…by Nagamootoo on sugar workers
Just when you thought the drama over Volda Lawrence’s frank avowal of her government’s “PNC-only employment policy” would be dominating Moses Nagamootoo’s attention, he devoted his Chronic column to blaming sugar workers for the medical challenges that led to his triple by-pass last February.
At the time, your Eyewitness thought it was the PNC’s shredding of the Feb 14, 2015 Cummingsburg Accord, which had promised a Prime Ministership on steroids, but had instead delivered Larwah!
Lest your Eyewitness be accused of putting words into the PM’s mouth let him quote the latter verbatim: “Earlier this year, sugar was a big lump in my heart and had driven me to a near-death experience. But, as I look back, I can say for sure that the decision to sever some estates was a sensible one, and the three factories that remain, like my triple-heart surgery (in Feb 2018) has done for me, have been given a new lease on life.”
Is this guy for real? The closure of Wales and the tossing of 1300 of its workers into the streets (the remainder were ordered to Uitvlugt, 20 miles away) was revealed by this paper in December 2016. Four months later, Nagamootoo’s boss, David Granger announced in Berbice three other plantations would be shuttered – Albion, Rose Hall and Enmore and another 4000 workers would be thrown onto the breadline. Where was Nagamootoo to avoid heart palpitations then?? Sleeping like Rip van Winkle, after a long bout with Bush Rum?
Or did he think Granger was joking, since he, Nagamootoo, had boasted to those same Berbice workers he’d persuaded Granger in 2015 to change his mind on shuttering sugar. Granger up to then had been consistent on his sugar policy and his temporary “change of heart” was obviously pure expedience to have the AFC and Nagamootoo overcome their “dead meat” fears.
But in January 2018, before Nagamootoo’s palpitations, his Party Chairman and cohort, Khemraj Ramjattan had offered his rationale for sugar’s closure to some Enmore workers who’d been fired the preceding December: “Probably it was destined that way. Probably God wanted it that way that we have to make the decision now…The thing need certain closures…so what is the big deal?” Yup! That’s right – he blamed God!!
Now Nagamootoo must be a real sensitive fella to have had cardiac palpitations when his landsman Ramjattan could dismiss the matter so cavalierly. But then again, at the time Ramjattan was blaming God, Nagamootoo’s son-in-law Tony Joseph was inspecting Skeldon Factory with the Indian firm Srinath Ispat hoping to buy it over.
Was it Government’s rebuff of that gambit that possibly caused Nagamootoo’s palpitations rather than sugar workers’ plight?
…by Nagamootoo on Constitutional Change
Before and during the 2015 elections, “Constitutional Change” was the mantra of Moses Nagamootoo and the AFC. Nagamootoo took personal charge of this promise to the people – and why not? If successful, among other far-reaching changes, the coalition’s Manifesto promised a diminution of the President’s powers; his separate election and a Prime Minister whose powers would be heavily augmented. Not bad for the man who’d be occupying the PM’s seat and had gotten Larwah!!
Within three months of taking office, Nagamootoo set up a Steering Committee on Constitutional Reform under the stewardship of eminent lawyer Nigel Hughes to take recommendations from the citizens of our fair land. After months of diligent hearings, the recommendations were handed over to Nagamootoo.
By mid-2017, he submitted “An act to establish a Constitutional Reform Consultative Commission to assist the Parliamentary Standing Committee for Constitutional Reform” to Parliament. He’s now blaming the latter Committee for the stasis on Constitutional Change!
What was he doing up to now? Sleeping like Rip van Winkle? Or does he like Larwah?
…by Nagamootoo but not on Volda
Now that PNC Chair Volda Lawrence has declared the PNC will be using Government jobs as the honey to attract Indian Guyanese support, shouldn’t Nagamootoo be blaming her for putting the final nail in the AFC’s coffin?