FIRSTLY, I take this opportunity to heartily congratulate our new Government and to wish us Guyanese well-deserved success as we confront the many daunting tasks awaiting attention. 

I also commend our new President for the re-assurances given so far as he so magnanimously did when he met with the employees of the erstwhile Office of the President.
Based on my intimate connections with employees in the sugar industry, especially those in Berbice, I believe they also urgently require some assurances; after all, they are the largest block of employees in Guyana.
The over-riding question thrown at me is: “Would the new Government really convert the cane-fields into fish farms?” I believe the genesis of this question goes back to a letter in the media some time ago to the effect that it would be more profitable to convert the sugar cane fields to fish farms; this was conveniently manipulated during the elections campaign to drive fear in the minds of sugar workers.
I know only too well that the sugar industry is plagued by numerous issues and untold problems to which solutions cannot be posited by a few simple sentences. However, given the rumblings among the anxious ‘rank and file’, the backbone of the nodal sugar industry, I believe a simple statement to dispel the fear of converting cane lands to fish farms will be most welcome among the concerned sugar workers who are the bona fide primary stakeholders of the sugar industry.
There is really no need for me to belabour the importance of early strategic communication to allay undue and unnecessary anxieties.

NOWRANG PERSAUD