The soon-to-depart Minister of Agriculture, Noel Holder in the January 14, Guyana Times when asked whether he had any regrets about the closure of four (4) sugar estates under his watch, astonishingly told the newspaper that “I’m quite happy…I am very pleased”. It has long been said that hindsight is 20/20 vision. It appears to us at least, that though the Minister has the benefit of hindsight, he is obviously blinded by the painful reality that he and his colleagues have created.
We wonder how the Minister, or any rational human being for that matter, can really be happy when thousands of Guyanese in the sugar belt find life so hard. How can he be happy when school aged children are forced to abandon their educational pursuits? How can he be happy when families are being separated? How can the Minister be so pleased with such a situation? Can he really sleep peacefully at night fully well knowing that thousands in communities of the sugar communities have sleepless night as they wonder how to make their meager ends meet?
In our view, the fact that the Minister can make such an outrageous statement tells us that he is either aloof or really unconcerned about the plight of those who he helped to put on the breadline. We sincerely believe that it is a combination of both. We have seen, in recent and not too recent times, how out of touch the Minister and his colleagues are with the general situation facing our people. We also recognize that there is scant, if any, concern by the powers-that-be regarding our people’s plight, but the sugar workers more specifically. Under Mr Holder’s tenure, he has the ignominy of being the first, and only, Minister of Agriculture to have given the sugar workers not even a cent in pay rise.
Minister Holder also said that the current plan for the industry will see it “become viable again”. But, as the GAWU has been lamenting, no matter how good of a plan one may have, if one lacks the wherewithal to execute such a plan then how worthy is such a plan. This is exactly the case playing out in the sugar industry. Mr Holder is no doubt well aware that monies to execute the plan he says will bring the industry back to viability has practically been imprisoned and the plan is reduced to a nice document that is gathering dust and losing relevance by the day.
But that is not all as we saw Mr Holder touting his so-called achievements. But it should be recorded too that during his stint as Agriculture Minister, sugar production in our country fell dramatically from over 231,000 tonnes in 2015 to just under 91,000 tonnes in 2019. He also admitted publicly that he was not aware about the $30B sugar bond and was clueless about how it would be utilized. He too did not mention that he disowned the sugar industry, telling Guyanese in 2018 that oversight of the GuySuCo was transferred to the Finance Minister.
So while the Minister tells the Guyana Times that he is “…quite happy with what we’ve done with the sugar industry”, for the thousands who are affected their days are filled with sadness, despair and plain anguish. In a few days time, the Minister will ride off into the sunset with a golden parachute and his needs and wants will be ably met. And, for those thousands of workers, particularly the sugar workers, they must contend with joblessness and wages stagnation.
