GuySuCo needs right-sizing, diversification and business unit portfolio management

Dear Editor,
My recent letter about Servant Leadership in Guyana and the need to find a win-win solution for Guyanese taxpayers and GuySuCo was turned into a “magnificent masquerade” by a letter written by the dishonest “bosses” and the dirty blackmail politics of GAWU. I say bosses because the definition of the word leadership is a mystery to GAWU.
It is this type of functional economic illiteracy and ethnic politics that has led us to a point where after being notified 15 years ago by the European Union that subsidies would end, and after billions of dollars provided by the EU to transform the industry, that ethnic politics built around creating a dependent voter block for the PPP has left us with a GuySuCo that is G billion in debt, needs G billion in investment if it is to produce 300,000 tonnes of sugar under existing conditions, and even with that subsidy the Government – at that 300,000 tonnes production – would have to subsidy GuySuCo by a further G billion per year.
Mr Seepaul Narine, General Secretary of GAWU, must have been reading some other article and not the one I wrote when he said, “Mr Phillips also points to Government support to the sugar industry. We posit, however, that the contemporary support cannot be disconnected from the support, financial and otherwise, that the industry in the past and present has and is contributing to Guyana and its people. So far, there has not been any mention of those contributions in the discussions on sugar. Nevertheless, our union accepts that the Government cannot support the sugar industry ad infinitum.” Mr Narine is certainly not a Servant Leader nor someone who needs to be negotiating on behalf of GAWU. His fundamental mis-understanding of basic English is surpassed only by his opportunistic and predatory approach to GuySuCo’s problems.Editor, the main thrust of my recent letter was the five elements necessary in Guyana for equitable sustainable development and social cohesion and the need for Servant Leaders in the Government, Private Sector, Civil Society and the media to step forward from a cowardly silence to find a win-win solution because GAWU is not interested in win-win. At least, perhaps responding to my letter, the Private Sector Commission seems to have woken up from its Rip Van Winkle slumber of the last decade and has asked for the Government to hold up so that five years after the problem has started, it will provide a solution. I wonder how many of these businessmen will run a business at G billion a month in losses. At least the People of Guyana will look forward to their contributions.
Finally, Mr Narine’s attempt to hoax his sugar workers by saying even Eric Phillips is stating GuySuCo should be subsidised by the Government is tantamount to someone seeing the words “no smoking allowed” and shouting out to the illiterate that it means “no…smoking allowed”.
This type of deception is purposeful, cynical and normal with GAWU leadership.
Mr Narine, the Government and People of Guyana cannot afford to subsidise GuySuCo as it is currently operating and the sooner GAWU and the PPP realise this, the better for all.
GuySuCo needs right-sizing, diversification and business unit portfolio management. GAWU should also realise that diversification is an investment and needs billions of dollars. Hopefully, the Private Sector will bring some of this “bread” to the table.

Sincerely,
Eric Phillips
President
The African Business Roundtable