Govt risking irreversible damage to communities, economy – Ramkarran

Closure of sugar estates

Guyana is on the cusp of becoming an oil producing nation, but there are immediate socio-economic issues that must be addressed. And chief among them is the potential fallout from the sacking of thousands of sugar workers as Government moves ahead with its divestment programme.
This is according to political commentator and former Speaker of the National Assembly, Ralph Ramkarran. In his recent writings, Ramkarran has urged that the

Government not lose focus of its immediate priorities … ensuring that the vacuum created from massive unemployment is not filled by poverty and crime.
“The dismissal of thousands of sugar workers will intensify poverty and crime across Guyana, particularly in the areas affected by the closures. Communities will deteriorate, drug taking and alcohol abuse will intensify, and the economy will suffer from reduced spending. All of this will impact negatively on economic growth for 2018,” he stated.
“By the time divestment concludes and some job opportunities emerge, the damage to the communities and their inhabitants would already have occurred. There is no immediate potential investment in Guyana’s economy on a scale large enough to absorb the dismissed sugar workers, or even a portion of them, that will make a difference to their dire situation,” he posited.
He has acknowledged oil’s potential for economic transformation in Guyana, but is urging persons to temper their hopes for the future with the realities of today.

Ramkarran noted that any impact the new oil industry would have may be a decade in the making, thus he fears that by this time an entire generation of sugar workers and their families would have traded in a decade of productive labour with a decade of deprivation and poverty.
“It appears that Guyana stands to receive US$300 million a year for the first five years after production commences, and a little over that sum for the twenty years thereafter. The size of Guyana’s economy is US$1.2 billion. This means that Guyana’s economy will increase by one-fifth (its size) as a result of oil revenue.
“This will be a significant boost, but by no means a spectacular transformation. This figure is probably based on production of 100,000 barrels a day. It may well be that Exxon would produce far more than that amount for various economic reasons. While all of this is in the future, Guyana has pressing economic and political problems that require immediate solutions,” Ramkarran cautioned.

Sugar workers
As early as December 2016, Wales Sugar Estate ended operations, and many workers have since to be paid severance, after refusing to take up employment at Uitvlugt Estate, some 22 miles from the West Bank Demerara estate. 2017 was in fact marked by protests from the workers.
Those workers have been affected, and thousands more family members and those from surrounding villages have also been affected by the impact of the closure. One year after, the retrenchment of nearly 4000 workers attached to Rose Hall, East Demerara and Skeldon Estates was revealed, and those employees have expressed fear of facing a fate similar to what their former colleagues at Wales faced, who are still awaiting their outstanding packages.
Many civil society bodies and other interest groups have been urging the coalition Government to rethink the closure of estates, and to implement plans that will tackle the welfare of workers. In its end-of-year statement, the Private Sector Commission (PSC) highlighted that, come 2018, there would in fact be 5000 sugar workers left unemployed if Wales is factored into the current numbers. The body is of the view that this action will have “serious repercussions” for this year.
Last year, the PSC had even proposed for Government to enter into public-private partnerships to invest in and manage selected estates. Government has remained steadfast that estates at Rose Hall, and Enmore will cease operations, while Skeldon would be privatised. Meanwhile, only three would be kept in operation – at Albion in East Berbice, Blairmont in West Berbice, and Uitvlugt on the West Coast of Demerara.
In light of this and the potential impact on the operations of Demerara Distillers Limited (DDL), that company has since submitted an expression of interest (EoI) to Government for the potential purchase of one of the sugar estates.