AN embittered and delusional Granger has dubbed PPP/C’s promise of reopening sugar estates, which his coalition government closed, then cannibalized, as ‘fake news’.

The commitment by the PPP/C Government to re-open sugar estates, which were closed by Granger’s coalition government after duplicitous pre-election promises of keeping sugar alive while riding on the back of PPP’s mantra “Sugar is too big to fail”, has obviously impacted his consciousness that the Irfaan Ali administration is prepared to reverse all the destructive and divisive policies and programmes that have sent tens of thousands of Guyanese families on the breadline.
He is aware that when the sugar mills are once again operationalized, it will underline, as nothing else will, except a turnaround of the economy, that he was an abject failure as a leader and a President.
Granger told APNU+AFC activist, Nicole Telford, in a Public Interest programme, that “They say they are opening the sugar factories… I don’t know if this is true. It’s fake news”.

Granger’s government, in closing four sugar estates at Rose Hall, Skeldon, Enmore and Wales, especially without forewarning, had left in excess of 7,000 direct employees of these estates jobless and unable to provide existential wherewithal for their families; and consequently negatively impacted the livelihoods of tens of thousands in the sugar-producing communities who were dependent on the spending power of sugar workers. To add to the workers’ plight, many were denied their severance packages.

Admitting, “I haven’t seen a copy of their manifesto,” Granger scoffed at the PPP/C’s developmental/people-empowerment and enrichment promises formalised therein.

However, since acceding to office on August 2, PPP/C leaders have reiterated their manifesto promises. Last Saturday, Minister of Agriculture, Zulfikar Mustapha said that, before the four estates could be re-opened, a new Board of Directors has to be appointed to oversee the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) and that there will be a reshuffling of the management of the corporation.
The visionless David Granger, apart from his disbelief that the current government can salvage the sugar industry and steer it on the path toward eventual viability, especially in view of the pillaging of sugar-producing lands and the cannibalisation of the factories and other estate properties, as well as the devastated social structures and bankrupted economy which his government has left in its wake, is adamant that the PPP/C Government will fail to deliver its promised 50,000 jobs.
He asserted, “It looks as if they are removing 50,000 jobs to me. So when it comes to these 50,000 jobs, this is going to be marvelous. They started by removing people from their jobs. You cannot go on the street and recruit talented people. It’s fake. I dare them to show the Guyanese people a manifesto, identifying where these 50,000 jobs will come from.”

Granger seems to forget that his nemesis, Vice-President, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo — the architect of modern Guyana, who rescued Guyana from the morass of debt and destruction, to which it had sunk under a former PNC government, in which Granger played a vital role– is on the Irfaan Ali team, which comprises a

combination of youth and maturity, all of superior intellect to any member of his Cabinet.
The removal of jobs, to which he is alluding, is the new government’s ridding the nation of persons holding sinecure positions, who have been living in luxury at taxpayers’ expense – drawing millions under various ministries for doing absolutely nothing, even while the average Guyanese family – including coalition supporters, during the deadly Covid-19 pandemic necessitating a lockdown and a contraction of the economy, under his watch, that left many ordinary citizens unemployed, with absolutely no supporting deployment of resources for their survival from his government.
Under a Jagdeo-led Government, Guyana was among 38 countries which met internationally-established targets in the fight against hunger, ahead of the deadline set for 2015. In addition, the country also met the more stringent World Food Summit (WFS) goal, having reduced by half the absolute number of undernourished people between 1990-92 and 2010-2012.

The coalition government unsuccessfully tried to duplicate the former PPP/C’s “Grow More” campaign with its kitchen garden initiative. Visionless, only capable of copy-catting PPP/C’s projects, they failed to realise that talking about a project without a holistic blueprint for implementation is doomed to failure.
Agriculture was the main plank upon which Guyana’s economy was based under successive PPP/PPP/C governments. It speaks to the vitality of the sector, as well as other socio-economic factors of course, that Guyana was bestowed an award for achieving the distinction of meeting the Millennium Development Goal (MDG), relating to hunger.

However, a myopic coalition government catalysed the agriculture sector on a downward spiral immediately upon attaining office; and the sugar industry became collateral damage to its visionless, destructive governance.
Thankfully, there is a new government and there is renewed hope. And importantly, the new government has already gotten down to business to restore sugar and the livelihoods of sugar workers, many of whom underwent great sufferings since the estates were closed.