Minance Minister Winston Jordan has conceded the A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) is taking sugar down a path of contraction and closure. Wales and La Bonne Intention (LBI) estates will be closed at the end of 2016. Rose Hall Sugar Factory is to be closed by the end of 2017. Skeldon Estate is being downgraded, cane fields are to be transformed into rice fields and the factory is to be sold, likely in a sweetheart deal to some of APNU/AFC’s friends. Some Board members have confided to many of us that the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) is carrying out APNU/AFC’s plan to close sugar and that by 2018, sugar will be either three or four estates only – Albion, Blairmont, Uitvlugt and possibly Enmore; although Enmore is also likely to be closed.
APNU/AFC, as they have done since assuming power in May 2015, acts out of spite, not with any credible plan or vision. They are guided by a single motivation – “sock” it to the People’s Progressive Party (PPP). APNU/AFC has such a pathological hate for Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo and the PPP, they are willing to disavow and abandon any project or anything that has a PPP DNA. The PPP did not create sugar, but the PPP has strength in sugar. The PPP did not create rice, but the PPP’s DNA is deeply rooted in the growth of a rice industry in Guyana. The PPP made the Amaila Hydro-electricity Project a pillar of a green economy. Skeldon had to be neglected to prove that Jagdeo made a mistake. These and many other actions demonstrate that rather than governing for the people, APNU/AFC is consumed by hate for the PPP.
But the estate closure will not only hurt the people living in the sugar communities, or just PPP supporters, it will hurt all of Guyana. We will regret sugar estate closures for decades to come. We will thoroughly regret these closures the same way we today regret the closure of the railway system, particularly the closure of the East Demerara Railway. There is no objective person in Guyana and any transportation expert anywhere in the world who would not deem the East Demerara Railway closure a colossal mistake. Guyana is small, but the political decision to close the East Demerara Railway by the then Burnham-led People’s National Congress stands out as one of the biggest political flops in history of the Caribbean. As with sugar today, the main motivation was to hurt the PPP by creating hardships for farmers who used the railway to transport their produce to the markets in Georgetown. Political myopia did not allow the then PNC to see the bigger picture, just like APNU/AFC is missing the bigger picture today.
The PPP had vowed to bring back the East Demerara Railway by developing a new line from Grove, East Coast Demerara to Grove, East Bank Demerara, linking the most populous sub-regions of Guyana to the city. This would be a catalyst for farmers, businesses and ease the transportation woes that citizens face coming in and leaving Georgetown. No matter how many extensions of existing highways or new highways we create, the traffic into Georgetown will continue to be a nightmare. In fact, the traffic into Georgetown can only get worse. The PPP’s proposal for a new railway was not designed to undo a PNC/APNU/AFC debacle, it was designed to bring back railway as a solution to the problem we created several decades ago with the closure of the railway. Clearly there is ample evidence we regret the closure of the railway in Guyana by the then PNC. Closure of sugar will similarly bring regrets.
Sugar is not only important today because it directly employs 20,000 people, with dependent families approaching 100,000 people, but it supports drainage and irrigation, health, potable water and sport in these communities. Sugar supports other industries too. Sugar is required for the very successful rum industry. The manufacturing of food in Guyana is dependent on sugar because without Guyana’s sugar, manufacturers will have to import sugar at higher prices. The food import bill will soar, putting pressure on the Guyana dollar as foreign currency demand grows. In time to come we will rue the day we close sugar, even if there are genuine difficulties sugar faces today. In times to come, we will realise that we squandered an important Guyanese asset.
Closing sugar now sets the platform for major future difficulties, spawning regrets, many magnitudes greater than the regret for the closure of railway in Guyana. Just as we realise today it is too costly to bring back the railway, we will realise it may be too costly to bring back sugar in time to come.
