Those of us who grew up in Berbice, who have seen Guyana’s fortunes and the welfare of hundreds of thousands of families across Guyana ebb and flow with SUGAR; those of us who are familiar with the black, gray and white smoke coming out of chimneys, and what that means; those of us who lived part and parcel with the black ashes coming out of burnt cane; had renewed faith in our country when familiar smoke churned out of the Rose Hall chimneys last month.
SUGAR, with its equally storied, disgraceful and paradoxical history, stained with slavery and indentured labour while still occupying a place of pride in our country. An enigma, yes. Contradiction galore. But, indeed, sugar has a special place in our history.
And SUGAR will always be a part of our political story. Its importance in our politics today is no less than during colonialism, during our fight for independence, during the decades of dictatorship post-independence, and since the restoration of democracy in 1992. In many ways, SUGAR brought a change in Government in 2015 and in 2020, and will surely play a role in 2025, OIL or no OIL.
Political parties and politicians in Guyana have different track records when it comes to keeping promises in general. While, for a long time, citizens did not pay attention to whether politicians and political parties kept their promises, citizens are now more demanding, holding political parties accountable. A sizable proportion of Guyana’s population still vote at elections and support political parties based on some misplaced loyalty, such as race and ethnicity. But there is a growing fraction of the population becoming more and more independent and discerning. For this fraction, promises made and kept are important factors in their decision who to support politically, especially during elections. In fact, even those who vote for a particular party purely on the basis of traditional loyalty are demanding greater fidelity to promises made.
Political parties no longer enjoy a free ride anywhere.
If anyone were to prepare a compendium of promises made by political parties and by politicians over the decades, starting since 1953, the year of the first election in Guyana under adult suffrage, an interesting separation is bound to be established. Cheddi Jagan’s party, the PPP, has, by and large, been driven by its promises; Forbes Burnham’s party, the PNC, has, by and large, made promises that vanish with the wind.
Since 1953, election after election, SUGAR promises represent a major part of this compendium. Over the last month, the smoke billowing out of the chimneys of the Rose Hall Sugar Factory stands as testimony to the commitment of the PPP to preserve SUGAR as part of the economy. The restoration of the Rose Hall Sugar Factory is also a promise the PPP made back in 2016, when the Rose Hall Sugar Factory was closed by the then David Granger-led APNU/AFC Government, a Government controlled wholly by Burnham’s political party, the PNC.
SUGAR, in fact, tells the story of political betrayals very well in Guyana. During the 2011 and 2015 elections, promises relevant to SUGAR were made left, right and centre by political parties and politicians. Since 2010, when the combination of climate change and betrayal from the EU, which arbitrarily abandoned the Commonwealth Sugar Agreement (CSA) and the 1976 ACP-EU Sugar Protocol and precipitously dropped sugar price, SUGAR has suffered in all countries where SUGAR was still part of the economy.
But the PPP made a promise in 2011, 2015, 2020 and throughout its earlier history, that SUGAR will remain a significant part of Guyana’s economy, our social and cultural lives. In 2011 and 2015, the PNC-controlled APNU and AFC similarly made a solemn promise that sugar would always remain a major part of Guyana’s economy. David Granger, as the PNC’s presidential candidate, went boldly into the sugar areas and promised, even claiming his promise is a contract, that SUGAR would never be closed or downsized, because “SUGAR is too big to fail”. His Mutt and Jeff in 2015, Moses Nagamootoo and Khemraj Ramjattan, joined him in these areas, and promised sugar workers that they will never lay a finger to close SUGAR in Guyana, begging sugar workers to believe them because they were “champions” of sugar workers. In fact, to demonstrate their commitment to sugar workers, they promised them that within 100 days of being in Government, sugar workers will receive a 20% increase in their wages and benefits, and that throughout their first term, they will maintain the 20% pay increase.
As soon as David Granger became President and Mutt and Jeff became Prime Minister and Vice Presidents, they all abandoned their promise. They closed four sugar estates in Regions 3, 4 and 6. The 20% wage increase promises were forgotten. More than 7,000 sugar workers lost their jobs, impoverishing about 40,000 family members in the first phase of a plan to end SUGAR in Guyana. For five long years, sugar workers scrounged for a living, while their wages were frozen at zero pay increase. The terminated sugar workers were promised severance, but they had to go to court to force severance payments.
President Ali and Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo promised that SUGAR would be kept not just alive, but to play a major role in diversifying the economy. The restoration of the Rose Hall Factory, the resumption of sugar cane cultivation in the Rose Hall Sugar Estate cultivation areas, stand as testimony that, like they have done since before the formation of the PPP — since 1947, when Dr. Jagan stood with striking Enmore Sugar Workers — the PPP will keep its promise on SUGAR.
