Guyana’s Private Sector is being hauled over the proverbial coals for its failure to press the David Granger Administration on the demands of the business and working-class community, as it has instead joined the bandwagon of the People’s National Congress (PNC)-led Government, now looking to score political mileage in the wake of Guyana’s largest employer, the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) dismissing thousands of sugar workers. The show of contempt for the working class and their plight was on full display when the Private Sector Commission (PSC) last week hosted a press and photo opportunity and a job fair targeting sugar workers.
Opposition Advisor Peter Ramsaroop
This view was expressed this past week by economic advisor to the Opposition, Peter Ramsaroop, who, following the activities, has noted that the PSC “to date has not sought to correct the blatantly false headlines emblazoned on the State newspaper suggesting that 800 persons had been hired on the spot”.
The business leaders, he noted, instead of presenting workable and viable options, plans and information to the sugar workers and others who were seeking employment, “chose instead to pontificate on the disillusioned people learning to accept change and pointing to cultural shifts, in an attempt to placate those devastated by the ad-hoc decision-making of the Government of the day – decisions they in the Private Sector stood by and watch the unfolding of these callous actions”.
According to Ramsaroop, what the PSC has been doing in recent times instead of pushing the demands of the business community and the working class is “use the sugar workers’ plight for its own self-glorification and aggrandisement since it seems the bullyism of the Government is winning over them”.
The economic advisor has since surmised that the job fair hosted by the PSC was nothing but a public relations stunt.
He said a simple analysis of the Private Sector’s pronouncements on the coalition Government’s management of that sector begs the question, “are they in bed too with the oil companies looking to exploit our national patrimony?”
The entrepreneur said that while the more than 3.2 billion barrels of recoverable crude bode well for the future of the country taking into account the likelihood of future discoveries, “Guyana is already on its way to contracting the Dutch Disease”.
International experts weighing in on the world-class discoveries by the US oil giant ExxonMobil working along with its joint venture multinational partners have noted that the discoveries could in fact be larger than disclosed given the conservative nature of publicly-traded oil corporations and their use of available data.
According to Ramsaroop, “what will now happen is our boys in the Private Sector will, for the remainder of the week, mingle, wine and dine with the big wigs in the oil industry at the oil summit at the Guyana Marriott while Aunty Doreen or Cha Cha Nowrag studies what’s next for them.”
