Dear Editor,
I applaud President Ali’s government for committing to rehabilitate the sugar estates. During APNU+AFC tenure, Ravi Dev and I made repeated efforts to save the sugar factories (estates) in ways which would not have burdened the state with having to find any money. In fact, from our efforts, Government would have earned foreign exchange plus a lot of revenues from taxes. GDP would have been boosted, and business would have been booming. Instead, Government opted to shut down the factories, putting tens of thousands on the breadline and the economy in a tailspin. The Coalition’s thinking was if it shut down sugar, it would demoralise and paralyse the PPP’s base of support.
The sugar workers were betrayed by the coalition, because many voted APNU+AFC on promises made for salary increase and job protection. Instead, they were terminated. The sugar workers would never forget how they were mistreated by the regime. Sugar workers and rice farmers donated funds to, and voted for, the APNU+AFC, making up that 10% that took APNU coalition from 41% to 51% to win the Government. How they regretted their vote after experiencing racism from the very people whom they voted into office!
When the Government announced its intention to close the estates, Dev and I held continuous discussion and analyses on the expected consequences that we concluded would devastate the families of sugar workers as well as communities. (At the urging of Dev and Sociologist Dr. Tara Singh, I visited the estates, interviewed residents, and penned articles on the impact of closures. There was social dislocation, widespread poverty, suicide, disability, stress and other medical issues too many to describe).
Dev and I came up with ideas that led to a plan on why the estates didn’t have to be closed, and how to avoid closure. Even after closure, we advised how to salvage them. We were driven by an altruistic passion to help the workers and their families. (Both of us being estate-bred; Dev from Uitvlugt and I from Port Mourant; we grew up in rice and cane, and understand the hardship for cultivation as well as the tender loving care needed for productivity).
Dev tasked me to find investors in India, and query their interest in sugar production, to save the factories. I did. Investors have been managing profitable sugar estates in Africa and India. I made trips to India at my own expense, interacting with investors. We convinced them to invest in Guyana in order to help the workers. They asked for a cost benefit analysis that we prepared. They asked for other information, and we were able to obtain it from sources within the industry and supply same to the potential investors. We suggested a plan of action that they liked and implemented. Through correspondence, they engaged GuySuCo and the agency the Government set up. The investors committed to pouring in tens of millions of American dollars into the economy, and submitted a plan.
Dev and I approached the Government with our ideas on saving the sugar industry. Dev penned a letter to President Granger, requesting an appointment to discuss the plan. Granger advised instead a meeting with Ministers Holder (Agriculture), Gaskin (Business), and Jordan (Finance), that his office set up. Dev met with them; Jordan was not present. Dev convinced two nationally respected prominent former executive members (one Indian, one African) of the AFC to accompany him to the meeting, hoping their presence would lead to a positive outcome. A strong case was made to the Government to save the sugar estates without costing Government a cent. The meeting did not yield any positive result.
Separately, I met with Mr Moses Nagamootoo and pleaded for his intervention to stop the estates from being closed. He assured me that investors from India were interested in acquiring the estates and retaining the workers. He was upbeat on foreign investment to rescue sugar. The Government was determined to close down the factories and put the workers out of a job. Even Moses could not stop it.
Separately, I met with Komal Chand and discussed the Dev-Bisram idea on saving the estates, and sought his assistance to raise it with GuySuCo or the Government. I also proposed an idea in which the workers would pool their money (gratuity, severance) due from the Government and invest same to acquire the estates. Komal said the workers would not be interested in ownership; they simply wanted jobs. He supported the idea of foreign investors from India. He also advised that I meet various local investors, since Government was not interested in foreign investors. I met a few private investors, but they wanted the estates virtually for free. Government came close to giving away an estate to a group that supported it financially in the 2015 campaign to defeat the PPP. The group recognised that racism played a role in it not getting an estate, as related to me, and most of the group withdrew support from the Government for the 2020 election. One private cane farmer from West Bank offered a hefty sum for Wales estate, but Government rejected his offer, and instead gave away land to its supporters and other political cronies. The land remains fallow, as nothing was done to it. One farmer gave some $10M to AFC and organised meetings as well as provided more in refreshments to defeat PPP; he felt betrayed with closure of estates. He told me he chased Clive Thomas from a meeting. He also abused Moses, Khemraj, and Raphael for misleading him about the sugar estates. The West Bank investor, as did almost all private peasant cane farmers, was very successful in cane farming, earning huge profits. Private farmers are reported to produce more than twice the yield of Government owned estates. Most shifted away from coalition to PPP in 2020.
The plan Dev and I suggested, and which had worked successfully for major corporations in India, was the farmers would be given plots of 15 acres on lease. They would grow the cane and supply to the factories, which would buy at going rates. Private farmers and former workers I interviewed were interested in acquiring Wales, but Government did not want to give land or the factory to save jobs. Also, Government did not assist Wales farmers with costly transportation of cane to Uitvlugt. The private farmers became bankrupt. Sugar workers became penniless, facing very serious family and social problems at home and in the villages, courtesy of the coalition regime. That led to its own demise.
Politics led to closure of the estates. Politics should lead to their rehabilitation, including Wales, which was dissected. The land must be returned to Wales and given to the former workers. And Government must parcel land to sugar workers to grow cane to be supplied to the factory.
Yours truly,
Dr Vishnu Bisram
