…MP Odinga Lumumba in the National Assembly

GOVERNMENT Member of Parliament Odinga Lumumba, in his presentation last Friday, attracted the ire of Opposition MPs when he juxtaposed two comments – the talk of “closing sugar down” and the fact that, according to historical references, such statements had inspired civil war in the 60s,particularly since it could have been interpreted as economic and racial discrimination.
His comments were made in the context of the age-old criticism that the current Administration is paying more attention to Region 6 (East Berbice/Corentyne), where it has a major support base, than in Region 10 (Upper Demerara/Upper Berbice) where the Opposition has its stronghold.
He said, “We must not allow ethnicity and economic genocide to be part of this budget discourse…we must put an end to these gestures now. I am saying that some of these pronouncements (as have been made in the past) have similarities. For centuries these economic tactics have been used as a weapon.
“…it is imperative that we resolve the issues without setting the stage of one race favouritism and allowing another to flourish, even when the economics says that we must all be treated equally.”
A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) objected to the inference that the party was inciting civil war and demanded that the statement be withdrawn.
The Deputy Speaker, Basil Williams, who took the chair during a brief absence of the Speaker, Raphael Trotman, in commenting on the issue, resulted in objections from peeved MPs on the Government side.
Government Chief Whip, Gail Teixeira, moments before, had called on APNU’s Renis Morian to name the minister to whom he was attributing charges of discrimination against Guyanese in different regions. Williams ruled that Morian did not have to name the minister.
As such, in light of Lumumba’s comments, the Government side contended that no explicit reference was made, or even implied, that the APNU was inciting civil war.
The House took a brief suspension of the sitting before Lumumba was allowed to continue his presentation.

QUESTION OF FAIRNESS
The Government MP stressed that his presentation was underlining the consequences of allowing questions of race to creep into the 2014 debates by adopting positions on allocations that can be seen as unfair.
Lumumba said, “What is good for the goose is good for the gander.
“…this debate has become a tale of two cities. We have to deal with bauxite and one city, Linden, the predominantly afro-Guyanese base of APNU. The other city is GuySuCo (Guyana Sugar Corporation) and the predominantly indo-Guyanese support for the PPP/C.
“…it is waste (wasteful allocations) when it affects a particular race and business as usual when it comes to another.
He called for a resolution to be reached in a sensible manner.
“We cannot provide milk and honey to Linden and Region 10 and coconut milk and hard bread to the people of Region 6,” Lumumba said.
He added that hints of unfair treatment have already sent “shivers” down the backs of many Guyanese.
The Government MP said, “Let us pull the debates back and let us deal with the hard issues, economic issues, that can clearly make comparisons as to where we were as a nation in 1992 and where we are in 2014 and move this discourse forward without isolating any race, class, or religious group.”

GUYSUCO INTERVENTION
Lumumba staunchly defended the $6B allocation to the sugar industry and added that GuySuCo and bauxite represents the “right and left” arms of Guyana and neither must be focus of a debate that allows perception of ethnic or economic discrimination.
On that note, he called for the APNU to remove itself from its “destructive” path, particularly since it is “politically tainted” and biased on the issue of the sugar industry.
The Government MP said, “Any attempt to starve GuySuCo can be interpreted as ethnic cleansing…I do not have all the answers but apartheid and economic ethnic cleansing cannot be the answer.
“We cannot preach total support for one group and zero support for another group…I am in no way suggesting that things should not change at GuySuCo, but the end results of this process must not be destructive to the hard working citizens of Guyana, in particular the citizens in the sugar belt.”
Lumumba underscored the fact that unity and compromise must be the way forward.
The $6B allocation to the sugar industry, battling climate change and other challenges, was hit in day one of the 2014 Budget debates with APNU MPs maintaining that the monies represent a handout and contending that good monies are being thrown after bad.
However, despite its challenges, the industry, according to Government, remains relevant to the health of the national economy.
The sugar industry is projected to record an improvement of 15.6 percent in output to 215,910 tonnes in 2014, and among the measures to be undertaken to ensure a turnaround of the industry, for which the allocation addresses are: increased production and lower cost of production, diversified target markets, and expansion of value added production in order to survive.
In 2013, sugar exports accounted for 8.3 percent of total exports valued at US$112.2M, and the industry contributed 3.9 percent of the country’s GDP.

(By Vanessa Narine)