In defence of fifty years of Moses Nagamootoo’s politics

Nov 10, 2015 Letters

Dear Editor,
I refer to a distorted letter from a confused complainer, Haseef Yusuf in a known PPP propaganda rag, dated 9/11/2015. Yusuf referred to a letter written by Hon. Moses V. Nagamootoo and published on December 20th, 2010 under the caption, “Light a candle for our sugar workers”. Mr Nagamootoo, now the Prime Minister of Guyana, was at the time on the leadership of the PPP, and the letter referred to was a public protest against Messrs Jagdeo and Ramotar for threatening to derecognise and ban GAWU.
If Yusuf was not fed too much of the stuff that has made him “bassidy”, he would have seen that the protest was made in a statement issued by Mr Nagamootoo, which was published in the December 20th, 2010 edition of Kaieteur News under the heading, “Nagamootoo shocked at PPP’s position on GAWU”. In that statement Mr Nagamootoo roasted the decision by GUYSUCO to make GAWU illegal as “reckless”. Everyone knows that Mr. Nagamootoo was among leaders who fought for the recognition of GAWU to bargain for sugar workers.
Recognition was granted under the Forbes Burnham Government in 1976 but Mr Nagamootoo was enraged that in 2010 the pseudo leaders of PPP notably Messrs Jagdeo and Ramotar wanted to take away that status. Having hijacked the PPP, Jagdeo and Ramotar wanted to weaken the sugar workers as they supported zero increase in wages in 2010. In that statement, Mr Nagamootoo said: “I am shocked that the Government could condone the attack on GAWU and the sugar workers and that leaders of my party, the PPP, would expect to be in silent conspiracy with this outrage. I can no longer remain silent.”
For standing up for sugar workers, the then PPP leaders threatened to expel Mr Nagamootoo from the party in which he has been a leader for almost 50 years, and for saying publicly: “I disassociate myself from what seems to be a state-party alliance in sledge hammering GAWU”. At that time, Mr Nagamootoo was convinced that the sugar worker were made scapegoats for the political interference, mismanagement and incompetence in the sugar industry, which was pushed by the Jagdeo-Ramotar clique into bankruptcy and rendered unable to pay wages to sugar workers. Besides the industry was placed in debt in the amount of $82 billion dollars, which would make each sugar worker accountable for $5M debt.
This new government is trying to save the workers’ job, but the very people who destroyed the industry are trying to get sugar workers to go on strike, to spite the coalition, and to remove it from elected office. Again, Mr Nagamootoo should make a national call to light a candle for the sugar industry, which has been placed in its dying bed by the PPP regime.
Jamal F. Khan

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