Dear Editor,
WHEN I read Mr. Hamilton’s Green reply to me captioned, “Mr. Yusuf’s banalities are a cover for possible corruptions, mismanagement, and incompetence at GuySuCo,” the first thought that came to mind is: “Look who’s talking.”

I was surprised that Mr. Green does not read the Kaieteur News, or it would seem that he only reads his own letters therein.
If he had read the Kaieteur News, an independent media as he claimed, dated August 14, captioned, “Green as an Elder should do the honourable thing and apologise to this nation,” a couple of days after his own letter appeared, he would have had no need to refer to the state-owned Guyana Chronicle which he claimed he does not read.
The implication is clear and his subtle attack is duly noted as well as his other racial undertones contained in his letter regarding the “massive injustice” to the taxpayers he named.
I would also like to quote Ralph Waldo Emerson, who said: “The soul is the perceiver and revealer of truth. We know truth when we see it, let skeptic and scoffer say what they choose. Foolish people ask you, when you have spoken what they do not wish to hear, “How do you know it is truth, and not an error of your own?” We know truth when we see it, from opinion, as we know when we are awake that we are awake.”

Every Guyanese knows the truth and what Mr. Green wants is for us to believe that what the PNC did to our country from 1964 to 1992, when he was an integral part of the government, was an illusion which is spun by the PPP/C to hide the “truth” and that he is now attempting to “unmask” that “illusion.”
This is not only grossly deceitful but pathetic as well. Green is creating his own illusion by attempting to rewrite the sordid past of the PNC. Green should explain the bankruptcy of our country, the gross mismanagement and thievery of his government, the “sale” of the nation’s assets to friends and cronies for peanuts, the sugar levy which crippled GuySuCo, the days when putting food on the table was a crime, the massive rigging of the elections and the horrors and sufferings of each and every Guyanese during the PNC’s reign of terror.
You were the Vice President and the Prime Minister of this country and an active player in all which I have mentioned and many more atrocities committed on the Guyanese populace. Don’t you think an apology would be the least you could do since the “moving finger writes” and moves on?

Conveniently, Mr. Green claimed that he was not a member of the coalition when changes were effected in 2015-2020, but as a “concerned citizen” he felt that “the Granger Administration was trying to correct the historical flaws which characterised the previous management of the sugar industry.”
Mr. Green, may I ask what “historical flaws?” The reality is that his PNC Government imposed the sugar levy on the sugar industry, milked it dry and crippled it. The sugar industry was paying the wages and salaries of the same taxpayers he claimed but was blind to the “massive injustice” done at that time.
Moreover, the coalition spent millions to conduct a Commission of Inquiry into GuySuCo and Mr. Green should read the recommendations stated therein. This report was submitted in October 2015 by Professor Clive Thomas, but space does not permit me to elaborate further.

But there was to be no closure and there was a plan to make the sugar industry viable. It must be recalled that this same gentleman was the Chairman of GuySuCo’s Board.
Subsequently, the coalition submitted a White Paper which “downsized” and “right sized” the sugar industry and crippled it.
It was a master plan to commence the closure of the entire industry, since there was little or no capital investment and billions just dissipated as I had written in my previous letters.
Mr. Green questioned the decline of sugar production from 88,868 tonnes in 2020 to 47,000 tonnes in 2022, and claimed that this was due to “poor management, incompetence and likely corruption.”

The hard truth is that there was little or no capital investment and thousands of hectares of cultivation were abandoned; factories and infrastructures were falling apart which this government is trying to resuscitate; there was the flood in 2021 which decimated the cultivation, and then the closure of four sugar estates.
Mr. Green should also be cognisant of the havoc the weather pattern can cause to the industry.

The CoI provided the plan to make GuySuCo viable but was intentionally ignored. The coalition wanted revenge on the sugar workers. In 2014, Mr. Green, the industry produced over 216,000 tonnes sugar with the four closed estates producing 117,651 tonnes (Skeldon 35,890, Rose Hall 31,931, Enmore 30,932 and Wales 18,898).
Regarding the Skeldon Estate, the coalition deliberately allowed it to deteriorate to justify closure. The Kaieteur News reported in November 1, 2015, that the Chairman of the Board of GuySuCo said: “I am pleased with the way the Skeldon factory seems to be improving. And I know that it can do more. But this is a good sign for the industry.”
Then the Corporation’s 2015 Annual Report, at page 12, stated that, “Skeldon’s sugar production of 39,158 tonnes surpassed 2014’s actual and is now the highest production since the new factory was commissioned in 2009. The factory performance has improved considerably (15 per cent improvement in the sugar recoveries).”

This is no illusion, Mr. Green. What “historical flaws?” The coalition ensured the demise of Skeldon to use it as a weapon against the PPP/C Government.
The coalition’s Prime Minister in November 2015 had said at the National Cane Farmers conference that, “there should be no discussion or debate regarding the importance of the sugar industry to Guyana’s economy… in fact, we have said this on a number of occasions, that this government sees sugar as too big to fail…it has been our position in opposition, and this continues to be our position as government. The industry and workers remain important to us, and we are working to ensure that we have a modern industry.”
But this was just empty rhetoric and in the heat of the 2015 election campaign, his comrade Mr Ramjattan made similar utterings. This is what a lie is and this is no illusion. They ensured the fall of the sugar industry.

In conclusion, I could go on ad infinitum, but all Guyanese know the truth because they know they are awake when they are awake.

Yours sincerely,
Haseef Yusuf