Dear Editor,
The Opposition provocateurs are burning the midnight oil, exerting all their efforts in their ineffectual attempts to destabilise the Government. This time, again, it is Vishnu Panday, a WIN MP and former supporter and beneficiary of the Government, who was employed and re-employed in various senior capacities at the Guyana Sugar Corporation. Sadly, to say, his mouth did most of the hard work.
Undoubtedly, MP Panday is a “talk-shop” on sugar and the sugar industry, since it was there that he was groomed, bloomed, and withered to the point of being consigned to oblivion. The Government realised that Panday’s diaphanous verbiage cannot produce the tangible results that GuySuCo needed to be viable again, and his contract was not renewed.
This was the beginning of his venomous attack and vendetta against the Government. His writings and utterances are mere futile attempts to grasp at some form of minuscule relevance. Many writers have penned volumes on this man’s incompetence, and his performances at various levels in GuySuCo bear testimony to this reality.
It must be recalled that Panday has a problem with Sasenarine Singh, who was the CEO for GuySuCo from 2020 to 2024, and there was a bitter feud between the two, since the former felt that he was better qualified and capable to do that job, and that Singh was a “misfit”.
He resigned, and was reinstated as Agriculture Director under the next CEO, Paul Cheong. But he felt that he was side-lined and that the CEO’s job should have been his. It defies logic and is a far-fetched leap of one’s imagination that a man who failed as an Estate Manager and as an Agriculture Director should be promoted to the CEO’s position.
Then he went back to attack former CEO Rajendra Singh, but did not mention the CEO appointed during the Coalition’s tenure in office, when an Interim Management Committee (IMC) was in place, headed by Paul Bhim and Errol Hanoman, and then Dr Harold Davis Jr. How convenient and deceitful. Why is Panday bent on attacking the PPP-appointed CEO but had nothing ill to say about the Coalition’s appointment? Every Guyanese knew what happened to GuySuCo during this dark period: wages and salaries froze, downsizing, closure, and dismissal of thousands of sugar workers.
Billions of dollars were squandered, including a $30 billion bond. More billions in machinery and infrastructure were left to rot, and sugar workers stayed away from home in search of a living. Let us hear about this. Vishnu Panday was a member of GuySuCo’s Board from September 2018 to August 2020. He needs to let us know about his “sterling” contributions.
Let me educate this man. Any target is an estimate based on certain achievable variables and is not written in stone. Agricultural production targets are revised upward or downward for various reasons, such as weather extremes, pests and diseases, labour shortages, mechanical issues, and market conditions, which can affect the target originally set. The Minister can only work with figures available to him at the time, under the conditions prevailing at that time. Indeed, the field and factory are progressively getting better.
What crime has been committed, Panday?
In addition, Panday’s “jumbie” accounting for revenue and expenditure is ludicrous. What he needs to understand is that GuySuCo has the most robust accounting system in the country, and every dollar is properly accounted for. As the head of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), he should use his position to get all these answers. In addition, GuySuCo’s yearly audit will provide veracity.
Moreover, Panday seems to have a problem with persons whom he would term “political appointees”, yet when he was appointed by “politicians”, he clung to the opportunity. He did not question the source of his appointment then. This is sanctimonious duplicity. When he was discarded and then reappointed again and again, he saw that as mistakes being corrected, but now sees the appointment of Jairam Pitam as appointing a “misfit” and deems it a “dangerous” act. This is a blatant double standard, and just goes to show the personal and venomous nature of the man.
Everyone is a “misfit” except himself. Then Panday again guilefully attempted to sow discord among the Executives of GuySuCo, namely, the CEO and Chairman. This man has now become the opposite of what he is supposed to preach.
In conclusion, as a practising Pandit, Panday needs to give some credence to the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita. In the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna teaches that ego (ahamkara) and arrogance (dambha and abhimana) are the core illusions keeping humans trapped in pain. They trick the soul into believing it is the independent controller of life, leading straight to anger, delusion, and self-destruction. MP Panday, as a practising Pandit, is fully cognisant of this, and should avoid this like the plague.
As per definition, a Pandit is a wise and learned person in Hinduism, who has special knowledge of sacred books, religious laws, and philosophy. All those you have sought to condemn are better individuals than yourself – that is the karma you have to live with.
Yours sincerely,
Haseef Yusuf