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There are lessons Guyana should have learnt – Major-General (Ret’d) Joe Singh- Highlights absence of clear mid-term and long-term plans
Major-General (Ret’d) Joe Singh speaking at Moray House
Former Special Assistant to President David Granger, Major-General (Ret’d), Joe Singh, raised the issue of the lack of a long term plan to cushion the social and economic fallout from the layoffs in the sugar industry last year.
Chairing a panel discussion hosted at the Moray House on Tuesday, Singh set the tone by pointing out that redundancy on the scale recently experienced in the sugar industry is likely to create significant and enduring challenges, not just in the sugar belt communities, but in the wider economy and society.
He noted that there are enough studies available to Guyana where there have been similar effects elsewhere in the closure of coal mines in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom (UK), Russia, Romania and Ukraine and the 2003 closure of the Caroni (1975) Limited sugar estate in Trinidad.
“There are lessons which we should have learnt in our approach to the downsizing and redundancies in the sugar industry,” Singh stated.
He added, “Strategies need to be holistic, flexible, well researched and well funded. Thus far, efforts to address the redundancies, have been publicised, have been partial and focused on the near-term. It is not clear if mid-term and long-terms plans have been crafted.”
“When the labour force contracts as quickly as it has, the effects will be extensive and extended,” Singh stated.
The state-owned Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo), which was heavily dependent on government bailouts, issued redundancy letters to over 4000 sugar workers due to the closure of Skeldon, Rose Hall, Enmore and Wales estates.
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According to Singh, the National Union of Mining Workers had pointed out that in the UK, from a local and practical point of view, there is a tremendous personal cost.
The union, according to Singh, noted that perhaps the UK Government’s failure was not the refusal to keep the industry afloat, but that more could have been done to quickly promote economic regeneration and find new work for those who lost their jobs.
Singh highlighted a study undertaken in relation to the coal pits of Romania, Russia and Ukraine. The study found that the three countries have in common, problems, not just about the quantity of the jobs, but of the quality of the jobs – where long term stable jobs providing livable wages are scarce.
The three countries also experienced worsening of living standards for many, emergency of insecure forms of employment at low wages with few legal and social safeguards.
In the case of Trinidad, Singh noted that former Minister within the Ministry of Trade, Dr. Sharon-Ann Gopaul McNicol, a Psychologist, had warned that closing the estate should not take place without serious considerations of the impact of the workers.
Closer to home, Singh stated that Guyana had the experience of the closure of the manganese mine at Matthews Ridge and the impact it had on Region One (Barima-Waini); and the downsizing of the Bauxite industry and the impact it has had on Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice).
Moray House, at the corner of Camp and Quamina Streets, is managed by the Moray House Trust.
The Trust has approached the sugar layoffs by three priorities, given the need for strategic thinking in a crisis, need for collaborative non-partisan effort and the need to involve the communities affected by the redundancies for planning for the future.
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