GUYANA IS AWASH IN BILLIONS!

Jan 18, 2011 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

The government is stubborn and myopic when it comes to the sugar industry. It refuses to accept that a rethink is necessary to turn the industry around and it continues to believe that by following the same turnaround plan that the industry can be revived.
The refusal to engage in re-strategising of the industry is a case of political obduracy. The refusal to accept that there are structural problems within the industry is also a case of stubbornness. This stems from a mortal fear within the ruling administration of admitting that they can be wrong and need to re-assess the situation. This happens when Lilliputians assume too great a say in the affairs of a country.
The vision for the recovery of the sugar industry for 2010 is myopic. The government believes that by simply fixing the problems of the Skeldon Sugar Factory by the second crop that production and the financial fortunes of the sugar industry will improve.
The problems within the sugar industry by the government’s own admission go beyond the defects of the present Skeldon Factory. Last year in an effort to deny workers a fair increase in wages and their annual production incentive, a benefit that was paid even in the worst of times in the industry, the government accused the workers of staying away from work, thereby reducing production hours.
Even though a decision was taken to extend last year’s second crop into this New Year, this decision was eventually scuttled because of a poor turnout after Christmas, something that is traditional, and which those experienced heads in the industry ought to have predicted.
With labour being blamed, it was therefore surprising to learn that the outlook for sugar for this year remains positive, despite no real steps being taken to address the problems of the workers. Even more surprising after the difficulties with the sugar factory at Skeldon, was the continued insistence by the government that the fixing of these problems along with maintenance at other locations will contribute to an improved performance this year. Nothing could be more myopic.
The problems of sugar are now fundamental. It is not going to be easy to deal with poor attendance of workers. There can be no easy substitution between labour and machinery. The introduction of harvesters requires capital and also requires redesigning the beds of the fields, something that will take years. There is therefore no easy fix outside of addressing the problems of labour.
This is something that the government seems unwilling to do, even as it implicitly admits that there is a problem. The government continues to insist that the financial fortunes of the corporation means that it cannot afford the sort of increases which are being demanded by the union. It however found 750 million dollars to pay a one-off 5% to workers.
It is also finding a great deal of money to do other things, including last year’s three billion dollars for housing development, three and half billion dollars for new generators for the electricity system, three billion dollars for a road to the proposed site for a hydroelectric facility, four billion dollars for a new outfall channel to the Atlantic.
Billions were found last year to absorb the massive liquidity within the banking system through the issuance of treasury bonds. The government no longer talks in terms of millions, but billions, and the great thing is that these billions are not being borrowed, but are being raised locally.
This shows just how strong the economy has become under the PPP. The PNCR must be asking themselves how it is that they failed to bring the economy to this state. Yet the very persons that have allowed the economy to become so successful are being ignored year after year by the government.
The sugar workers who, prior to the downturn in the industry, had laboured in an industry which had been the highest foreign exchange earner, have now seen their efforts being devalued and no longer appreciated. All other workers are similarly treated.
With export revenue from gold and other minerals expected to surpass that of sugar, and with billions more dollars expected from the LCDS funds, it is no wonder the workers within the sugar industry are now being given second-class treatment by a government which will ironically depend on these very workers for re-election this year.
And guess what? The workers are going to oblige. No wonder they are being treated the way they are.

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