PRESIDENTIAL Candidate of Change Guyana, Robert Badal, has joined the long list of officials who have frowned upon the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) promise to reopen the shuttered sugar estates, saying that party is “selling dreams”.

“Reopening those estates would be impractical,” said Badal during his party’s weekly press briefing at the Pegasus Hotel, on Tuesday. Opposition Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo had said if the PPP wins the next elections, its members will find a way to reopen the estates.
“The PPP will find a way of reopening the estates that are closed so as to put people back to work. We will explore all forms of partnerships to get that done plus innovative financing and investments so people can return to providing for their families,” said Jagdeo.

Badal, who said he worked in the sugar industry for years, said he knows that the reopening of the estates would not be feasible and viable. Government, as part of an effort to rekindle the sugar industry and return it to viability had closed the Wales (West Bank Demerara), Enmore (East Demerara), Rose Hall and Skeldon (East Berbice) Sugar Estates.
Badal believes that reopening those estates would basically mean re-cultivating and starting back from the bottom, a move which would not be feasible. The Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) is currently using three estates for production – Blairmont and Albion in Berbice and Uitvlugt in West Demerara.

In presenting the 2018 Budget to the National Assembly, Minister of Finance, Winston Jordan had said government’s intensified focus on diversification and value-added production in the non-sugar agriculture sector has become absolutely critical at this point as the sugar industry continues to undergo restructuring.

According to Minister Jordan, the Special Purposes Unit (SPU) in 2018 was tasked with examining and articulating the way forward with respect to the divestment of the Skeldon, Rosehall, and East Demerara estates. “Our taxpayers must no longer be burdened to carry the weight of an unprofitable, inefficient, and antiquated public corporation. The government has allocated $6.3B, in 2018, to support the reduced operations of GuySuCo,” the minister said. Minister Jordan had said government intends to uphold its duty to the communities and families in the areas affected by divestment, as part of the GuySuCo restructuring.
In order to ensure continued livelihoods, skills re-training programme will be offered for those who choose to pursue new opportunities. He said those who wish to continue with a livelihood in agriculture may see an opportunity to own their own farmland. In addition, he said the government will assume responsibility for social services, including health centres and community centre grounds.

LABOUR NOT IMPRESSED
On Monday, Guyana Chronicle reported veteran Trade Unionist, Lincoln Lewis saying that the utterances by Presidential Candidate for the PPP, Irfaan Ali, that he would reopen sugar estates should not be trusted and he flayed the opposition for floundering opportunities during its time in office to reform the industry.

At the launch of the party’s manifesto last Friday, Ali reiterated the PPP’s promise that they will reopen shuttered estates of the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuco), even as the party and its presidential candidate continue to dodge specifics on how they plan to go about that without pumping losses into the industry.

“These promises in very many cases bear no semblance to reality. For the PPP now in their manifesto to say they would reopen the sugar estates, I would like to know on what information basis they are going to do that,” Joseph Harmon, APNU General Secretary asked last week during a PNCR news conference. “This blank statement that we will reopen sugar estates, when you examine it, when you go into the details you will see how fake this promise is. And it is not something that any right thinking Guyanese can take on face value.” Tearing into the issue further, Harmon questioned how the PPP could revive the industry given their stellar record of mismanagement, decline and unaccountability in the industry across the 23 years they oversaw it. “We need to go back a little bit so that we understand where we are with this PPP promise about reopening sugar estates. For the tenth parliament for almost every single budget the PPP promised to turn around GuySuco. There were so many turn around plans in the National Assembly that we were getting eye-turn. Every year, so many billions for a turn around, so many billions for a turn around,” he said.

INCAPABLE OF SALVAGING INDUSTRY
Weighing in on the issue in his Sunday column which appeared in the Kaieteur News, Lewis said Ali sought to assure society the PPP has grand plans for the sugar industry when it was during the PPP administration that sugar’s fortune changed drastically, and it proved incapable of salvaging the industry. Lewis said presented with the opportunity to diversify and retool with financial support offered from the European Union, that government blew it. “The nation witnessed a scatter-shot approach in decision-making. US$200-plus million was wasted in building the Skeldon Sugar Factory which became a ‘white elephant’. It is sad to see this factory standing idle and rotting, because it represents the single largest debt incurred by government. All of these millions have gone for naught and the taxpayers are saddled with the burden of repaying the loan,” Lewis who is also General Secretary of the Guyana Trades Union Congress said.

ALI WAS PART OF IT
According to Lewis, in its restructuring plan, the PPP had closed sugar estates and workers were sent home. “How can we not be shocked by Ali’s announcement that a PPP government will reopen the estates? This gentleman sat in the Cabinet that took the decision to close estates. He was part of the administration that floundered around in managing the industry. Why must workers/citizens believe that he has found a resurrection plan, and having before closed estates, will now reopen them? He has to know he better come good, because the tomfoolery is not accepted.”

Buttressing the empty promises, Lewis said is the recent call on the government by the Leader of the Opposition to find money to pay sugar workers. “In principle I am not opposed to workers receiving better wages and improve conditions of work, for as a trade unionist this is what I’m committed to. The management of GuySuCo must return to the negotiation table with the sugar unions and engage in Collective Bargaining. The law must trump egos or bruised feelings.”

That notwithstanding, Lewis said the opposition is seeking to pull wool over people’s eyes. “Given [the PPP’s] track record in sugar, the utterances of Ali cannot be trusted nor should we believe that Jagdeo is interested in sugar workers being paid any increase. He has made a political calculation and is gambling on GuySuCo’s action angering the workers to the point where it creates alienation and resentment. To him the sugar estates and adjoining communities are viewed as voting farms, to reap of their bounty not to ensure their sustenance.”