NAGAMOOTOO, RAMJATTAN EXPOSED AS CHARLATANS
– Nagamootoo’s comment about ‘ethnic mobilisation’ is an attack on the rights of sugar workers to represent their causes and a despicable effort to silence them

OLD Kai has been vindicated as I had contended all along that the likes of Moses Nagamootoo and Khemraj Ramjattan did not have the interest of sugar workers at heart and someday soon they will be exposed as charlatans.

That day came on Wednesday April 9, 2014 when in a fit of panic and desperation, Moses chose the weak way out by trying to dilute the cause which brought out hundreds of sugar workers outside Parliament.

They say a good leader is judged not by his actions when it is smooth sailing but rather through the storm. Moses encountered the storm outside Public Buildings on Wednesday but he was not up to the challenge. He fell way short!

After all these years of pretending to be concerned about the plight of the working class and specifically the sugar workers; here it was finally in the open that Nagamootoo was blind to their cause, deaf to their cries, stone hearted to their plight and all he could muster was ‘ethnic mobilisation’.

When confronted with a situation which called for mature leadership and diplomacy, Nagamootoo panicked and that is when he showed his ‘true colors’. He was only capable of seeing the workers’ ‘ethnicity’!

After all these years of pretending to be concerned about the plight of the working class and specifically the sugar workers; here it was finally in the open that he was blind to their cause, deaf to their cries, stone hearted to their plight and all he could muster was ‘ethnic mobilisation’.

These sugar workers left their homes and work to come outside of parliament because they had a concern and justifiably so. The APNU has publicly articulated a position which calls for the closure of the industry, including abandoning all forms of sugar cane production. They have abandoned their initial suggestion of ethanol production saying it would not be profitable. The AFC has come out publicly in full support of the position adopted by the APNU and together they had questioned the PPP/C Government allocation of $6 billion to the industry for it to continue its modernisation plan. They even hinted that they would not support the assistance package.

But then they were greeted by hundreds of sugar workers on Wednesday, strong in their cause, firm in their conviction, that they just like any other citizens were entitled to assistance from the State. They have worked hard and in bygone years, the profits from their industry were taken away from them, it was used to fund other projects and even pay public servants. It was used to service the unsustainable debt racked up by the PNC Government. Now these very people are publicly saying that sugar does not deserve a lifeline, when sugar for many years was a lifeline for this country in a dark era. They have been supported by the AFC leaders, the very leaders who would go into the sugar belt and proclaim how they were concerned about sugar workers.

The AFC even promised workers a 20% wages and salary increase were they to be elected into Government at the 2011 regional and general elections but now when it was time to approve monetary support to the industry which will directly benefit these very workers, the AFC was hesitant; it was now clear that they had no intention of ever honoring their promise to sugar workers.

Another confirmation of this dark truth was when AFC leader Khemraj Ramjattan went on Capitol News and proclaimed how the PPP/C Government was doing everything for sugar and nothing for Lindeners, which amounted to ‘racial discrimination’. The Linden unrest subsequently followed where the AFC leaders were a key contributor to what was to transpire. Up to that point the Government had been allocating $3 billion to subsidize electricity costs for residents in the mining township and a few other areas in the region.

Fast-forward to the 2014 budget, where there has been absolutely no comment by either the APNU or AFC members on the $3 billion allocation to Region 10 to meet electricity costs but they have not missed an opportunity to attack Government’s allocation to the sugar industry.

However, in the end the sugar workers with the PPP leadership by their side came out victorious once again despite the odds. The hundreds of workers sent a clear message to the Opposition in the National Assembly and it apparently stopped their plans to vote against the allocation.

The workers have now realized the grave threat posed by those who pretended to be their friends but are actually working to undermined them. They have managed to overcome the sinister plans by the AFC/APNU this time around but they need to strengthen their resolve and return to their industry, determined to surpass production targets and prove the Opposition wrong. Sugar workers need to show that the calls for the closure of their industry were wrong and Old Kai is confident that they will do so.

In the meantime, Moses Nagamootoo owes sugar workers an apology for trying to demean their cause by attacking their ‘ethnicity’; if not he is not worth sitting in the National Assembly and should resign immediately.