…Komal Chand makes plea for struggling sugar industry

People’s Progressive Party backbencher and veteran trade unionist, Komal Chand has made an impassioned plea for government to reconsider any thoughts of closing down the sugar industry or privatizing it, saying this will be a monumental mistake and will spell doom and gloom for workers.

Chand made the comments while making his contributions to the 2017 budget debate last evening in the National Assembly. He accused the government of appearing oblivious to the plight of the Guyanese people and claimed that the 2017 budget has only added to the woes of citizens.

During his budget presentation, on November 28 Finance Minister, Winston Jordan made it clear that: “the status quo of the sugar industry can neither be sustained nor maintained. As currently structured, the industry would require Government’s support to the tune of $18.6 billion and $21.4 billion for the years 2017 and 2018, respectively.” This, he said is an untenable position, pointing out that it would seriously jeopardise the fiscal stance of the Government, while compromising resource allocation to other critical and important areas. “Radical re-organising of the sugar industry is required as a matter of urgency, for the continued postponement of the hard decisions on GuySuCo’s future would result in the corporation incurring even more debts (estimated currently at $80 billion) and an escalation of the demands on the Treasury.”

Recognising this grave situation, a Cabinet Sub-Committee has been established, tasked with making definitive recommendations for implementation by the end of 2016.
This committee, Jordan said has been examining all options and will make a full report to the Cabinet shortly. For 2017, the Government has made an allocation of $9 billion to support the financing of GuySuCo’s operations. This brings to $32 billion, the amount of resources that would have been provided to the Corporation since August 2015.

Vampire
However, Chand had a different view. “At the outset I must register that Budget 2017 will certainly propel our people and our country down a perilous path. It can, without fear of contradiction, be rightly described as an anti-working-people budget and, as a friend of mine remarked, it is a vampire one literally set to suck the ‘blood’ out of our people, from every walks of life,” Chand said.

He explained that in a short period Guyanese have seen the withdrawal of several initiatives which had benefitted the ordinary people. “Living costs are going up and living standards are on the decline. The Minister of Finance himself in his Mid-Year Economic Report revealed that food prices have risen by as much as 3.2 per cent for the first half of 2016 and in the Finance Ministry’s Monthly Economic Bulletin for September, 2016, we learnt about “increased prices for food, clothing and footwear and repairs.”

Turning his attention to labour matters, Chand said the Finance Minister, Winston Jordan spoke rather glowingly about the Government’s commitment to Collective Bargaining in the public sector, but said this is far from the real situation. “Comrade Speaker, the promises of a bright future and a good life are now pushed down the drain by this Budget. For the employees in the sugar industry they are meaningless and delusional. It should be recalled, Comrade Speaker, that in the 2015 elections campaign APNU/AFC speakers promised the sugar workers twenty per cent wage increases and other niceties… today we face the painful reality that sugar workers’ purchasing has in effect been decreasing by no pay increases for two years now. At the same time, the workers long standing benefits and time-honoured traditions and practices are being whittled away by some of those very spokesmen who now hold high positions.”

No to privatization
Adding that the government seems to want to condemn the sugar workers to even greater hardship and deprivation through the sale and closure of estates, the PPP Parliamentarian said that Jordan indicated that the Government would soon make known its intentions for the industry. “More and more there are signs that the sugar industry’s re-privatisation or de-nationalisation is being pursued with great speed. Such a step, I believe, Comrade Speaker, will be a monumental mistake and one that will haunt us in the future,” he said.

It is recalled; he said that former Prime Minister Forbes Burnham, in nationalising the industry with the full backing of the PPP and the trade unions, forty (40) years ago, among other things, alluded to the repatriation of the industry’s profits by its then foreign owners and their lack of investment in the country. “In these times when neo-colonialism is raising its head in the world, re-privatisation can very likely do much harm to our people, our economy and our independence. The Jamaican experience whereby the new owners failed to live up to their promises and just simply, earlier this year, decided to close operations, an act which put at risk the livelihoods of thousands of workers and farmers there. Comrade Speaker, I urge the Government to carefully consider the decisions of divestment and closure of estates. This will be condemning the affected workers to even greater distress and misery.”

Chand said the Finance Minister related that money invested in sugar is wasted. “I interpret this as one of the most anti-worker statements made by a minister. It would seem that the minister and the Government have forgotten about sugar’s contributions past and present. Would, it be right for me to say, Comrade Speaker, that the nearly $70B, at today’s exchange rate, paid as sugar levy which went to support the country is also wasted money? What about the nearly $30B received from the EU for sugar and not spent in the industry, is that a waste?”

He continued: “What about employment created, directly and indirectly, is that a waste? What about the industry’s dependable foreign exchange earnings, is that a waste? What about the long-standing subsidy of the local sugar price, is that a waste? Or, how about the drainage and irrigation and other services for communities, are they a waste? No, they aren’t, for us, Comrade Speaker, those contributions, among others, have redounded to the well-being of this country and its people in all times. They alleviated the pains in many difficult situations and still do today.”