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 that 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 is 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 that 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 causalties of a political agenda that did not 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 markets and decreased prices for sugar in the international market cannot be ignored. Earlier attempts in the 1970s at diversifying, which were resisted because of the government that 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, boards, governments, and the workers and their unions. Suffice it to say that there is more than enough blame to go around. But in 2017 when it is evident that Government is moving, 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 impeding implosion is regrettable. That the sugar unions in addition to utilising protests and the media to express their views and GuySuCo see 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 seen an opportunity being created to make the proverbial political hay with the crisis cannot be ignored. The PPP/C had several opportunities before 2017 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 Three, Four, Five and Six , which would have lent the impression that it cares. Instead, the sugar workers were once again used and betrayed by a party who only sees its survival by making them their footstool.

The excuse 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 the 23 years of government. Outside of making the corporation’s board and management the party’s source of giving their colleagues fat pay cheques without delivering, they looked on uncaringly at the industry imploding. The last thing GuySuCo and Guyana want is the future of sugar submerged in partisan politics.