FOR years it was public knowledge that the state-owned Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) has been in trouble and limped along heavily reliant on the Consolidated Fund to the tune of tens of billions to keep it functioning. Many have argued, not without some justification, that the sugar industry has been used as a political weapon. In our polarised politics, it also subliminally carries racial connotations.

In the period of the People’s National Congress (PNC) government, strikes in the industry, also with other alleged acts of sabotage, when it was fully known the sugar unions had the Opposition People’s Progress Party’s (PPP) support, did not help. Whether these strikes were in keeping with usual industrial agitation to improve working conditions, political statements, or a combination of both, await objective analyses. However, what cannot be denied the financial loss to the economy with Guyana’s inability to sell and source scarce foreign exchange reverberated throughout.

The fact too that when the PPP/Civic was elected in October 1992 and thereafter, almost like magic, young sugar canes were no longer being burnt, presented a source of evidence the industry suffered the influence of partisan politics which hurt both country, communities and workers. This is a reputation the workers and their unions bear. Also lurking in the background is that they were causalities of a political agenda that didn’t place their interests first.

Albeit, strikes continued, along with poor policy directions of the boards, waste of over US$200m with the disinvestment in the Skeldon Factory, loss of revenue and preferential market, and decrease price for sugar in the international market cannot be ignored. Earlier attempts in the 1970s at diversifying, which was resisted because of which government initiated the programmes, outside of exemplifying the small-thinking nature of our politics, hurt efforts to make the corporation viable.

It would take much more than an editorial to analyse the problems in GuySuCo, including the role played by successive management, board, government, and the workers and their unions. Suffice to say, there is more than enough blame to go around. But now where it is evident that the coalition government has moved determinedly to reshape the future of sugar and GuySuCo, it will have reverberating national impact.

The centuries of sugar to the building of Guyana and the contributions of various groups in the process are forever etched in the annals of history. That sugar is also no longer sustainable is undisputed. Where disputes continue to percolate are concerns about the welfare of the workers, the communities where they reside, and the economic opportunities created for others as a result of their wage labour.

The sugar industry affects the welfare of all on the coastland. Where the private sector has seized the opportunity to now speak out against future plans and stayed silent in the past to its impending implosion is regrettable. That the sugar unions in addition to utilising protests and the media to express their views and GuySuCo sees it most appropriate to respond through the media via letters would create speculation whether the approach would further aggravate relations between the two or heal it.

More importantly that the PPP/C has used every opportunity to make the proverbial political hay with the crisis cannot be ignored. The PPP/C had several opportunities before 2015 to put GuySuCo on a path to self-sustainability if the assumption is being taken that that is the party’s interest. Ensuring the sustainability of the corporation would have seen the party making a presentation to the Stakeholders Consultation that started in 2016, doing fan-out with the communities in Regions 3, 4, 5 and 6, which would have given the impression it cares. Instead, the sugar workers were once again used and betrayed by a party who only sees its survival making them their footstool.

The excuse that was given for not submitting a proposal is that government must first conduct a socio-economic impact study is an exemplification of the PPP/C’s inept management of the corporation. The PPP/C could not have awakened in 2016 and realised the necessity for such an approach, they would have had to know whether this was needed or not in their 23 years in government. Outside of making the corporation board and management the party’s source of giving their colleagues fat pay cheques without delivering, they looked on uncaringly at the industry imploding.

Though much work is required to turnaround GuySuCo, which hinges on the full roll out of the diversification and privatisation plans, Guyanese must have been heartened that to read on Thursday that the corporation is poised to achieve its production target for the year 2018 which is 103, 000 tonnes of sugar and will be paying a bonus to workers. In a statement, GuSuCo said as at December 12, 2018, 100,485 tonnes of sugar has been produced for the year. This is 12,000 tonnes more than what was achieved for the entire year 2017, from the three estates – Albion, Blairmont and Uitvlugt.

Thus far, the three estates have collectively surpassed their weekly targets on 26 occasions for the year which translates to payment of Weekly Production Incentive (WPI). The qualified employees will therefore receive a bonus for the year 2018, as a reward for their performance and the value of which would be dependent on the final production.

Added to this, government has finally paid in full the severance of all the retrenched sugar workers, leaving the opposition with no other string to pull in their daily beating of the sugar issue, although Ms Priya Manickchand was seen trying desperately to eke out some mileage by asking whether the school feeding programme was meeting children of sugar workers.

Attorney General Basil Williams was right when he said recently during his budget debate presentation that “inclusivity has triumphed over divisiveness that hitherto permeated the politics of this country” and that the “divisive politics of the past will prove to be the death knell of the People’s Progressive Party.”