Good news, bad years!

Apr 13, 2022 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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Kaieteur News – The PPP/C has had 25 plus years in governing Guyana. During this period, they have developed considerable experience in how to ameliorate bad news with promises in the form of good news.

This PPP/C has become quite adept at this art. And its proficiency in doing so was no better on display than over the past few days in the county of Berbice.

The government is on an outreach to all parts of the country. But the real target of the outreach appears to have been Berbice where the Second Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo descended last Sunday, followed by the President, in tow, on Monday.

First the bad news came. The Second Vice President told fisherfolk that the agreement which was reached between Guyana and Suriname for the latter to licence Guyanese fisherfolk is now in limbo.

At present, Guyanese fishers would lease a licence held by a Surinamese national or firm. They are required to pay an annual fee in return. This allows them to legally fish in Surinamese waters using Surinamese licences.

The fishers, however, made representation to be licenced directly by the Surinamese government. And the Guyana government entered into such an agreement when the Surinamese President came to Guyana.

But it now appears as if there has been a pushback against this agreement. The Second Vice President could give no firm commitment as to when or if this agreement will be honoured.

If by now the Second Vice President does not understand why the agreement is in limbo, he should be reminded about something called local content. The Surinamese are doing in the fishing industry what Guyana is doing in its oil and gas sector. If Guyanese fisherfolk want to fish in Surinamese waters, they have to enter into an agreement with locals. This is bad news for the fisherfolk who were hoping to get licenced directly.

The second bad news, delivered by the Second Vice President is that the sugar production will be downscaled. In this columnist belief, this is a euphemism for saying that production in Skeldon will not recommence.

As this column had pointed out before, the $250,000 per dismissed sugar workers which was distributed last year was a parting gift. It signalled the end of sugar production at Skeldon.

The Second Vice President was keen to say that private cane farming will continue. But the private cane farmers lost millions because of the malfunctioning Skeldon Sugar Factory built under Jagdeo. Those farmers will be very brave to take another risk at cane farming.

Berbicians were also told that lands will be put into hemp cultivation. But this is of little comfort for the more than 1,300 sugar workers who are yet to be reemployed in the sugar industry at Skeldon. Hemp is not a labour intensive industry. It is a capital intensive industry and will not be able to absorb much of the displaced labour from sugar cultivation.

The hemp industry is also racked with controversy. But that is another subject for another column.

The prospects in Skeldon are bleak. The death knell has been sounded for sugar in that part of Berbice. The people should read between the lines. Bad news is bad news even if followed by good news.

The good news came from President Irfaan Ali. He announced that a new stadium is going to be erected in Berbice and that hotels and an urban centre will follow. All of this ostensibly will be located at Palmyra, utilising abandoned sugar lands.

The proposal for the upgrading of Albion has been ditched. The new stadium will now be located at Palmyra since there is more space and the stadium can be linked to the planned hotel and urban centre.

The plan to erect a new stadium is wasteful spending. The proposed stadium will be, it is said, of the same standard as the National Stadium in Providence. But why does Guyana need a second stadium when the first one is under-utilised. But this brainwave to build a new stadium is the PPP/C’s idea of plucking projects out of the magician’s hat.

The government has failed the people of Berbice. The fisherfolk’s expectations have been dashed. The promise to reopen the closed estates will not materialise, at least not in Skeldon.

Berbicians should not become too excited about the plans which the President has unveiled. The economy of Berbice is depressed and will be a major risk for anyone to place another hotel in the Region when the occupancy at the nearby hotels in New Amsterdam is pitifully low.

The people of Berbice are advised to make plans for the future. Get your children on the next plane out! There is nothing good in store for you under the PPP/C.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

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