Challenging Minister Ramjattan’s comments on sugar

Oct 16, 2018 Letters

Dear Editor,
In the October 15 Stabroek News, the attention of the GAWU was drawn to report which stated that Vice President, Minister of Public Security and Alliance for Change (AFC) Chairman, Khemraj Ramjattan, in his address to a meeting in New Amsterdam on October 13, among other things, spoke about the sugar industry.
Based on the report, the public meeting described as the launching of the AFC’s LGE 2018 campaign attracted some 30 persons, and we gathered that the Vice President told those in attendance “…good governments, when confronted with hard decisions, make them while considering the betterment of the entire country, not just one sector…”
We ask what betterment has the so-called “hard decisions” brought about? It is putting people out from paying jobs on to the breadline? Is it denying persons adequate and healthy meals? Is it preventing people from being unable to pay their bills? Is it to curtail the education of children? Is it increased anti-social behaviour? Is it family breakups and separation?
We are at a loss to find this “betterment” the AFC Chairman refers to. It seems more like increased impoverishment to us. We recall that the Minister has several foot-in-the-mouth episodes to his credit, and this seems to add to an ever-expanding list of such occurrences.
The Vice President referring to the Treasury’s assistance to the sugar industry told his audience “…wah you go take all the money from the treasury now and just give one section”. We wish to remind the Minister that in the life of the APNU+AFC Government, allocations to sugar represented 3.98 percent of the $968B that have been approved for spending across the four budgets of the Coalition Government.
Certainly, when one looks at the tens of thousands of Guyanese who depend on the sugar industry; or the services the industry provided to the nation, which the Finance Minister lamented in his letter to the media last week the State must now foot; or the economic activity generated by the industry; or the foreign exchange the industry garnered; the loss of thousands of workers contributions to the NIS and the GRA, apart from the other social factors, the Treasury’s investment was more than worthwhile.
So while Minister Ramjattan wants to pat himself on the back for a job well done and offer quicksand-like defences for the Government’s callous approach to the sugar industry, there has been, as far as we see, no credible reason or any justification for the misery-filled life that the workers and their families now face.
Yours faithfully,
Seepaul Narine
General Secretary
GAWU

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