The GAWU saw incumbent PNC leader and former President David Granger charging that the commitment to re-open those estates closed under his watch was, as he put it, ‘fake news’. According to an August 16, 2020 Newsroom article, Mr Granger is quoted as saying “[e]ven the unions are asking when are they going to open the sugar plantations again…”. As far as we know, no union in the industry has expressed such concerns. Our Union, a few days ago, did recognise and welcome the assurance by President Dr Irfaan Ally that his Government is committed to that undertaking. It seems, Mr Granger is continues with him having his own interpretation completely different from what is the truth. And, Mr Granger wants to talk about ‘fake news’.
Mr Granger is reported as saying that the incumbent Administration, during its previous stints in office, “…closed the estates at Diamond and Lusignan.” Though we have clarified similar statements when Mr Granger was in office, it appears, he does not understand or chooses to ignore what we have said. Whether it is the former or the latter it does not cast Mr Granger in a good light. For his benefit, once again, Lusignan factory did not even exist when GuySuCo came into being in 1976 and the Lusignan cultivation remained operable until Mr Granger’s Government closed it in 2017.
As it concerns Diamond, the factory and a large section of the cultivation was closed in 1985. The remnants remained operable until 2009 when plans to merge the LBI and Enmore factories made it impractical to retain the remaining Diamond cultivation. However, those workers, unlike Mr Granger’s time in office, had their right to severance respected. Added to that they were offered re-employment at Wales that is until then President Granger decided to close that estate in 2016. Again, Mr Granger wants to talk about ‘fake news’.
So turning to the Mr Granger’s utterances on the re-opening of estates, we believe, he really should be the last to talk when you consider his record. The former President, prior to assuming office, in an interview on the Caribbean Spotlight programme in March, 2015 had this to say “…we want to save sugar, we want to save the livelihoods of sugar workers…” During that interview he was joined by former Prime Minister, Moses Nagamotoo who said “…we want to diversity sugar…so you don’t have a total loss of job security in the sugar industry…” Similarly, their colleague and Mr Granger’s running-mate at the 2020 election, Mr Khemraj Ramjattan at Whim in March, 2015 said “…we are not in any way going to close the sugar industry…” Of course those rosy undertakings were underpinned by promises of 20 per cent wage increase for sugar workers and other pies-in-the-sky.
But we all know what transpired under Mr Granger’s stewardship. Some 7,000 sugar workers were put on the breadline, some of them while Mr Granger was petting elephants in Kenya. The workers endured a wage freeze while the pay of their colleagues elsewhere in the State went up. Their long-standing benefits such as Annual Production Incentive (API) were suspended and several other benefits disregarded. The industry was stripped of its assets and reduced to cap-in-hand running around begging. Mr Granger Government borrowed $30B for the industry and decided to lock it up while paying interest. The former President ignored a GuySuCo plea for help earlier this year that is until it became public. And worse of all, Mr Granger’s actions towards the industry and disdain for the workers set back the lives of tens of thousands of Guyanese men, women and children. And, we ask again Mr Granger really wants to talk about ‘fake news’.
The truth of the matter is that Mr Granger was probably the king of fake news. He said one thing and did another. We recall his popular tune about respecting the Constitution as he dragged our nation further down after he lost the No Confidence vote. We have to wonder why the former ‘unbothered’ President is so bothered about the re-opening of the estates. He wasn’t bothered when he closed them and shoved the people onto the breadline. He certainly wasn’t bothered when he disrespected their right to severance. He clearly wasn’t bothered to even visit these Guyanese to see how they were surviving after he were them made jobless. He didn’t even bother to show any concern when his Government, through NICIL, was charging these ex-workers to fish in the backdams to feed their families.
So why should he be bothered now we ask? We urge him to continue to remain unbothered. He needs to allow those Guyanese to pick up their lives and the dreams he and his Government shattered. He needs to allow these Guyanese to live happy lives, where they can realise their hopes and where they can put food on their tables, where they can pay their bills, and where they can make a positive contribution to our great land.
