Coalition is not responsible

Dear Editor,
HUMANENESS demands that we empathise with our fellow humans, particularly when it is about the family and its daily existence. A breadwinner, male or female, who is not working, his/her pleadings for assistance is going to resonate with many who may be listening.
And so it was last Wednesday, via one of that evening’s telecasts that workers from the now closed Wales Estate were complaining about their current domestic circumstances – no employment, and so no money. This is a very pitiful situation, particularly where there are young children in the home.
But it is the undertones of their public statements that must be challenged – that the coalition government is responsible for their present situation. The answer is a resounding, NO!

Editor, if my memory serves me correctly, it is recalled that upon the government’s decision to close Wales because of its inoperable state, and the billions it will take to effect an overhaul and merge with Uitvlugt Estate, GuySuCo offered workers from Wales Estate full employment with the former. Also, full transportation was offered to and from Uitvlugt.
I stand to be corrected, that while some of the former Wales workers accepted continued employment at the Uitvlugt Estate, the others opted for redundancy, thus bringing their employment with the corporation to an end. The latter were duly paid their severance.
There was even a scenario, where some of those who had opted to continue at the Uitvlugt Estate, suddenly decided that they too, should be paid severance! Obviously, this was a contrived GAWU and its political handlers, the PPP, strategy. But it was another example of the union and the PPP/C again, deliberately misrepresenting the facts to those workers, as no such arrangement had been discussed with GuySuCo. Therefore, the workers were being misled and manipulated for political ends.

Editor, the problem with these workers, all members of the sugar union, the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU), has been their continuous blind trust in the latter that continues to lead them to the breadline. And this is without prejudice to the fact that it was their decision to accept the severance.

As stated above, most, if not all of these former workers have dependent families. This means that they ought to have given first priority to the future needs of their families, weighing carefully their employment decisions. Instead, they have all fallen victims, again, to the political machinations of GAWU and its PPP/C masthead.

I will advocate, without any apology, that such public appeals as made by the now economically stranded workers should be done at the doorsteps of GAWU/PPP/C. Let the latter now begin to display, in a genuinely compassionate manner, that they really care for those former workers who had been cruelly manipulated throughout the years to serve the political interests of that unholy duo.

In a nation where there are many convenient memories, citizens should be reminded, in the mid-2000s, prior to the 2011 national elections that there were public quarrels over the state of GuySuCo and the PPP/C’s government treatment of the welfare of sugar workers. So intense were the exchanges between GAWU’s long-standing leader Komal Chand and then president, Bharat Jagdeo, that Jagdeo threatened to de-recognise the union. So bitter the sordid story of sugar was.

Concomitantly, there were the usual strikes, and cane harvesters were openly asking Chand about the conflict of being a PPP/C member of parliament, while being their union president. Many were shouting that they were tired of being “used’’ by the then PPP/C government.

That aside, it was evident that Chand was becoming concerned about the declining state of the industry, and was appealing for help from the government of the day. What was surprising, was that such concerns on the part of Chand ceased when Donald Ramotar became Guyana’s president. It is further recalled that when asked by the media, whether he will continue to speak about the sugar industry, he answered in the negative, making reference to his friendship with Donald Ramotar, then incoming president. Chand thereafter fell silent.

So, whatever is the state of GuySuCo, Chand and his union executives have been aware for years.

So stop lying to your union members; stop trying to deceive the nation, Komal Chand. Sadly, your members are now suffering as a result of you and the selfish ends of the PPP/C.
Sincerely yours
Earl Hamilton

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