– should resign his Ministerial post
The GAWU was extremely dismayed to hear and to read about the utterances of Vice President and Minister of Public Security, Khemraj Ramjattan during his contribution to the 2019 National debate. Indeed when looking at the Minister’s expressions one had to wonder what was going through the Minister’s mind, if anything at all, as his statements could only be seen as divisive and his unhelpful remarks will not do any good in realizing greater cohesion among our people.
Our Union, from a Demerara Waves report of December 06, saw that Minister Ramjattan, ignominiously, sought to give cover to his colleague Minister of Public Health and PNC Chairperson, Volda Lawerence when he sought, in vain, to equate her recent viral comments to the jobs of now terminated sugar workers. The Minister is quoted as saying that “[y]ou want to say that that is wrong but when you state all the time that you got to employ sugar workers, you got to employ sugar workers that is not wrong. Thatis not jobs for the boys? Oh! That is not jobs for the boys. If it is anything it is also jobs for the boys”. The GAWU, and we believe many persons,are perplexed by Minister Ramjattan’s statement. Indeed, his statement has hardly any justification or credence. Moreover, the use of such derogatory terms to describe the employment of thousands of ordinary Guyanese workers has no basis anywhere, much less the highest House of the land. But then again the goodly Minister Ramjattan is no stranger to putting his foot in his mouth and has always been a lightning rod of controversy. That notwithstanding, the Minister’s statement is inexcusable and he should follow his colleague Minister Lawrence and do the decent thing and apologise.
But the Minister’s outlandishness seems to have no bounds, nor brake for that matter, as he continued his tirade and said to the Parliament and the nation that“[y]ou want us to employ yourpeople…”. This sort of language and outburst has absolutely no place in our contemporary society. We for fifty-two (52) years now, have proudly called ourselves Guyanese and have committed ourselves to being “One People”, to having “One Nation” and to working towards “One Destiny”. The exclamation by Minister Ramjattan is, therefore, nothing less than a slap in the face of our national ideals and objectives and what we as Guyanese have committed to upholding. But the fact that the Minister has chosen to venture in the direction he did can only serve to add fuel to the fire that the minimizationof the sugar industry has no other basis than a political motive. For the GAWU,the Minister’s utterances bear a striking resemblance to what was said on page 4 of the, so far, unreleased White Paper on Sugar, dated March 16, 2017, which said “[m]ost of the employees of GuySuCo are supporters of the Oppositionpolitical party, the People’s Progressive Party (PPP)”
These Guyanese who the Minister now deems the sugar workers as “your people” were the very same people he canvassed and received their support to place him in the ivory tower he now occupies. The Minister, prior to where he is today, had said on March 29, 2015 at Whim that “[w]e are not going to, in any way, close the sugar industry”.The now Minister said, when he sat on the other side of the House, in his 2014 Budget debate contribution said that “I want to make the point that when it comes to sugar, it touches a chord in all of us – this side of the aisle and that side. It is important that we ensure that that sector succeeds…”. So we ask what has happened between then and now. For us it is as clear as day that the Minister recognizing his waning political fortunes, now that his opportunism is fully exposed, has shed all his pretensions and will do all that is necessary to maintain his now favoured lifestyle.
The Minister, according to Demerara Waves, also said that the Opposition claimed that the Government “…never loved sugar workers and that we fool them…”. But isn’t that exactly what the APNU+AFC has done. The Administration has been most unsympathetic to the cry and call of the sugar workers. It had denied them pay increases and reduced benefits and for several thousand made them joblessness and placing them in a most miserable situation. Today, the workers have to fight for their lawful severance; they have to protest to be treated like their counterparts in other parts of the State, and they have to raise their voices to be respected. Today,the promised ‘Good Life’ has become a meaningless and hollow slogan. Now,Guyanese are being fed another slogan – “Wait on Oil”.
The Public Security Minister also in his contribution is quoted to say that “…the administration every month for 36 months Guysuco wanted 1 billion dollars to bail out sugar and we gave it to them and when we gave it to them we started getting criticism…”. But for the large investment the Minister referred to, did the Government get value?Between 2015 and 2017, sugar production fell from 231,000 tonnes in 2015,183,000 tonnes in 2016, and 136,000 tonnes in 2017. During that period, workers average earnings declined by $284,000. But in the same time, monies accruing to GuySuCo’s Key Management personnel doubled. While the Minister, it appears, is decrying the support the Administration gave to the sugar industry, he seems to not be aware that by the end of 2019, his Government will spend $1.2T that is$1,200B. In other words, the sums provided to the sugar industry represented just 3 per cent of aggregate expenditure. When one considers that impact, on an economic and a social level, the relatively small sum was more than justifiable.
The Minister in his rant said too that “…we must pump more, we must pump more. No! We will certainly have to bring it to an end”. Well what does bringing it to an end mean? To say the least, it means the Treasury will have to find more monies for Drainage and Irrigation, already roughly $1B in supplementary allocations were sought for this purpose. It also means more monies to address crime and other anti-social behaviour in sugar communities. It will also mean that NIS and GRA will lose thousands of contributors apart from other taxes arising from the consumption of goods and services by now jobless sugar workers. But the unquantifiable and probably the most devastating impact will come through the shattering of dreams, the abandoning of aspirations, the breaking-up of families, alcohol and other abuse, and so many other things.
The Public Security Minister is reported to have said too it was “…well-known that sugar would have been no longer profitable…”. It seems the Minister was there but yet not present during the so-called consultation meetings between the Government and the Opposition and the Trade Unions regarding the future of the sugar industry in February,2017. Certainly, had he been really present he would have known that sugar’s successful future lied in a transformation to the sugar cane industry which the GAWU spoke extensively about and provided a written submission to him, among other Government officials. Those suggestions were also contained in the Suga rCoI report as well, a copy of which he received. To now come and say that sugar is unprofitable when, at this very time, his Government is talking about strategies identical to what GAWU and the CoI proposed is to be engaged in the practice of fake news.
The GAWU repeats that Minister Ramjattan’s latest tirade on sugar suggests that an apology is the least and right thing to do in the circumstances. He may also do a service to the nation by relinquishing his Ministerial status and, may be, take on some other job more related to his ability.
