Was Ramjattan quoted accurately?

Jan 30, 2018 Letters

Dear Editor,
The Guyana Times of January 26, 2018 reports Vice President and Minister of Public Security, Khemraj Ramjattan, as saying in relation to sugar industry that “…probably it was destined to fail. Probably God wanted it that way.”
We had to read this section twice as we simply could not believe that a senior Government official would have made such an unbelievable statement. To invoke the name of the Good Lord to justify what Minister Ramjattan termed “hard decisions” is clearly beyond reprehensible.
Moreover, to say the industry was destined to fail says a lot about the leadership of the Coalition Government and the sincerity of its commitments before the 2015 Elections Campaign. Clearly, Minister Ramjattan is clutching at straws as he seeks to find any ignoble justification to excuse his Government’s callous approach to the sugar industry.
The article made reference to the severance pay and quotes the Minster as saying “(GAWU) came up with a suggestion…then we decided all under $500,000 are going to get their full lump sums…”
If the quote is indeed correct, as we did not see it featured in reports appearing in other sections of the media, then the Minister is patently wrong and misled those present. As GAWU earlier explained over the past days, when the issue of severance payments was raised by the Government delegation when we met, both our Union and NAACIE took an intractable position that the payments to the workers should be made at once.
Minister Ramjattan, who was present at the meeting, knows this and, therefore, to say otherwise is dishonest.
Yours faithfully,
Seepaul Narine
General Secretary
GAWU

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