Let us be inspired by October 5, 1992 to reverse the negative trends of this regime

Dear Editor,
October 5, 1992 has gone done in our history as one of the most important dates in Guyana. The election of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) to power marked a radical change in our country; a change that saw the beginning of prosperity for our people and nation.
The PPP/C had inherited a bankrupt country. Our foreign debt was the biggest in the world per capita. It is apposite to quote here a sworn affidavit by Mr. Carl Greenidge, who was the last Minister of Finance of the PNC regime. He said, “…Guyana is one of the poorest countries in the world and the second poorest in the Western Hemisphere. As a consequence, it is classified by the World Bank as an IDA-eligible country, requiring grants and highly concession loans for development purposes. By 1989, Guyana’s external debt to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratio was approximately 925 per cent, with approximately US$1.9 billion in debt, including US$1.4 billion in arrears, owed across the spectrum to international institutions, foreign country donors, commercial banks and other creditors. In 1990, the external debt to export ratio was 951 per cent. Between 1986 and 1990, Guyana’s average annual debt service payments were 153 per cent of fiscal revenues.”
He went on to say, “…… During the mid-1980s, the Government had fallen into such serious arrears with its multilateral, bilateral and other lenders that lending from institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) and the World Bank, as well as bilateral lending, was cut off…”
Guyana had become a Heavily Indebted Poor Country (HIPC). That situation seemed almost impossible.
The PPP/C Administration worked tirelessly with all stakeholders to halt the decline and reverse the trend. By the time the Party left office in 2015, Guyana had not just stopped the downward slide, but we became an Upper Middle Income Developing country. This is what the IMF and World Bank said of our country. We must all be proud of this great achievement.
While the PNC hurricane damaged every sector of the country’s social and economic life, the sugar industry went through the fall gamut and bore the full brunt on PNC/APNU+AFC vindictiveness and spite.
By 1990, the PNC regime had so mismanaged the industry that we were importing sugar. Production had slumped to just 129,000 tons. Since the PNC was going to sell the industry for pepper corn, at a meeting with the GAWU in 1990, the PNC economic adviser Kenneth King told the union that the PNC regime was selling for US$45 million. However, the regime had to do a lot of work before the buyer could take it over. It was then they hired Broker Tate to prepare the industry for privatisation.
After taking office in 1992, the PPP/C reversed the tide. Production went well above 300,000 tons. It had reached 331,052 tons just before the floods of 2005 and 2006.
The industry then had to confront a series of challenges. First were the floods in 2005 and 2006, then came the drastic cut in the price of sugar sold into the European Union by some 36 per cent. Then there were the issues with the new Skeldon Factory, which Broker Tate was responsible for.
It was clear that the industry needed to be restructured. GuySuCo began a programme to do just that. A lot of work had gone into mechanisation in the fields, and to add value to sugar and sugar-related products. Already, the industry was giving much power to the Guyana Power and Light.
Plans were afoot to refine sugar, set-up another distillery, and also to produce ethanol. Molasses was being bottled and sold as health food. The industry had established two packaging facilities — at Enmore and Blairmont.
Cost-cutting measures such as producing liquid fertiliser and compressing the bagasse for burning in the factories to substitute for wood were being put in place.
The plan was to break even by 2017, and to begin to once more make a financial surplus by 2018.
The industry was on track to achieve this goal. That could have been seen by the performance in 2015. In that year, the production targets were met and even surpassed at some estates.
The PNC-led APNU regime abandoned the plan and moved to close the sugar industry. So far, they have shut down three estates.
In order to ensure that the industry dies, they are saddling it with more huge debts. Thirty billion dollars were borrowed from the commercial banks, which they said were to be put into the remaining estates. However, from all the information available, not much is getting to the industry.
Instead, the money is being squandered in fun projects like the bar, swimming pool and other facilities for the elite in the regime to enjoy. I understand that such a facility is benefit constructed at LBI. This is nothing short of criminal.
After all, more than seven thousand workers have been sacked in the industry. They have not even been paid their severance. However, the rulers are in party mood, they are determined to have a good time at the people’s expense. They are building facilities to ‘sport’, while workers and their families are on the brink of starvation.
How can one understand this callous attitude of the regime?
In the first place, it goes to their policy of racial and political discrimination. The PNC-led APNU hates the sugar workers because of their historical militancy and the fact that the majority are Indian Guyanese. Recall that the PNC was the main recruiter of scabs for Bookers before nationalisation. It was one of those scabs who drove the tractor that killed Kowsilla during the 1964 strike for union recognition. This latest act is not only against sugar workers, but also against the working class and trade unionism in general. Their anti-working class positions are on full display in sugar, and with the teachers.
The second aspect is the class nature of the regime. This group can be described as the bureaucratic capitalist elite. They intend to use their positions in the state apparatus to enrich themselves. They will do so using several means.
First they have given themselves huge increases in salaries. That was also seen in sugar, where people in their eighties and nineties, all close to the APNU/AFC, were given millions in salaries.
Apart from the hiked salaries, huge allowances are taken by the elite. In the short period of just three years, the regime’s elite ones have become very, very rich.
They have also created alliances with some businesses. Recall the Drug Bond, or the hundreds of millions in procurement without tenders, and also the Guyanese/American business people procuring for the regime’s Ministry of Health. This is but a small sample where the smell of corruption is very high.
It is widely believed that this alliance with some shady business people is creating huge wealth for the elite.
Another suspicious method is the court settlement taking place. The case of BK International, where approximately one billion was paid to that company on a mere threat of litigation was made public. People cannot be blamed for thinking that something stinks here. This is but one that has seen the light.
Already, we are seeing the negative impact of this regime’s performance due to a combination of corruption, incompetence and poor policies.
Our debt has started to climb once more. It was less than 40 per cent of our GDP in 2014. Today it is almost 80 per cent of our GDP.
I have noted that Minister Jordan stated that Guyana’s debt is the lowest in the region, and we should not be worried. He said this in response to an observation by the Leader of the Opposition.
This is a case of history repeating itself. I recall, in the early 1970s, Cheddi Jagan, in Parliament, was warning that the growing debt was dangerous to social and economic development. Forbes Burnham then got up to answer, and said that we could borrow because we were credit-worthy.
That wild spending and borrowing then pauperised us. We are on the same road once again.
As we observe October 5, 2018, we must take courage and inspiration in what a free and democratic people can achieve, as was demonstrated by the PPP/C’s 23 years in office. We must take strength and work to reverse this trend that is leading our country back to poverty, nakedness and crime.
October 5, 1992 is a reminder that this trend can be reversed.

Sincerely,
Donald Ramotar
Former President