Dear Editor,
OVER the past few months, we saw for the first time since 1992 real time representation being given to sugar workers. Between the years 1992-2015, we saw a sleeping PPP and GAWU killing the sugar industry, be it by fooling the workers or by not representing them and mismanagement of Guysuco.
I was amazed yesterday (July 9th, 2017) when I was watching a PPP propaganda program on LRTVS called “Insperspective” hosted by PPP’s Zufikar Mustapha, MP. This man dictates what he wants to hear from the callers. He disconnects callers that tell him the truth. Well, the man maybe doing that to protect himself because of the lies he has been peddling amongst Berbicians and Sugar Workers.
Firstly, this MP needs to educate himself, the leader of the PPP and its MPs, because the Sugar Industry will not be closing down. The PPP has been spreading the lies amongst sugar workers and their families that the APNU+AFC government will be closing down the sugar industry by the end of 2017.
There will be a few estates that will be closed so as to make Guysuco and the sugar industry profitable again. It is really a sad thing to see the way PPP and its associates are lying to the workers that the Industry will be closed.
Readers, we need to understand that it is the PPP and GAWU that brought the industry to this state. They are the ones that failed the workers since 1992. Between 1992 to May 2015 let GAWU (which is a PPP arm) tell the nation and the sugar workers how many strikes did they call?. GAWU must tell us why they sold out the rights of sugar workers during those years?.
The PPP is so mischievous and wicked that they are using the sugar workers for their personal gains in politics. The MP on his program said that the PPP never closed any estate during their time. Well this MP’s memory is failing him or he set out to lie because, under the dictatorship of Bharrat Jagdeo, the doors of Diamond and LBI Estates were closed.
During that time GAWU never called out workers to protest. GAWU did not fight for those workers. Today GAWU barefacedly telling the sugar workers we care. To hell no, GAWU just care for their union dues every week, even if the poor worker works for one day.
The PPP knew that the Industry would one day fall to its feet because they were mismanaging its affairs. They knew of the cut in sugar prices. They knew that the industry was running at a loss. But what did they do instead of starting a diversification program in the late 1990’s and early 2000 that will see the industry survive?.
They took billions upon billions of dollars and built a factory at Skeldon and call it the Skeldon modernization project. They tell the nation that this project will see the turnaround in the sugar industry and that electricity will be generated there also. They fooled the people of this nation, as they have been doing since 1992.
How can you modernise something for the future that has no future? The PPP was playing games with the workers because they knew that if they tell the sugar workers the truth about the industry they will lose votes and support from mainly the sugar workers who are Indians.
The MP said that the PPP can’t allow the industry to close its doors because our foreparents are the ones that toiled and laboured on the plantation when they came to Guyana. Well the MP need to understand that our foreparents would have never allowed PPP and GAWU to ‘eyepass’ the rights of workers.
Instead of the PPP spending hundreds of billions on Skeldon Modernization Project, they should have started a sugar worker dependent fund or a revolving fund for the workers; so that they could have started their own little business knowing the industry will one day fall to its knees.
But no, the PPP and GAWU didn’t want that; if that was done they would have empowered the workers to be self-sustainable and then those said workers would not have sticked to their (PPP & GAWU) lies and deception.
So the aim and objectives of the PPP and GAWU was and presently is to keep the workers under their palms so that they can use them when the need arises. And that has been happening since 1992 to date.
When I call into the TV program the PPP’s MP quickly jump and started to say that he will not listen to me and cut me off. On my second call, he disconnects the call and ends the program.
Well, let me say to the PPP and GAWU that workers are getting to know the facts and they are now feeling betrayed by both of you very day and one day will call a spade a spade. Stop calling protests, marches and rallies and allow the workers to work and earn, so that their families can have a better life.
GAWU need to stop taking union dues from the workers knowing that they help and work hand-in-hand with PPP to kill the industry.The PPP need to accept that the EU monies could have been used and done more better things than the PPP’s failed SKELDON FACTORY.
I call on sugar workers and their families to educate themselves as to the people that brought this downfall on sugar. Guysuco has a future but sugar is bleak and we must remember although the PPP is saying that sugar has a future the EU announced lately that they will not give more monies to the ailing Sugar Industry. So, where would the PPP find monies as they are claiming to turn around the sugar industry if they get bcak into government?. They had 23 years and all they did was to turn a blind eye on sugar workers and the industry.
People, we must not be fooled by the PPP and GAWU. Here is a challenge to the PPP and GAWU if they so care for sugar workers, as they announced of a rally in Berbice. This will be another rally of deception.
I challenge the PPP to announce at that rally, that their MPs will be giving up all their parliamentary salaries from July to December 2017 towards the sugar workers. I challenge GAWU to announce at that rally, that they will not be collecting union dues from workers during July 2017 to July 2018.
Let’s see if the PPP and its partner GAWU care about the welfare of the workers and their families.
Regards
Abel Seetaram