…tells sugar workers “don’t lose heart, struggle for better”
…says Govt has funds to meet severance demands
By Michael Younge
Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo on Tuesday urged scores of sugar workers and their families not to lose hope, but to continue to struggle alongside the People’s Progressive Party to secure the freedoms and gains which they have worked and toiled for over the past two and a half decades.
Jagdeo, addressing a crowd at Enterprise Community Centre on the East Coast of Demerara, disclosed that the Government had begun unveiling parts of a systematic plan to undermine the support base of the Opposition with the aim of changing the demographics of the country.
Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo addressing sugar workers and their families at Enterprise Community Center
He said that if the Government’s plan succeeded and people lost hope in those communities that were devastated and adversely affected by the decision to reduce the sugar industry and eventually close it, then Guyana’s future would be jeopardised.
“I warned on the campaign trail that this would have happened and it’s happening now…They want us to lose hope and to give up on the industry…they want people to migrate…so that they will (be able to) change the demographics of this country,” Jagdeo explained to the audience.
The Opposition Leader laid the blame for the woes being faced by 4763 workers squarely at the feet of President David Granger.
Jagdeo contended that the decision to fire thousands of workers without a clear plan was “not necessary” as he insisted that it was motivated by political ideology.
“I can’t find any other reason outside of the fact that they want people to migrate and change the voting pattern,” he also contended as he questioned why it was so hard for the Government to utilise one per cent of its budget to keep the industry going as it looked for solutions to deal with the problems facing the industry.
“But they wanted to shut down sugar,” Jagdeo remarked
Cutting wastage
The crowd at Enterprise Community Center
Jagdeo, who was Guyana’s longest-serving President, chided Granger for peddling lies and distortions about the amount of assistance and subsidy that were granted to the industry under the previous Administration and by his own Government.
“Granger inflated the subsidy by 32 billion and I pointed out that since they took office, the subsidy has increased three-fold…they put in about 10.5 billion over the past three years, yet in those years sugar workers did not receive a salary increase…they cancelled the (Annual Production Incentive) API and that’s why I called for an audit of the money that went into the industry…,” he explained.
The Opposition Leader was adamant that the Government could find the money to pay the workers now by simply cutting the wastage of taxpayers’ monies on providing Government Ministers and functionaries with the ‘good and luxurious life’.
He dismissed the excuses made by Government as “nonsense”.
“Nagamootoo’s budget grew from 3.3 million for discretionary use…105 million in this year’s budget…that alone leaving out the 400 million we spend on his ministry that does absolutely nothing…personally per month we spend over 10 million on him alone in all of the cost…,” Jagdeo maintained as he told Enterprise residents that “they (Government) can tomorrow find the money…the money is there ….”
The Opposition Leader also advised residents that the Government could have easily passed a supplementary financial paper for $5 billion and pay workers’ severance.
“… but they are turning their own supporters against sugar workers and even our own supporters …. it is a clever strategy, but they want people to beg” as he explained that the Government saw no difficulty with spending millions of dollars on the importation of luxurious vehicles and other facilities, but could not see the need to pay ordinary, hardworking sugar workers their benefits.
“This is where the money is going … this is a wanton waste of resources,” he remarked.
“This is about punishing sugar workers, because they hope that we will just give up on this country, but we are not going to give up…the day we give up, there will be no future for this country and that is why we have to keep struggling to get the kind of country that we want…,” Jagdeo insisted.
The Opposition Leader’s meeting came at a time when scores of workers across the country are complaining about the hardship they are made to face as a result of being unemployed and without an income to sustain their families.
