Dear Editor,
I read through a media report that embattled Vice President and Minister of Public Security, Khemraj Ramjattan, is reported to have said, during a visit to the Caricom Cement factory on August 06, 2017, “Sugar doesn’t have a future”.
This is a most disingenuous statement from the VP. The reason sugar does not have a future is because of Mr Ramjattan and his Government’s incompetence in managing the affairs of the industry. Several persons and organisations have pointed to the value of the sugar industry in furthering national development and promoting rural social stability; But, for whatever reason, Ramjattan and company are intent on killing the industry, and will kill a great part of rural coastal Guyana in the process.
The minister’s statement is poles apart from what he preached during the 2015 Elections Campaign. I recall his lusty serenades about the importance of the sugar industry, and more so its workers. He reminded the nation that sugar was “too big to fail”, and that the Coalition was going to fix it. Now what do we have: one estate closed, two more slated for closure, and another up for sale.
Certainly, no one having listened to Mr Ramjattan in 2015 would have imagined this is the fix he and his colleagues had in mind.
The report also goes on to say that the ‘goodly’ Minister lobbied the Cement factory to hire some of the workers who would be displaced when Rose Hall is closed. But this is akin to a two-card con. The workers who may be employed would be engaged as labourers. Undoubtedly, their rates-of-pay and benefits would be very dissimilar from what they enjoyed as sugar workers. Furthermore, with excess labour supply in the area, pay rates would clearly be depressed.
Yours sincerely,
Patricia Persaud
