TODAY there will be events at Le Repentir Cemetery and the Martyrs’ Monument in Enmore to commemorate the 69th Death Anniversary of five sugar workers whose lives were snuffed out by police firing during the strikes on the East Coast Demerara estates. The five, known as the Enmore Martyrs, are Lallabaggie and Dookie from Enmore, and Rambarran, Harry and Pooran from Enterprise/Non Pareil.
According to the Guyana Trades Union Congress, this national annual event was made possible through lobbying the Forbes Burnham Government. And its reason for engraining the unfortunate incident was to extract a commitment from government that the ultimate sacrifice of these workers will be remembered/hounoured, the horrendous act never repeated, and workers valued and treated as the nation’s most important resource.
This year’s anniversary sees the crisis facing the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) coming to the fore and the industry as a whole being discussed in all circles, home and abroad. Whichever way it is being looked at a determination has to be made about the future of sugar. The Government has proposed a plan that includes the closure of some estates. Understandably, there would be reflection and studied anxiety among sugar workers, their families and the communities as this day is being observed. When unsure of the future, such feeling is normal.
None can deny GuySuCo’s heavy reliance on the Consolidated Fund to offset expenses which it cannot repay in the foreseeable future, it has come at a time when austerity measures have become necessary. Earlier efforts by the PPP/C Government with the closure of Diamond Estate, restricting of the Demerara estates and sale of sugar lands are examples. Austerity measures bring with them some pains in the process. This editorial claims no knowledge whether the corporation is salvageable, but notes contending public views of the possibility and impossibility. There is the perception that sugar has no finality, having been the economic foundation of our society, a commodity still in demand and of market value. The crux of the problem with sugar is whether the state-owned industry is able to produce the commodity where it can at least cover production and administrative expenses.
Leader of the Opposition, Bharrat Jagdeo, at a public meeting in Enmore on Wednesday to honour the Enmore Martyrs told those in attendance that sugar could be saved. This has to be good news, particularly to sugar workers. However, what Mr. Jagdeo did not say or did not make known to the audience and all Guyana is how this could be possible. And where he thinks such can happen, he needs to explain why his or the Donald Ramotar Government did not put such a plan in place.
There were 16 years between the two to save the corporation. The data from GuySuCo show the period under review seeing declining production, severe cost overruns, and gross mismanagement. To pretend that such did not happen may be of political convenience, but to prey on the minds of anxious workers and trusting supporters is most unfortunate.
It may help the future of sugar should the PPP/C make public its proposal to save the industry. In its 23 years in government, it did not produce or implement such a plan. In Opposition there was a boycott of the Commission of Inquiry into GuySuCo. Last year when a committee was formed, headed by Minister of Public Security Khemraj Ramjattan, the PPP/C again boycotted the event. It is reasonable to wonder if there is indeed a plan.
The history of sugar is bittersweet. The concern of sugar workers about their future cannot be denied them. The efforts of the APNU+AFC Government to take decisive action understandably would be subject to criticism and praise, but it is a crying shame Mr. Jagdeo, who during his presidency, after, and now has produced no plan to save sugar.
The truth can only be, after all these years the plan entails allowing the corporation to run into the ground and sow seeds of discord. It is fair to say that while that plan offers relief to the accused and attack others, it brings sugar workers no long-term economic benefit. Undoubtedly, sugar workers would want to hear the PPP/C plan to save sugar and would look forward with much anticipation of it being made public. Where jobs would be lost it is cruel to have a plan to save GuySuCo and not reveal it. On the 69th death anniversary of the Enmore Martyrs the best homage the Leader of the Opposition can pay to those who sacrificed, is to make public the PPP/C’s plan.