The October 5th legacy – a working people’s Government in action

Having already, after just more than one year in office, made direct cash transfers to Guyanese families amounting to more than $20B, or more than $US100M, the PPP turned its attention to those suffering sugar workers whom the previous Granger-led PNC/APNU/AFC Government brutally impoverished by taking away their livelihoods. As those sugar workers suffered, Granger and his heartless cohorts told them SUGAR is dead and the workers are collateral damage. On the verge of the 29th anniversary of the restoration of democracy, this past Monday, the Vice-President, Bharrat Jagdeo, went to Skeldon and, with sugar workers surrounding him, announced that each sugar worker who was severed from SUGAR would receive $250,000, amounting to another cash transfer to the vulnerable population of $1.8B.
Cheddi Jagan became Independent Guyana’s first democratically-elected President. October 5, 1992, therefore, is historical and significant enough for October 5 annually to be observed. As we observe this very important milestone, the five-month-long rigging efforts to steal the March 2020 elections are still fresh in our minds. Some of the persons, including senior staff members of GECOM who were intimately involved with the rigging efforts, have been charged with serious crimes. But more than a year later, GECOM is still not in a position to fill positions, and there are also others who were part of the conspiracy to rig the elections still in positions at GECOM. However, our country tasted freedom, and we will never, as a country, ever again allow dictatorship to return to this beautiful country.
Twenty-nine years after we ended dictatorship in Guyana, we are still recovering from its deleterious effects. During the almost three decades of dictatorship before 1992, we were the laughing stock of the Caribbean, the poorest country in the Americas. We have come a long way in regaining our dignity, and we are poised now to be the leading economy in Caricom. Far from a laughing stock, we are now the envy of Caricom. But after a vigorous five-month resistance between March 2 and August 2, 2020, we barely managed to stop the theft of an election. While we celebrate freedom and democracy, remember we still deal with the aftermath of the 2015-2020 era, when the blueprint for renewed dictatorship was being put in place.
One aspect of that blueprint was the targeting of certain groups for harassment and intimidation. On more than one occasion, the sugar workers were identified as a group that had to be silenced. Closure of sugar estates was purely a political hatchet job. More than 7,000 sugar workers lost their jobs. Some were grudgingly paid their severance, but only after waiting a long time, during which time many became indebted and their children and families endured untold misery. Many waited years to get their severance. The court had to intervene on behalf of many of these sugar workers, who were deemed collateral damage. To hurt the PPP, the PNC forced sugar workers to pay a price.
But the closure of four estates and termination of employment of more than 7,000 sugar workers were not the only assaults on sugar workers. Those sugar workers who were lucky to still have their jobs and who APNU/AFC/PNC promised a 20% annual increase in wages and other benefits before the 2011 and 2015 elections had their wages and benefits frozen. Instead of a 20% annual wage increase, the Granger-led Government gave them a big, fat zero wage increase. They also reduced benefits such as the annual production and weekly production incentives. The PNC-led coalition were brutal in their harassment and intimidation of sugar workers. Among those who betrayed sugar workers were Moses Nagamootoo, who called himself the sugar workers’ champion, and Khemraj Ramjattan, who stood on the public platform before 2015 on many occasions with crocodile tears. Some fell for the crocodile tears, for the lies, some voted for Ramjattan’s party.
But the PPP, for more than seventy years, has been the sugar workers’ Rock of Gibraltar. As sugar encountered difficulties, the PPP stood with the workers and made sure not one of them lost their jobs. Even as sugar reeled from the combination of inclement weather, climate change and an international environment that arbitrarily abrogated agreements, the PPP stood in solidarity with sugar workers, making certain sugar workers, every year between 1992 and 2015, got a wage increase. That protection and that solidarity ended in 2015 when Granger’s PNC took control of the Government.
But in August 2020, the Irfaan Ali-led PPP Government returned. Hope returned not only for sugar, but also for sugar workers and their families. The PPP started immediately to reopen the estates, creating jobs. This week’s announcement of a direct cash transfer to severed sugar workers is testimony to a caring Government, one that has sought myriad ways to help all vulnerable populations in Guyana. The PPP continues to demonstrate that it would stand with the people, with sugar workers, in good times and in bad times. This is what freedom and democracy represent. This is why October 5 will always be a special time in the life of this country.