Laid-off sugar workers are not likely to embrace cooperatives (Part 2)

Dear Editor,
I admire Minister Keith Scott for his independent thinking, and I think he has similar sentiments for me. I understand why he likes cooperatives, because he practically grew up in the era of the cooperative movement. From his formative years he was in it. I understand that he believes wholeheartedly in the philosophy of people working together to achieve a common goal via a positive group mentality, which is what cooperatives are all about.
The writer’s response failed to touch on one of the most important aspects of my letter. Why is it that the Ministry, the Honourable Minister and the Government did not think about starting to educate and prepare sugar workers to form cooperatives from the inception of the idea to close the sugar estates? That would have been the best time to feed the minds of sugar workers with the idea of cooperatives, the pooling of money in various ventures for the common good of members of the cooperatives. Why wait until the workers were already off their jobs and facing desperate circumstances before telling them that you will help them to form cooperatives?
I advise the Honourable Minister and the writer of his reply to re-read my first letter and the points I made about keeping these people economically vibrant.
I wrote that the former sugar workers are facing starvation. It means this is a possibility. However, with our seas and our lands, I do not think it is possible for Guyanese to be in a state of mass starvation. The former sugar workers are definitely facing serious hardships, and their spokespersons have said so publicly. When the minds of the people are in confusion, strain and stress, it is not easy for them to focus, and they can fall into depression.
There is serious poverty, and the people have less to eat than they did before. I have been there; I have seen with my own eyes deprivation and confusion among the people, and some have approached me and gotten help from me. The entire sugar belt is in crisis, and many former sugar workers living there seem to think they have no future.
It is good that Government, through the efforts of Minister Scott and others, is trying to address these issues. Nevertheless, I think they should have been more patient while slaking their thirst to close the sugar estates, and I think they made a big mistake by not preparing the sugar workers early for the loss of their jobs. Now the entire country suffers one way or another.
I do not think cooperatives will work for displaced sugar workers because the idea was brought up when the workers were already displaced, after the confusion and pain had already set in and the money has already been spent to make ends meet. The pain and annoyance is already ingrained in the hearts of the people. Furthermore, the people in the sugar belt were never attracted to cooperatives, except for a few small groups aligned to the then Government.
Governments in Guyana and worldwide come up with many ideas that seem good in theory, but end up being bad in practice. Here, we have the sad example from the ‘produce-or-perish’ era with the banning of imported items. Yes, it was good to urge us to consume what we produced, but it ended up breeding extensive smuggling and money laundering, from which we still suffer to this day.
Another case of good intentions gone wrong was the decision to scrap Guyana’s railway and expand the local bus company. The bus company flopped, and the ‘Tata’ and ‘Sanos’ buses ended up rusting in the ‘bus graveyard’ on Mandela Avenue in Georgetown. If we still had a railway, touts would never be dragging people and herding them into minibuses like cattle. The train would have handled public transport comfortably; who knows, we might have had a subway by now.
This is my last correspondence on the matter. I trust that readers who follow the thread of my commentaries will know that I am a patriot, and as such, I am always on the positive side of any issue related to Guyana’s development and prosperity. Once we are commenting on controversial issues, there will be differences of opinion, and we must respect that. No one can expect me to follow all the Minister’s thoughts, and vice versa. That needs to be respected.
I wish to categorically state that I will never do or say things to humiliate my country or Government, and that I will always be a positive person in support of any elected Government of this country. I have no political priorities or prejudices.

Sincerely,
Roshan Khan Sr