The redundancy that is affecting the sugar workers

Dec 07, 2017 Letters

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Dear Editor,
On November 10, 2015, an anonymous and cowardly letter writer described me as ‘a confused complainer’ because I exposed Mr Moses Nagamootoo’s hypocrisy with regards the plight of the sugar workers.
Nagamootoo had said at a Rally in Canje (ironically the first set of workers in Berbice to be given redundancy letters) that, ‘Guyanese should light a candle for sugar workers…sugar workers are being screwed’. Now that the sugar workers are being ‘royally screwed’, where is Moses?
Of course, he is not busy parting the Red Sea; that was done a long time ago! He divided the people and was rewarded with his ceremonial crown.
The unknown letter writer then went on to state that Mr Nagamoottoo has a ‘history of standing up for sugar workers’. Nagamootoo in his 2012 Budget speech had said that he was threatened with expulsion because he came to the rescue of the sugar workers. However, he should now recognise and accept the fact that ‘the standing up’ itself is now history.
The real Nagamootoo has now emerged and the ‘standing up’ is for himself only, and no one else. Self-preservation can seal lips and harden hearts. It is now fitting to recall his own words taken from his 2012 Budget Speech , ‘ a classical case of the classical proverb, “ I see not, I hear not, I speak not”, this is the case of the proverbial monkey’.
Today he stands condemned by his own words! It is so unfortunate since I was a great admirer of this man’s zeal as a statesman.
Would the late Dr Cheddi Jagan have stood silently while many of the sugar workers and their families are faced with dire poverty and starvation? Nagamootoo is a self-proclaimed disciple of this great man. In 2012, Nagamootoo bragged that the ‘PPP no longer holds the Jagan standards…We have it over here, the Alliance for Change….’
Apart from Nagamootoo’s reverberating silence, the AFC’s Minister of Agriculture, Mr Noel Holder (Noel being another name for Santa Claus) agreed with Guysuco’s heartless decision to serve redundancy letters to hundreds of sugar worker at Rose Hall and Skeldon Estates before Christmas.
He arrogantly insisted that this decision was in keeping the White Paper, ignoring the fact that the Minister of State, Mr Joseph Harmon had assured the sugar workers that closure of the Estate will be delayed until next year. Is there a disconnection among the ministers of Government? How could the Minister of Agriculture ignore the human aspect of the decision?
President Granger at the UN Environment Assembly in Nairobi, Kenya, stressed that, ‘people must come before profits’ but I do hope that this can be seen as a general guideline of his Government’s policies. However, the manner in which sugar workers are being treated for some time now would suggest otherwise. This maxim does not apply to sugar workers. They are expendables because they are deemed to be ‘the raiders of the Treasury’!
There seems to be reluctance on the part of the Government, especially the Minister of Agriculture and the Prime Minister to meaningfully engage sugar workers at Rose Hall and Skeldon Estates and try to alleviate some of their fears and try to convince them how they will continue to benefit from the privatisation/diversification process.
It is unacceptable for Guysuco and the Department of Public Information to star in video productions and TV programmes. Personal visits and engagement of sugar workers in these communities would have done wonders to appease the sugar workers, but sadly this was above their sky-high status. Leaders must meet and interact with the masses. Sugar workers are more interested where their next meal will come from and not who caused the downfall of Guysuco!
Many of the sugar workers who were given termination letters, live on a day-to-day basis-from one pay day to the next. They do not have an iota of savings; they borrow from friends and relatives and take groceries on credit during the out of crop period, hoping to pay off during crop time.
I know these things because I live among them and my father was a cane cutter and my mother, a weeder at Albion Estate. I also worked as a cane cutter and a cattle ranger for some time at Albion Estate to make ends meet.
Therefore, it means that these workers will literally starve and their children will be unable to go to school. Instead of sharing joy, the Minister and Guyscuo shared sorrow!
This reminds me of the quote from the Bible, ‘To him that hath more shall be given, and to him that hath not, even that which he has shall be taken away’. Pere Noel (Santa Claus) has forsaken the sugar workers and the candles are burnt out.
A final question: Are the redundancy letters to sugar workers just a ploy for the Government to now take up the saviour’s role?
Haseef Yusuf (FCCA; MBA)
RDC Councilor-Region 6
Former Cane Cutter

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