earlier editions, and have limited amounts of the later editions in stock, but anyone is welcome to peruse these magazines at RPA’s head office in Crane, WCD and determine whether they serve their primary purpose of informing and educating farmers on matters pertaining to the agricultural sector in general, and the rice sector in particular.

The letter-writer’s aspersions on my competence to produce a journal for rice farmers because I have no background in rice-farming is puerile and malicious, because one does not have to be a doctor to write about the medical profession, but when I was a young child my grandparents owned large rice-farming and cash-crop holdings in an isolated area named Goed-Land, which is located in Canje between New Forest and Gangaram, and in a series of features entitled “Growing Up in Guyana,” published almost two decades ago, I made scant mention of my father’s luxurious home in a gated community.

Almost all of my nostalgic reminiscences were of my times spent on my grandparents’ farm.
The attack on “The Farmer” is because it does represent the interests of rice farmers and expose the realities of those claiming to be the saviours of the rice industry.
Parvati Persaud-Edwards