Dear editor,
A COLUMN entry from ‘In the Diaspora’, appearing on January 8th in Stabroek News, aims to shine a light on the retrenchment of sugar workers but is woefully short-sighted and quite inappropriate. That an issue which is fundamentally tax-payer centred appears in a column entitled ‘In the Diaspora’ is already a poor start. Bailouts of the sugar industry, funded by the public purse, should be discussed domestically, as we are the ones paying taxes.

Guyanese should not take such foreign commentaries lightly, as it is easy to criticize when you’re coming from a perspective that doesn’t face the consequences of that criticism. As at the end of 2017, 32 billion dollars had been provided GUYSUCO, from the time the current administration took office. That comes to over a billion dollars a month and a conservative estimate of the cost per tax payer puts it at 2400 dollars a month, every single month. Maybe that isn’t a substantial amount “In the Diaspora” but Guyanese know that is good money, and to be giving such sums every single month with no end in sight is just unacceptable.

Even further, the article lays the blame for closing estates squarely with the government when it is the former President, Bharrat Jagdeo who said that without a successful Skeldon factory, the sugar industry will fail. The Skeldon factory has just not performed and as a result look at what we have now to deal with. The authors of that column make it seem like there is some miracle around the corner for an industry that is producing at three times the world price. Admittedly, sugar was a feature of our economy for hundreds of years but there are few examples of goods that go for that long without some sort of huge change.

We should instead celebrate the proud history of sugar and do what we can to support sugar workers in this transitory period. Perpetual handouts will, however, just not be acceptable and do both taxpayers and sugar workers an injustice. The authors seem to think sugar workers can’t learn something new and advance their lives. I hope that those “In the Diaspora” have more confidence in local Guyanese than that.

Regards
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