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‘…maybe this saviour of farmers has a hotline direct to God’
 ‘RELIEF FOR FARMERS’: President Bharrat Jagdeo agrees to grant farmers relief from high input costs after representation by RPA team. | |
It is the only contention that the RPA has with Mr. Rahman, otherwise it concedes Mr. Rahman, or anyone else, every right to form whatever organisation they may choose. However, riding on the back of the RPA is totally prohibited. Mr. Rahman is not even a member of the RPA and thus has no standing within that organisation. Mr. Rahman is even free to make whatever grandiose claims he chooses, but it is the responsibility of credible media houses to investigate and objectively analyse those claims before reporting on issues that compromises the credibility of individuals or organisations. Mr. Rahman’s bid for a leadership role within the farming community can be clearly seen to the objective observer as merely posturing and glory-hunting, with a different agenda altogether; and I will attempt to validate my assertion as follows.
Mr. Rahman erupted on the public scenario by using the popular and recognised RPA acronym to attract the attention and cooperation of media houses, which is a blatantly dishonest act because, as has been explained, he is not a member of the RPA.
He targeted the Government in general, and the RPA General-Secretary in particular. I am positive that, in this prelude to the election of 2011 his motive is more sinister, with a political agenda. However, I will not expand on this at the moment, because truth has a way of emerging, but I will draw reference here to Mr. Ravi Dev’s initial attempt to rally the support of sugar workers to a union he established, then, when elections were near, that supposedly representative body targetting a PPP-stronghold evolved into the political party ROAR. Like the sugar-producing community, the rice industry is perceived to comprise of primarily PPP supporters. I am making no inference here but merely drawing attention to similarities of a modus operandi.
Rahman calls his ragtag group an action committee, and says he is only concerned about the welfare of farmers; so where was his concern when the agricultural sector in general, and the rice industry in particular, were virtually under siege during the dictatorial regime, when the industry desperately needed frontline fighters like he purports he is?
He ran away – this courageous, caring champion of the rice farmers, and only now, when the needs of farmers and the agricultural industry are being addressed and prioritised by this current administration has he surfaced to challenge an organisation and an individual who suffered and sacrificed much during the hard and dangerous years, when the RPA operated from borrowed office space with the scantiest of antiquated resources, and even those, along with irreplaceable records, were burnt to ashes by PNC protesters.
 ‘FLASHBACK’: RPA frontline fighter, General Secretary Dharamkumar Seeraj, informing the media about the concerns of farmers while former Minister of Agriculture, Hon. Satyadeo Sawh, listens attentively. Bank loans were subsequently re-structured by President Bharrat Jagdeo because of this aggressive representation by the RPA – the real champion of the rice farmers. | |
And what action has this much-touted “action committee” taken to alleviate the problems of farmers? He as spokesperson has blown enough hot air to disperse all the storm-clouds that cause flooding to farmers’ fields, and that is about all the action he can boast of.
All his contentions have been credibly addressed ad nauseum by Seeraj and other functionaries of the RPA and the Ministry of Agriculture’s various implemental arms.
He proposes that the Government subsidises the agricultural sector and pay farmers $5/6000 per bag for paddy, despite global realities and a trading paradigm that has to comply with WTO rules or face sanctions. Only someone who is intellectually and morally challenged would advocate compromising with the nation’s bilateral and multilateral trading protocols, especially with the threat of sanctions to its export commodities.
And no-one has the time nor inclination to, in local parlance, “ghotay dhal,” that is, to repeatedly deal with an issue in order to give the likes of Rahman and his accusations credence, because all the many interventions the Government has been making to sustain the viability of the agricultural industry, despite all the prevailing variables, has been addressed at and through so many forums that only someone with a nefarious agenda would mask the same issues and present them in a different costume over and over again, which apparently members of the media fraternity cannot recognise for what it is – as a strategy to achieve public recognition on “fluff.”
The Chronicle editorial of Monday 13th April, 2009, highlights some of these interventions, which are continuously, increasing budgetary allocations as the needs arise.
If “the RPA is not doing sufficient” for farmers then Mr. Rahman’s “action committee” (without using the RPA acronym of course) can explain what action they would take to do “sufficient.”
His advice to farmers to form cooperatives and acquire their own mills to avoid exploitation by middlemen has long been adumbrated by Seeraj, with the Minister of Agriculture repeating the suggestion several times. Dr Cheddi Jagan established the cooperative rice mill at Vergenoegen and it is still serving the farmers of the locality who are members.
His suggestion that farmers embark on value-added initiatives has been part of the administration’s strategy for diversification for years, so he is merely pirating the ideas of the nation’s brilliant leaders.
His advice (sic) to the Ministry of Agriculture to assist farmers with the acquisition of farming machinery has been an extant reality for many years.
These, and many more interventions are a direct result of RPA representation, and the organisation and its General-Secretary have no qualms in picketing the Government, of which RPA General Secretary Mr. Seeraj is an MP, when the farmers’ needs are not being satisfactorily addressed.
So what new advice, and what action does this farmers’ champion plan to magically transform the industry, and which can transmute green to gold in these trying times of extant anomalies – unseasonal rains and changing weather patterns being primary among them?
But maybe this saviour of farmers has a hotline direct to God. Seeraj, Montgomery, and even the President need to ask GT&T to provide them with extensions of the private line Jinnah has through which he can demand appropriate weather from the Lord, or even private lines so that they can communicate with the Lord their displeasure at His targeting Guyanese farmers to so many natural inhibitors to the development of the agriculture industry.
They need to let the Lord know that he has to use His powers, which are obviously superior to that of the European superpowers, to force them to pay better prices for Guyana’s rice – or else!
After all, if ‘Moses’ Jinnah can access Divine intervention to solve the farmers’ problems, then maybe that same conduit can be used by the RPA GS, the Minister of Agriculture, and even the President to solve all the farmers’ problems.
The reason for ostensibly “decent and credible” people banding together and hounding someone with the intent of destroying them, their credibility, or their good name has always perplexed me, until a simple but profound explanation by a profound Hindu Missionary enlightened me.
Pt. Rajesh of the Eccles Shiv-Shakti Mandir took me to a Yajna being conducted at the Ruimzeight Mandir by Pt. Prakash Gossai, who said that no-one pelts an empty mango tree. They do so because they covet the fruits adorning the tree.
It is a despicable human trait to try to pull down a shining star, but stars only go out in a blaze of cosmic glory, as did Lord Jesus, Mahatma Gandhi, Dr and Mrs. Jagan – as Seeraj will one day after he has accomplished much more than he already has, but certainly not at the hands of an opportunistic Jinnah Rahman.
On a more serious note, the three Ramraj brothers – Kawal, Jeetlall, and Bholanauth are adamant that if farmers follow proper practices they could reap 40 bags of paddy per acre, as they normally do.
They credit this to their personal attention to every facet of rice cultivation – paying special care to proper land preparation, input, quality of seed paddy, rogueing, etc. The brothers said that because of proper management they have never gone into debt, and are even ahead, no matter what happens in the industry.
They are, however, upset that many times when the Government allocates funds and resources to alleviate conditions so that the farmers could effectively cultivate and harvest their crops, lax local administrators, in conjunction with deviant and defaulting contractors, lapse in the timely implementation and the delivery of the promised assistance.
The President’s promise to make contractors accountable for timely and effective delivery of services is much appreciated by the farming community. It is hoped by the farmers, that this unequivocal and uncompromising position taken by the President will serve to improve the lot of farmers, who have too long been held hostage to inept and/or dishonest administrators.
