THE People’s Progressive Party (PPP) said it has noted the statements from the Opposition Parties (APNU and AFC) which signals a retreat from their recent position calling for the closure of GuySuCo. The party, in a statement yesterday, said it has noted that their back peddling was taken as a result of the strong message which the workers sent to the PNC and AFC. The PPP said it is not convinced that the Opposition parties have really retreated from their plans for GuySuCo. 

“The PNC has always publicly proclaimed their interest to close the sugar industry, the main objective being to weaken the (PPP’s) traditional support base. This still remain the objective behind the PNC plans to close down the Sugar Industry,” the ruling party stated.
It accuses the AFC of joining the PNC in this “sick and morbid pursuit” instead of recognising Sugar as a way of life for over 20% of our people and to recognise that sugar is a vital contribution to the economy and to exchange rate stabilisation.
The PPP said it is not fooled by the back peddling of the PNC-led APNU and the AFC. It noted that sugar workers have already rebuffed the efforts of the AFC to try clarify their sinister intentions for GuySuCo.

“The recent meetings organised by the AFC in the sugar belt have been colossal failures with very poor turnout by sugar workers unlike meetings organised by the PPP,” the party stated.
“In the 2011 elections campaign, the AFC promised sugar workers a 20% increase in wages. Such irrational promises if they had a chance of being implemented would only kill off the industry rather than facilitate its restructuring for long term viability and profitability,” the PPP asserted.
It said that as far as the PNC is concerned, it is to be recalled that GuySuCo was at the top on the list for divestment under Carl Greenidge. He had Dr. Kenneth King work diligently on the privatisation of sugar, a precursor to its closure.
“The new privatised owners would not have had sugar production on their agenda; rather they would have been the landlords of valuable real estate which belonged to GuySuCo,” the PPP said.
According to the party, it is ironic that when Minister Irfaan Ali moved to acquire already abandoned cane lands for much needed housing development, the AFC moved in Parliament for him to be sanctioned.
The PPP also recalls the crushing sugar levy which the PNC had imposed on sugar, starving workers from a decent wage and the industry from much needed resources for recapitalisation. “Also, the PNC had GuySuCo engaged in hair brain schemes much to the detriment of the industry. The Opposition also withheld their parliamentary support for a $5 billion subsidy to GuySuCo last year,” the PPP stated.
“Now APNU with Tony Vieira as its mouth piece is calling for an end to GuySuCo and sugar production. He is joined by no less a person than PPP critic Clive Thomas,” the PPP reiterated in its statement yesterday.
“Just as the PPP/C Government supported the bauxite industry and believes that Guyana has a future in bauxite, in the same way PPP is of the view that there is a future for sugar in Guyana and more importantly it still has much to contribute,” the party stated.
Minister of Finance Dr Ashni Singh puts it quite succinctly, when he said: “The industry is still of sufficient systemic importance to the national economy and to the livelihoods of so many rural communities and has such deep forward and backward linkages with suppliers and distributors nationwide that no effort must be spared to ensure its long term viability, competitiveness, and profitability.”
“We know that the Opposition is fond of playing political football with sugar and is hell bent on withholding its support for financial assistance to the industry in the 2014 budget. Let them be warned that they are playing politics with the lives of tens of thousands of honest, hardworking Guyanese,” the PPP warned.
The PPP said it accepts that there are challenges which the sugar industry faces, challenges both internally and externally; nevertheless the Party is confident that the initiatives which has been embarked upon, will over the next few years return GuySuCo to a sound financial position. In this regard, the PPP said it welcomes the allocation of $6 billion dollars announced by the Finance Minister in Budget 2014 for the mechanisation of the sugar industry.
“The Skeldon factory, the Enmore Packaging Plant, and investments in mechanisation are all initiatives which the PPP/C Government have implemented to ensure that we protect an industry which will continue to be important to the socio economic development of our country,” the PPP added.