A serious message sugar workers must consider

Nov 18, 2010 Letters

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Dear Editor,
Over the last six years, I have had the privilege of studying this Jagdeo regime up-close and from a distance and thus it was most unfortunate for me to read this “pitty pitty po boy” missive from another phantom of the regime captioned, “Saving the sugar industry, is more important than harping on what were the reason that brought us to this point”.
This is a clear and present reminder of the nature of this pathetic regime. This missive was published in the Kaieteur News of Friday November 12, 2010.
So let us save the sugar industry “phantom of the regime”. This process, however, requires hard work, intellectual fortitude, strategic excellent, stakeholder consultation and buy-in, but most importantly, focused care and attention to the details by the decision makers.
From my understanding of the Jagdeo regime, they possess none of these characteristics traits.
So what are we expecting here “phantom of the regime”, an attitudinal metamorphosis from an intellectual bankrupt and financially corrupt regime?
The sugar belt is the last thing on the minds of the czars and czarinas of the regime. As they enter their final year in office, they are all focused on themselves.
Many of the key ones are singularly focused on completing Pradoville 2, concluding all the personal financial deals to secure financial security for the rest of their lives (even if it mean plundering of the Treasury over the next 12 months) and whenever time permits, they are still hustling to seek personal aggrandizement by travelling global at the taxpayers’ expense on trips that has limited tangible benefit for the nation.
There is no time in their calendar of activities for the vital decisions to saving Guyana much less the sugar industry. That challenge is for the next AFC Government.
But let us get to the crux of the problem at GuySuCo. This “phantom of the regime” is attempting, with crocodile tears, to blame the workers for the mess that GuySuCo is in.  For the nations’ information, it is not the workers who made the decisions to bring the Chinese to Guyana to build a factory that the Indian or Brazilians would have done a better job at.
It was not even the Board of Directors who made this decision. You and I know who it was that made this one man “Kabaka” style decision. But what is not public knowledge is why?
If anyone pays careful attention to our debt pipeline as a nation, they would have recognised where China is in our debt profile.
Since 2000, China has moved from one of the smaller Loan Creditor to one of the top disburser of new loans (see table of disbursement below sourced from the Bank of Guyana).
Do you think Hu Jintao just woke up one morning and fell in love with Guyana? (See table).
Guyana is China’s guinea pig for testing their evolving technology from sugar technology to electricity to hydro power to telecommunication to cheap computers. The joke however, is on us, since it is the Guyanese taxpayers who are paying for it all. China lends money more for political reasons rather than on sound economic justification.
The World Bank and the IDB have a better track record of pressuring the regime on financial transparency, albeit with limited success so far. China on the other hand is so flushed with trillions of excess cash that they can afford to compromise financial excellence for their political vested interest. They have no problem with releasing funds once Guyana’s natural resources are accessible to them and Guyana’s support for the one China policy is intact.
Thus, only god knows how much of the Chinese money has leaked from the system into these Pradoville 2 projects and overseas personal bank accounts of the Czars and Czarinas.
To the “phantom of the regime”, do not dare point a finger at the sugar workers. They are doing the right things for the right reasons. While they have toiled in the sun (like their colleagues in the rice and mining sectors) to be the primary provider of funds to this ungrateful regime; they always had expectations.
They expected the regime to focus on those issues that affect their jobs and lives, making sure their pay packets stretched further. They expected the regime to focus on improving their physical security (less crime), and making sure their children have access to the best education in the Caribbean. They expected the regime to spend their tax dollars wisely, not on wasted pipe dreams projects. They expected the regime to focus on making sure the private and public sector is stimulated to invest in technology that will enhance the nations’ competitiveness.
What they got from this ungrateful regime was clear wastage of the people’s funds on grandiose pipedreams projects like the hotel on the river, the multi-billion dollar trunk main from Brazil and the 90,000 computer elections gimmick. They got a travel budget for the Czars and Carinzas running into over a billion dollars in the last few years, money that could have been better invested into GuySuCo. They got the geometric enrichment of the business associates of the “Kabaka” by way of non-transparent contracts and single source procurement deals.
Well, are the sugar workers “moo-moos to tek it like that?” No Sir? They will strike and strike and maybe even march until they get a fair deal from this ungrateful regime.
I got news for this “phantom of the regime”, we in the AFC have just drafted our thoughts on saving the sugar industry and save it we will and the nation too. It is clear to many of us, it is nothing short of hard work, and intellectual fortitude and most importantly buy-in from the people.
This is a serious message that the sugar workers must consider.  The AFC, using its vast access to talent globally is working overtime on their behalf, to have the strategic plan in place to save the sugar industry unlike those who are currently tasked with that responsibility.
Our primary focus is self-less service to the working people of Guyana regardless of race, class, gender or religious background.  Our Presidential Candidate Mr. Khemraj Ramjattan and the other leaders will be in the field with the people telling them about what we are going to do to save the industry.
Our Presidential Candidate Mr. Ramjattan and his team have equipped themselves and are ready, willing and able to take Government, but it is all in the people’s hands from here on in.
It is either more of the same mediocrity from the PPP or the highly talented and skilled Team AFC. That is the choice.
Sasenarine Singh

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