Dear Editor,
Please allow me to share some information and to remind my brothers and sisters of what occurred within the sugar industry.
I won’t go back to the yesteryears, but deal with the reality of what the people – especially young people – need to know about the industry, especially since all sugar workers were fooled in 2015 by the PNC and AFC (APNU is the PNC).
Leading up to the 2015 elections, we all are aware that sugar workers and their families were promised a good life and that if elected, they are going to make sugar profitable again.
Moses Nagamootoo led that charge, shouting at the top of his throat that the PPP don’t care about sugar workers’ welfare, and if given the opportunity then he will ensure they have a good life.
Many echoed the same sentiments during the campaign trail, including myself, not knowing that AFC and PNC had a plan to give the workers and their families a good bad life.
Sugar workers during the PNC rule of 2015-2020 were sent home. Thousands lost their jobs in the industry. Hardship entrenched the lives of their families. Jobs were hard to get, and starvation was the thing of the day for many of the workers and their children.
Families were displaced all because PNC lied to the workers and their families. They didn’t care about the welfare of the workers and their families, but that of their own.
Under this PPP Government, however, workers were rehired, estates were reopened, and the good life started to bloom for the families of those workers.
No one says that there wouldn’t be issues in the industry, and as a leading industry, it will have problems. Many of those problems cannot be solved overnight, as the present main opposition party is saying.
Between 2015 and 2020 the workers couldn’t have raised their voices to say anything, and no Minister with the then Government, the PM, or President had wanted anything to do with sugar workers.
Under this Government we have a Minister who listens to their concerns and tries his utmost to look into their matters. We cannot blame the Minister for everything; management must be held accountable too, because there are some who don’t care about the workers’ welfare but just for their salaries.
Today, we see the main opposition party trying the same stunt that AFC and PNC tried with the sugar workers. We saw the target of the industry again, Gobin Harbhajan of the WIN party, who knows nothing about management or the sugar industry.
Harbhajan took his leader to the recent strike in Berbice and used the same strategy as the AFC and PNC in trying to brainwash the sugar workers, but the workers won’t be fooled again by the promise of a “good life”.
The main opposition party spokesman on agriculture is very silent on issues pertaining to the industry because he is on record as one of the people that tried to kill the sugar industry.
Today, they want to lecture the PPP on bad management when they caused the run-down of the industry.
Yes, I was also badmouthing the PPP and tackling their Agriculture Ministers, but after what took place between 2015 and 2020, I had to look at what leadership is and who cares for the sugar workers and their industry.
What I saw from 2020 to now is a man at the helm of the Agriculture Ministry who knows of the struggle of the working class, especially the sugar workers. A man that wants to see the good life for the workers and their families. A man who listens to the workers’ issues, not like the former deadweight Minister Holder.
Under Mustapha’s leadership we see better management of the industry, and yes, the issue of not reaching production targets lies solely with the management of GuySuCo, and I know that the Minister is working around the clock to ensure that the targets are achieved.
Harbhajan and his cable heard that the Ministry will be announcing the retroactive payment to the workers and used the opportunity to gain publicity by spreading the false narrative that no money is there for their retroactive payments and they won’t get it.
But those who know Gobin also know that’s what he does best: lie again about points and publicity. It’s a shame that he has the face to go back to the workers when he himself was in agreement to fire those workers and close the estates.
Brothers and sisters in the industry, don’t be fooled again. Look at what took place between 2015 and 2020 and try to see who really cares. And yes, you have all authority to strike for betterment, but don’t be used to strike for the opposition’s gains.
My brothers and sisters in the industry, your time for a good life for you and your family is under this PPP Government. Think about your future, your children’s future, and mostly about a better life, and if you’re thinking correctly, then I ask you not to allow the opposition to use you for their selfish political purposes and gains.