Dear Editor,
Please allow me to share my views on the above, as the main political Opposition is crying that there is a shortage of sugar here in Guyana.
I would like to go back to the election campaign of 2015; and yes, I must go back to that year, because during that time I was one of the campaigners for the AFC.
I can vividly recall that in almost all the political meetings and rallies, sugar and rice were the mantra of the AFC to win the votes of those sugar workers and their families, and rice farmers and their families. But let’s talk about sugar.
During those very meetings and rallies, the AFC pleaded with sugar workers and their families for their votes. I can recall at the rally in Whim, Corentyne, Berbice in front of Dr Ramayya (hope you won’t come attacking, doc) all of the AFC speakers – such as Ramayya, Charandass, Ramjattan, Nagamootoo and even PNC Granger – made several promises to the sugar workers and their families.
All of them were full of joy as the sugar workers and their families were loud in applause when they all said they were going to turn around the industry for the better, and workers and their families would again have a good life, rather than what obtained under the PPP.
Yes, this was said, and we all believed them and pleaded with the workers for their votes, because Nagamootoo was telling the sugar workers that they are the hardest workers and they are the working class that the PPP let down, and under the APNU+AFC Government, they would have several benefits being restored, as sugar would be profitable again.
We were all told that not a single worker would be sent home, and not a single estate would be closed under Nagamootoo’s watch; and YES, we all believed his words.
Those promises were so soundly told that anyone would have believed that the words spoken on stage, on the ground, on TV and radio programmes, in press releases and on social media outlets were going to all be the reality for the workers and their families.
But then the APNU+AFC were elected into Government, and that is when we all had to face the harsh treatment and false promises made by Nagamootoo and the AFC, along with the APNU(PNC), to the sugar workers and their families.
The cry by the Opposition, that there is a shortage of sugar in Guyana, should never be, because they are the ones to be blamed if there is a shortage presently. Nagamootoo was so proud to say that he chairs the cabinet most of the time, and that he wants the best for the sugar workers. But not long after, it was Nagamootoo who sat and allowed the APNU(PNC) to start a process with Dr Thomas on the sugar industry to know what to do, and as we all know, the outcome of that report wasn’t based on the economic side of GuySuCo or the well-being of thousands of sugar workers and their families, but was based on a racist agenda.
Why did I say that? Because all along, we all knew that GuySuCo was running at a loss, so it wasn’t a surprise, as was mentioned by Dr Thomas in his final report. Nagamootoo sat there at the head of the cabinet and allowed the decision to close some estates and send thousands of workers packing to be voted on, knowingly that the APNU(PNC) would have outnumbered the AFC, which, by the way, always depends on sugar workers’ votes to enter Parliament.
The closing of some of the estates means that the mills would stop grinding, and are going to be destroyed or damaged in months and years to come. But Nagamootoo and the AFC, along with the PNC, didn’t care what the outcome would have been.
Thousands of workers were sent home, and were left without a job for months. Their families suffered economic and mental hardship during that time, but Nagamootoo, the AFC and PNC didn’t care, because those in Government were getting fat cat super salaries and benefits.
In a nutshell, all those things that happened in the industry were the cause of greed for power by some in the AFC and PNC, especially Nagamootoo.
After the decision was made to downsize (as they call it) GuySuCo, Nagamootoo stopped going to Berbice. He was ashamed to face the workers, so he sent Khemraj Ramjattan to defend his hasty decisions in the industry.
Ramjattan went every week to defend Nagamootoo and PNC’s decision to fire sugar workers and close the estates. But Ramjattan wasn’t making any sense to the workers, because he, as the leader of the AFC, allowed Nagamootoo to use the AFC and the sugar workers for his political greed for power.
Since then, I have deemed Nagamootoo as the “Conniving Snake”, because he deceived the AFC and failed to defend the sugar workers. He betrayed all of Guyana. The AFC had a Minister of Agriculture who didn’t even offer a reasonable defence to the workers. He didn’t care about what happened. He was sitting all along, and had to do what was told to him by Nagamootoo.
Today the AFC and PNC want to blame the PPP for what they presumed is happening in the industry, as they deemed it a shortage in sugar. The Opposition should call on Nagamootoo to now come public and say why he betrayed the sugar workers.
If the APNU+AFC hadn’t closed some of the estates and sent home thousands of sugar workers, we would not have reached this stage, as they are saying there is a shortage of sugar.
Today this Government has to spend billions on repairing those very estates that the APNU+AFC closed, in order to get them functioning again. It is the closure of the estates that led to this shortage, if there is a shortage, and the APNU+AFC and Nagamootoo must take the blame.
APNU+AFC closed those estates so that we would not get sugar in the future, and today they are crying bitterly for sweets from sugar that they throw away because of racist politics.
The cry by the Opposition now is wasting time, because we all know they didn’t care for the sugar industry at all, but all they did was to make false promises to the sugar workers and their families to get their votes.
So, Charandass was totally in order in saying, “YES! YES! YES!” to throw the APNU+AFC out of office for failing the sugar workers, and we all know that without the votes of the sugar workers and their families, the AFC can never ever see Government again, nor would the PNC.
If there is a crisis in the sugar industry today, I do believe that it was created by the APNU+AFC Government while they were in office.
Respectfully,
Abel Seetaram
