Govt making empty promises to sugar workers – Jagdeo

…says sugar belt meetings a sign of desperation

By Samuel Sukhnandan

Meetings held with citizens in the sugar belt on Friday and chaired by several Cabinet ministers, including Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo, have been described as a master public relations strategy which was just a regurgitation of more failed promises and political rhetoric, Opposition Leader and General Secretary of the Peoples Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C), Bharrat Jagdeo has said.

Jagdeo told media operatives at a press conference on Saturday that the meetings were a desperate attempt by the coalition Government to show that they care about sugar workers, when in fact they were the ones who planned the downsizing of the industry, which is now taking effect and creating chaos for thousands of families whose livelihoods depend on that industry.
“Imagine: half of the Cabinet, the whole AFC (Alliance for Change) going to the sugar belt to say they will provide training and that the Special Purposes Unit (SPU) is looking for investors. It was a (public relations) PR exercise, a master PR strategy; that (is) what it was. Nothing more than that,” he said.
The former President claimed that Nagamootoo has nothing new to say to the workers but that the Government is not closing the industry. “He said the Government not closing sugar and that sugar will remain alive. We heard similar sentiments from this same person who is now Prime Minister pre-election…who said they will receive significant support and (give) 20 percent increase in wages and salaries.”
Jagdeo said the reality today is that the coalition Government has taken the most “callous decision ever in sugar.” On that basis alone, he believes that Nagamootoo’s statements were not sincere, and sugar workers will not fall for the same trap of believing what was promised.

“Secondly, he told them that 1,000 workers will get $500,000 severances. They could have paid the 1,000 workers their full severance. What he didn’t say is that they withholding half of the severance, which is payable by law. So, they making it that sugar workers beg for what is due to them by law. What was the message…the situation placed a strain on the treasury,” the former President told the press.
Jagdeo believes that if anything has put a severe strain on the treasury, it is the “bloated Government” which travels overseas more frequently and spends millions on luxury vehicles to parade in.
Another observation made by Jagdeo about the Prime Minister’s address to people in the sugar belt was the fact that “he said there is no need for quarrel and row”. He was referring to moments when workers’ voices drowned Nagamootoo’s speech.
Nagamootoo had said that if tension is put aside and both parties work together and have meaningful talks, then they can find answers and solutions.
“He wants to work together. But this is the same Prime Minister who, a week prior to that, stood up in Parliament (and) argued against (the) Commission of Inquiry (CoI) Report on Sugar being debated fully at the Economic Services Committee in the National Assembly,” the PPP/C General Secretary pointed out.
Jagdeo also observed that the Government was so desperate in its attempt to try to fix a problem it created that it is telling sugar workers of a plan to have them meet with the private sector so that they can discuss ways in which their severance pay could be reinvested to create a business.
“This is desperate, and it’s ridiculous. Which business can you start really with $500,000? And in fact the people need it now to sustain themselves,” he added.
During those meetings, Third Vice President Khemraj Ramjattan explained that the Government had no other choice but to make the “hard decision”. He admitted that challenging days are ahead for the sugar industry. He remarked that times are changing globally, and had Guyana responded at the right time and in the right manner, the dynamics of the sugar industry would have been very different now
But Ramjattan’s famous words from that meeting were: “God wanted sugar to fail.” The Minister also said, “So it’s important to understand that hard decisions have to be made, and we are (the) ones that will (have) to make it…probably it was destined to have to fail. Probably God wanted it that way, and we have to make the decisions now…Probably that is why God also said let (them) find the oil under this Administration, and we have found it.”
Ramjattan was accompanied by Business and Tourism Minister Dominic Gaskin; Public Telecommunications Minister Catherine Hughes; Citizenship Minister Winston Felix; and Minister within the Ministry of Natural Resources, Simona Broomes. The ministers were accompanied by a representative of the SPU, GuySuCo’s Acting Chief Executive Officer Paul Bhim, and other senior officials.
The team met workers at the Enmore Training Centre and Staff Club on Friday.
The team that was led by the Prime Minister met with sugar workers at the Skeldon Community Centre on that same day. He was accompanied by Agriculture Minister Noel Holder and Minister within the Ministry of Finance, Jaipaul Sharma.