Cooperatives not the best option for laid-off sugar workers

Dear Editor,
I have known Honourable Keith Scott, Minister within the Ministry of Social Protection with responsibility for labour, for many decades. I have great respect and admiration for him and I, therefore, paid attention to his recent call for laid-off sugar workers, now on the breadline facing abject poverty and starvation, to form cooperative societies.
Minister Scott told the laid-off sugar workers that his Ministry will give support and provide training to those who want to go this route.
I have no objection to the philosophy of cooperative societies. In some countries, well-organised, properly-run cooperative societies have achieved significant benefits for their members. However, Minister Scott must consider whether cooperative societies are relevant to our country at this juncture of our modern culture and lifestyle. Are they pertinent in Guyana at a time when everyone wants to own a small business?
Furthermore, shouldn’t this call have come earlier, to prepare the people’s minds and get them accustomed and amenable to the idea as preparations were being made to shut down the factories? As Government was preparing to close the estates, couldn’t we have begun the process of teaching these people to survive outside of estate life? They could have been introduced to the concept of working with a cooperative spirit since then. Maybe this will teach us something for the future.
Most cooperative societies failed in Guyana years ago, and I don’t see anything new to make them viable now.
This government is trying to revive a cooperatives movement from the 60s and 70s which was being pursued by the Government of that era. The intention of the Administration of the day was obviously noble. Minister Scott announced about a year ago that their efforts resulted in an increase in cooperative societies in Guyana. I predict that this will be a revolving door; most will not last and will be constantly replaced by new ones.
Now, let us look at the GuySuCo situation. I am from a sugar-producing community and while I sympathise with the laid-off workers, I am aware that many GuySuCo workers were responsible for the theft of tools, equipment, parts and so on. I viewed this as sabotage.
It is common knowledge that corrupt business-people routinely bought stolen items from GuySuCo workers and resold them at high prices. If theft by workers was commonplace at GuySuCo and in failed cooperative societies, what sense does it make to ask laid-off sugar workers to form cooperatives?
The Honourable Minister Scott is obviously trying to find ways and means to make it easier for the laid-off workers. The cooperative movement was at its zenith when he was a young man and must have resonated strongly with him. But bearing in mind the results of every election since Independence, the laid-off sugar workers come from areas that historically opposed the Administration of the 1960s and 1970s and their policies. What will make these people embrace the concept today and make it work? Can they be successfully encouraged to do so, Mr Minister?
Minister Scott, your idea might look good in principle, but how practical is it? Have you thought of the historical political preferences and mindset of the laid-off workers? Can you, therefore, guess why this idea will be a ‘hard sell’ in the sugar belt?
Try it, Minister Scott, and see if it will work. Maybe you could draw from the experiences of countries where cooperatives were more successful and also from Guyana’s experiences. I hope you succeed, but as a realist I don’t think it will bear fruit.
Sometimes the best ideas and intentions can go wrong. The idea of eating what we produce was a visionary one with the right objectives. However, the administration of the 1960s and 1970s did not cater for the people’s accustomed tastes for the items that were banned. That era spawned generations of smugglers in Guyana who are operating up to this day.
Since people like to put their own needs above the greater good, I believe they will do well if they are assisted to set up their own businesses. People like to run their own businesses and make money they don’t have to share. They like to benefit from their own successes and learn from their own failures.
Mr Minister, why not encourage laid-off sugar workers to start up cottage industries in the agricultural sector? Encourage them to grow fruits and vegetables and give them whatever training and support they need. Teach them how to preserve their fruits and vegetable as a bottom-house or cottage industry and the possibility of creating off-shoot industries. Help them to process their produce and market it around Guyana and possibly overseas. Teach them small-scale bottling and canning of the preserves they make from their homes.
Government should also help them to start up chicken-rearing enterprises. I am not talking about the popular ‘white fowl’, but the ‘yard chicken’ that is much sturdier and tastier. It can eat almost anything and it has a strong genetic makeup that does not require antibiotics and special feed.
Minister Scott, encourage the ex-GuySuCo workers to use their own lands, some of which were available through Bookers, to get into aquaculture. Give them training and support to dig and maintain ponds suitable for production of freshwater fish like tilapia and hassar, which can be sold and bartered with in the community.
Corn is expensive, but people like it. Why not teach the laid-off workers how to grow it profitably? Instead of giving incentives and opportunities to large-scale foreign investors alone, give to our laid-off sugar workers (and other Guyanese).
Give them incentives to grow black-eye peas and other non-traditional crops for sale. Surpluses can be used for bartering.
I am willing to sit on any board to help my country, not for fame and gain, but to serve my people.

Sincerely,
Roshan Khan Sr