The sugar belt is evidence of working class economic stagnation

Sep 26, 2012 Letters

Dear Editor,
As October 5 dawns upon us, we must remind the nation of the good memories and very bad memories associated with that date. The good memory is associated with the “dawn of the new era” and the statesmanlike handing over of power from Desmond Hoyte to the people’s President Dr Cheddi Jagan. That was a nation building moment that will be etched in our history books forever. But what fruits did it bear?
Here is an example of one of those fruits. The horrible memory is from the date October 5, 2008 when the Jagdeo/Ramotar regime so called “modern” Skeldon Sugar Factory was commissioned. This Jagdeo/Ramotar creation promised to reduce the cost of production from 17 cents a pound to an average of nine cents a pound. The reality some four years after – the average cost for sugar production went up to 19 cents a pound after they pumped some $44 billion of the taxpayers’ resources into this factory.
But lo and behold, that was not the end of the financial outlay. Today they still have to pay a South African firm some $3 billion more to reconfigure this problem-plagued factory.
Can you imagine the brass of these PPP people? Some $47 billion down the drain and the cost of producing sugar in Guyana went up. Where did these people learn their arithmetic much less their economics?
FACT: In Ghana, a similar sized factory is being built by CARGIL, the US agro-conglomerate at a cost of $22 billion using American technology which is supposed to be more expensive. However in Guyana, we used Chinese technology, spent some $44 billion and still cannot realize the full potential of this factory. The arithmetic just does not add up! Where did all this money go!
And we have the Ministers of the Jagdeo/Ramotar regime having the nerve to go on national TV and shout at the top of their voice in a truly fish market manner that there is no corruption. Who do they think they are fooling?
In conclusion we close with excerpts from President Donald Ramotar inauguration speech of December 3, 2011: “As President of Guyana, I invite Guyanese from all of our political parties, all civic, religious and other groups in our country, to join me in furthering the economic, human, and social development of our country for the next five years.”
Doesn’t the President of Guyana get it; he is not running a cake shop in Guyana? A country cannot progress on speeches only; it is all about effectively engaging stakeholders; designing sound public policy; execution those policies with the full involvement of all the people and during the entire process having good executive judgment.
Was GAWU, the AFC, APNU, DDL, Bank DIH, the Berbice Chamber of Commerce, the religious leaders among others engaged on the PPP turnaround plans?
So if the basics were not done; how on earth can the Jagdeo/Ramotar regime expect economic, human and social development in the sugar industry?
Regards
Dr Asquith Rose and Harish S Singh

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The sugar belt is evidence of working class economic stagnation

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