Dear Editor,
I am certain that the Globe Trust collapse may still be in the memory of most Guyanese.
This was a financial house, the first Afro-Guyanese bank to be specific that had been established to hold and invest black capital. Personally, I lauded this step, since there was no other such financial-economic capital vehicle that could be said, to have originated within the aspirations of Afro-Guyanese socio-cultural-economics.

But it failed in the end because of, among other things, a departure from strict banking rules and practices. Its biggest losers were the dozens of deposit holders, especially the large account holders, who would have lost significant sums.

I stand to be corrected, when I say that there were expectations that the then PPP/C administration, after representations made by deposit holders and Afro-Guyanese organisations, would have offered a rescue package. But it was not to be. Instead, Globe Trust as an entity came to an end, and a re-payment plan was enacted, based on the quantum of individual accounts. At best, these were paltry sums, especially in the case of large account holders.

Not only was this a defeat for Afro-Guyanese pride, but also the perception of a government that did not care because Globe Trust had been primarily an African-based institution. In the GuySuCo situation, an iconic industrial corporation that is central to the livelihood of thousands of Guyanese, and a seminal plank of the socio-economic history of this country, the coalition government responded with billions of dollars in efforts to avert what would have been a national catastrophe had the entity closed its doors in May, 2015.

It must be reminded also that the intervention was done, regardless of the fact that the sugar workers form the core of PPP/C support. It is instructive, that whereas the PPP/C spin machine continues to present GuySuCo as an ethnic Indo-Guyanese majority employer, current stats has reported otherwise.

Thus for the likes of Bharat Jagdeo, Priya Manickchand, and within recent times, Donald Ramotar and cohorts to be accusing the government of being discriminatory in its measures against the corporation because of the industry’s ethnic composition, is utterly unfair; at best dishonest in what such lies and propaganda are intended to convey, to the point of being asinine, for the attempt at playing the now well- known and worn racist card.

For Donald Ramotar to be part of such a trove of disgusting, fraudulent opposition statements, explains his guilt as one of the principals responsible for the tragedy that has befallen a once mighty employer. As a member of GuySuCo’s board for virtually the entire period of the PPP/C’s stay in office, he would have been part of the decision-making process which continued to pump billions of tax payers’ money into an industry that was not returning a profit. How this bottomless exercise could have continued, without due regard to the national coffers?

But what did Ramotar care about taxpayers’ hard earned money, once the selfish political ends of the then PPP/C government were being served. It is a national tragedy for such chronic, national deceivers to continue to hoodwink the sugar workers in such a disrespectful and merciless manner. Editor, you will agree that though Globe Trust was a non-state entity and a very small financial house, that it meant a whole lot to those Afro-Guyanese who entrusted their savings to its coffers. Where was the magnanimity shown? One can even extend the comparison with another debacle – that of CLICO.

The coalition’s intervention that has brought renewed hope for those affected sugar workers has been done for Guyanese workers, irrespective of ethnicity, and political affiliation.

Regards
Troy Douglas