For A Renewed Guyana

Jun 05, 2011 AFC Column, Features / Columnists

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(This week we feature the first installation of a presentation made by Presidential candidate Mr. Khemraj Ramjattan at a meeting of the IDB’s – CIVIL SOCIETY CONSULTATIVE COMMITTEE, 25th May, 2011.)

I, on behalf of the AFC, express deep appreciation to you members of the IDB/Civil Society Consultative Committee for inviting us to this dinner and discussion.
It is heartening to know that civil society members want to hear from our political leadership, and want to secure a moment to scrutinize us on the matters mentioned in your original invite.
We will be more than willing to come again to be further scrutinized, dinner or no dinner, and not only as now in 2011 when we are in opposition battling hard to gain government; but also in 2012, when in Government and battling hard to fast forward this country into a developing nation status.
Let me say at this initial stage that we will have a better grasp of what has to be done only when we are prepared to honestly assess where we are. The AFC sees sense in describing our country as a fragile democracy (an elected dictatorship for some). I personally prefer a recent – “SULTANISTIC” by Professor Jack Goldstone of George Mason University’s School of Public Policy who in a brilliant analysis in the May/June 2011 edition of Foreign Affairs titled “Understanding the Revolutions of 2011”, describes the tottering Middle East regimes as “Sultanistic”.
The attributes of such a Sultanistic regime include:

a) a regime with a national leader who expands his personal power at the expense of formal institutions;
b) a political cabal, around such a Sultan, which appeals to no ideology and have no purpose other than maintaining their personal authority;
c) a preservation of some formal aspects of democracy – elections, political parties, a national assembly, a constitution – but it rules above them by installing compliant supporters in key positions;
d) an accumulation and amassing of great wealth which it uses to buy the loyalty of supporters and to punish opponents. This it manages to do by procuring aid and investment monies, a large proportion of which is then funneled to the Sultan and his cronies;
e) it keeps the masses depoliticized, disorganised and divided by paying the population off with subsidies; and, where unable to do so, by surveillance, media control and intimidation of the citizens, thereby driving fear into citizens’ minds;
f) markedly high levels of corruption and unemployment.

Does that characterisation ring a bell? We in the AFC see those attributes very clearly being present in Guyana where we have a Champion of a Sultan!
I would not bore you with the most interesting other details of Professor Goldstone’s analysis, except to say that he posits that such a Sultanistic regime can unravel with astonishing rapidity, leaving even the Sultan befuddled.
We in Guyana this year have to change this Sultanistic regime and put in place a modern democratic one, by making the right turn.
The Economy and Development Priorities
Our goal is to create a whole new and integrated economy that will stimulate rapid development through Guyana’s production transformation from a raw material producer to a manufacturer of value added goods and services.
Our core principle best encapsulates our undergirding development goal which is that the development of a just society is founded on the supremacy of the rule of law and the belief that all persons are equal. This principle is like the hub of a wheel from which all of our goals and objectives will radiate.
To achieve this we will focus on the agricultural sectors and especially sugar, and the mining industry in the main.
As regards sugar, the AFC proposes to reconfigure the sector to retain its survival and sustainability by investing in Fuel Ethanol and Electricity cogeneration. We have even spoken to certain investors about these proposals.
Two Ethanol plants of capacity 100,000 litres per day, operating at least 300 days per annum, can be built adjacent to the existing sugar factories at Enmore, and Wales. The sugar cane from both the Enmore and LBI/Diamond/Houston cultivation would be transported by punts to the re-configured Enmore sugar factory for milling and extraction. Similarly, sugar cane from West Dem farmers, Wales and Uitvlugt Estates can be combined and be sent to a new Wales factory.
In order to provide the necessary steam and electricity needed at these factories at Enmore and Wales, new steam and electricity cogeneration plants will be built at both these sites.
The expected total investment of these Ethanol Plants, Ethanol Storage, and cogeneration Units is to be approximately US$50M. The field area comprising a total of 40,000 acres, which would be modified over a period of 5 years to accommodate mechanical harvesters, would provide for 1,600,000MT of ripe sugar cane per annum.

1) There would be no significant loss of jobs in the field cultivation areas. In any case, as 20% of the acreage is being modified each year to accept mechanical harvesters, more jobs for tractor and excavator operators would be created, while the reduction in the cane cutters pool would continue on the basis of attrition and aging of the current workforce.

2) The economic activity on the East Coast Demerara and West Bank/Coast Demerara area would see no net loss of major jobs caused by the conversion, and we are likely to see increased commercial activities in the adjacent communities.

3) The two investments would meet with the approval of the World Bank and IFIs which are constantly pushing the Government of Guyana to see either the closure of the Demerara estates or make them produce raw sugar at a competitive world market price, with the latter challenge being impossible to achieve.

The prospect that these factories would be within the competitive range of Brazilian Ethanol production is an important consideration, given the real possibility of the US tariffs on Brazilian origin ethanol.
On the score of agriculture in general, we must not only emphasise better drainage and irrigation of all our cultivable lands, and increasing yields through better husbandry practices; but, we have to make significant investments in research. We have to go the course of genetically modified crop varieties, and prepare our agriculture to adopt to changing climate by utilizing biotechnology to create crop varieties with a tolerance to drought and/or waterlogging.
In relation to mining, Bartica, for example, has been earmarked to be the location for a smelter and refinery to support a jewellery manufacturing industry.
(To be continued)

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