Vacuum of estate closure has been heart-rending

Dear Editor,
The GAWU’s attention was drawn to Ms Akola Thompson’s Minority Report column titled “Sugar”, which appeared in the Stabroek News of August 14, 2020.
Having considered the column, the GAWU believes it should offer a response to bring clarity to several of Ms Thompson’s suppositions.
The columnist begins by recognising that the industry, for many years, played an important role in our nation. She described the industry as “the crown jewel of Guyana’s industries.”
While the industry’s economic impact is obvious, the GAWU has consistently demonstrated that the industry has a much wider social impact in rural Guyana. This, while not easily seen, is probably the industry’s most tangible contribution. Moreover, as Guyana’s economic “crown jewel”, sugar’s economic legacy is impressive. The Sugar Levy alone carried Guyana during the turbulent past of our nation.
So, while Ms Thompson contends that it’s an “ambitious task” to restore the industry to viability, we cannot share that view. We are not going to be like ostriches, burying our heads in the sand and saying it will be an easy feat, but we hold that it’s certainly not an impossible task, as the columnist seemingly makes it out to be. It is a goal that is attainable with proper and creative management, motivated workers, and sufficient support.
Ms Thompson, in advancing her proposition, argues that the industry has not been able to justify its past investments. That sentiment, in our view, has to be considered alongside a clear policy position by the former Coalition Government, to downplay the industry with a seeming intention to get rid of it. Undoubtedly, the lack of effective leadership, and a Government-supervised tug-of-war between NICIL and GuySuCo also served to bring more harm than good.
Apart from that, we saw the placement of many square pegs in round holes. The columnist may be surprised to learn of the number of high-paid consultants, many past the age of retirement, the industry engaged at reportedly high pay over the last five (5) years.
To give an instance, the Corporation’s Factory Operations Department at its Head Office has more staffers now than when the industry had seven (7) factories. Notwithstanding that development, factory efficiency is at an all-time low.
The industry is largely agricultural, but we continue to see a lack of creativity in addressing the maladies at that level, although the Corporation is currently led by a longstanding agriculturalist who possesses a PhD.
The industry is labelled a “black hole” by the columnist. It’s an interesting phrase, and one which was used by the APNU in the form of Dr Carl Greenidge to similarly describe the industry in 2013. Maybe it is a coincidental choice of words, but it also exposes Ms Thompson’s naivety in regard to the sugar industry. The reality is that the industry must be re-oriented to produce several products, such as electricity, refined sugar and packaged sugar, among other things. There must be improved efficiencies in the fields as well, through mechanisation and harnessing advances in technology.
For this columnist’s information, steps were taken in this direction, and those efforts had borne fruit. But rather than continuing along that path, we saw the former Coalition Government throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
To share an example, the Enmore Packaging Plant yielded GuySuCo the best prices for its sugar, but in spite of this positive development, it was closed without a second thought. Over the last few years, GuySuCo has been forced to rent the plant from NICIL, to whom it was surreptitiously handed, and transport sugar from Blairmont to be packaged at Enmore in order to meet market demand. One does not need to be a rocket scientist to imagine what it did to the margins.
Guyana’s sugar sector vis-à-vis our Caribbean contemporaries cannot be considered in abstract. We have to wonder whether Ms Thompson is familiar with those industries. In those island states, there are massive costs to irrigate fields. Sugar cane is a heavy consumer of water.
In Guyana, on the other hand, we don’t have to face those difficulties. From a natural standpoint, we have several endowments that lend to sugar cultivation: such as flat, arable land; an abundant access to fresh water; and waterway transport of harvested canes, among other things. We don’t face the difficulties of sugar displacing other economic pursuits, as some of our Caribbean friends face. It’s against that background that we see it as comparing apples with oranges.
Ms Thompson shared her agreement with the past Administration’s decision to close estates. It says a lot about where she stands, in our view; but, again, that’s her right. We, of course, expressed a very critical view for so many reasons. The columnist, nevertheless, accepted that the closure process was haphazard and callous. Yet, in spite of that admission, it appears that there was no recognition of the reality that the former Government could not have cared less about the fate of those who were affected. As is rightly admitted, that apparent lack of empathy that arose from the closure remains “a sore point.”
We could not agree more with Ms Thompson’s assessment of the Coalition’s refusal to heed the cries of the workers and the communities in which estates were closed. We are unsure whether the columnist knows that the former Government bluntly rejected a call for a properly considered study to have a better understanding of the consequences of the decisions which at that time were being contemplated. Indeed, the economic and social impact was “swift and brutal”, and as the Stabroek News and several other media houses have pointed out, many communities have yet to recover from that impact, if they will recover at all.
Ms Thompson, in spite of her admissions, urges that the industry should be “allowed to die its natural death”. As an organisation which has struggled with the workers and their families, we know all too well what that would mean for the tens of thousands in the sugar belt. Certainly, the economic dislocation would be enormous, and the social fallout would be even more detrimental. It would reverse the steady exodus from poverty for a great many Guyanese.
In those circumstances, we find the suggestion, if such it can be considered, most irresponsible. What for us is most disturbing is that Ms Thomspon is regarded as a social activist, and therefore we are at a loss to see how she can fathom making such a statement. But that is another story.
We hasten to remind Ms Thompson that the sugar industry remains significant in our country from so many points of view. Contrary to her view, the industry has much potential for success. Several other industries offer sterling and living examples in this regard. We consider the feat of reviving the sugar industry within our grasp, and once pursued properly, success can redound to the industry and all Guyana. The vacuum created by estate closure has been heart-rending, and the pains suffered have been intense. It’s not something we would wish on our worst of enemies, and it’s not something we see responsible persons advocating. But then, again, we live in the real world.

Yours faithfully,
Seepaul Narine
General Secretary
GAWU