The PPP/C Govt. has saved sugar from the guillotine

Jun 09, 2022 Letters

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Dear Editor,

It is with great disappointment and utter consternation that I read a letter captioned, ‘Losing sugar workers’ support again could be permanent’. I wish to strongly point out to this letter writer and put it very bluntly that if ever sugar workers withdraw their support from the PPP GUYSUCO will suffer a sudden death and this time around the sufferings will be unbearable and will escalate to the point of no return. In life we need to be cognisant of the fact that whenever something bad passed us, it is always close by and can return with venomous rage.
When I was a child I could recall vividly a saying from my grandfather (God rest his soul) that some people are like yard fowls they eat and wipe their beaks and forget that they had eaten and when you throw some paddy again and they will eat hungrily as though they never ate at all. Some people are like that. Since this Government took Office in August 2020, this country has taken off on a development trajectory as never seen before and the Government has done a lot to ease the burden of the people: wages and salary increases to all workers, reduced taxation and in some cases no taxation, increasing the income tax threshold, removal of VAT on essential items, reducing excise tax on fuel to lower the cost of living, reduced licence fees, COVID cash grants (some received twice) to every Guyanese, Cash grants to disabled children, flood relief to all affected even those who plant kitchen gardens, education cash grants (Because We Care), school uniform allowances, cash grants to severed sugar workers, electricity and water subsidies to pensioners, grants for small businesses, reduced cost of borrowing, cash grants to all fisherfolk and creating part-time jobs for the unemployed. The list goes on and will go on. Should we not be thankful for all these and more? The Coalition did the exact opposite of this and yet some who are vociferous now were silent then.
President Irfaan Ali in January this year was pellucid and affirmative that his government’s budget is about removing burdens to Guyanese citizens and ‘creating opportunities, reducing burdens, enhancing welfare, giving back more to the population, enhancing livelihood, improving living conditions, and improving the quality of life of the Guyanese people’. This is being realised day after day even though the Government has had to deal with the deadly and costly COVID-19, soaring global prices due to related supply chain issues and a series of devastating countrywide floods. He committed his Government to ‘more investment in people, more allocation to the vulnerable, [and a] better quality of life for the Guyanese people’. This commitment is kept alive as Guyanese continue to be buffered from the fallout from the crippling issues mentioned. Guyanese for one moment must not feel that rising food and gas prices are only experienced in Guyana. It is worldwide phenomenon. Just call your relative in the USA and find out what is happening there. We must show our gratitude to this Government instead of decrying its efforts.
What the Coalition had done to the Guyana Sugar Corporation deserves special mention. Let me just outline the mass devastation which the Coalition wreaked on this entity alone and one which sugar workers must never forget. Imagine one morning 7,000 sugar workers woke up and had to deal with not only being jobless but with no economic alternative and the stark reality of their families going hungry, children are unable to go to school, loans became unpayable and for some, suicide was the only option. That is for dismissed workers. Then after three years when the PPP/C Government made the decision to reopen four closed estates but it was found that tens of billions of dollars in infrastructures, factories, machinery, equipment and cane cultivation were lost. These estates were in grinding mode when they were closed. Mr. Jordan had promised that these closed estates will be kept operational for selling. However, it was found that Wales and Enmore were unsalvageable and Skeldon and Rose Hall were targeted for reopening with Rose Hall Estate being the first to be reopened by 2023. Not only this but the operational estates, Uitvlugt, Albion and Blairmont were starved for vital capital investments and the $30 billion dollars bond secured by the Coalition was never went to ‘revitalise’ the sugar industry as Mr Jordan had claimed. It is still to be accounted for. It was just an excuse to make the fat cats fatter.
To make matters worse the sugar workers were not given a dollar increase by the Coalition-this means that from 2014 to 2020 no wage increase was given. However, in the late 2020 and 2021 the sugar workers received 5% and 7% wage increase from this Government this is in addition to the Covid-19 cash grant. This what a caring government does.
It became crystal clear that the intention of the Coalition was to close the remaining estates and had it managed to rig the 2020 Elections then that closure would have been imminent. Therefore, despite GuySuCo being unable to achieve its target primarily due to the disastrous floods, sugar workers have benefited from wage increases under this Government and will continue to do so but above all everyone one should be thankful that severed workers are once again being employed and those in employment have their jobs secured. There will be no closure under this Government and sugar workers lives can only keep improving.
In conclusion, whenever a negative letter like the one mentioned is penned, let the writer pause and reflect on the facts written here.

Yours sincerely,
Haseef Yusuf

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