Dear Editor,
It is clear to me that this regime’s handling of the situation in the sugar industry is largely motivated by sheer bias in the form of racial and political discrimination. This is blinding the administration to the grave hardships which will follow all Guyanese on the effective closure of the sugar industry.
It will boomerang on the Government!
It is obvious that with the dismissal of such a large body of workers — approaching 7,000 in number — the Government’s collection of income tax will suffer.
The National Insurance Scheme (NIS) is another institution that would see a significant decline in its revenues. This can put that institution at risk, since there are not many upcoming investment possibilities presently being realized in the economy. This suggests that the regime would have to raise workers’ and employers’ contributions significantly.
The administrators are obviously not looking at the domino effect of this ill-advised decision on itself and the whole population. Maybe the regime is just putting all its hopes on oil. However, we are told that the direct employment from oil will not be that great. Most of the high-paying jobs will go to foreigners; what the locals would mainly get are the lower-paying jobs.
We would not get — at least not in a hurry — benefits from the by-products of oil, such as fertilizers, grease, engine oil, etc. since we will not be doing any refining. All of that would be lost to us.
The Guyana sugar industry remains unmatched in job creation, both directly and indirectly. The realization of new revenue streams coming on due to the by-products of sugar would be able to provide high paying jobs for the highly skilled, as well as the labourers. Many other industries can be created off the by-products of sugar.
Even though it is late, the regime can still change course; it is not too late!
Donald Ramotar
Former President
