Carl Greenidge’s pronouncement on sugar workers is a cause for concern

Dear Editor,
Guyanese from all walks of life were left wondering what exactly is happening with A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) following Carl Greenidge’s “foot in the mouth” pronouncement that the sugar workers are the ruling party’s “problems”.
It should be understood that when the People’s National Congress (PNC) was in power, the sugar sector, like the rest of Guyana, experienced a major decline in the 1980s.
However, the industry’s recovery in the current decade has been rapid.
Its output levels have approximately doubled since 1993 and production in 2013 is expected to mark a further increase over that of 2012. The principal indicators of cane quality have shown significant improvements since 1993 and they can be expected to improve further in the coming years.
The durability of the sugar industry and its recent evidence of dynamism are reasons for optimism about the future.  Therefore, despite the debilitating effects of the European Union’s price-cuts and the extant variables in the external forces currently wreaking havoc with our international markets, Guyana’s leadership is determined to circumnavigate the marshy grounds of the dynamics threatening the viability, even the survival, of the industrial configurations.
As a result of this, the “Skeldon initiative” was conceived in 1998 as part of the Guyana Sugar Corporation’s strategic review. The commissioning of the US$185 million Skeldon factory marked the culmination of 10 years of planning and execution.
This represented the People’s Progressive Party/Civic’s (PPP/C’s) recognition and commitment to modernising the sugar, bauxite, and rice industries to make them globally competitive.
The Skeldon factory is integral to restoring sugar to the position of prominence it once enjoyed. The factory, which has a capacity to produce approximately 120,000 tonnes of raw sugar, will require about 1.2 million tonnes of cane annually, if it is to function at optimum levels.
New lands are being cultivated in Manarabisi and at locations near the Skeldon estate and at Moleson Creek to meet the input requirements. This totals three times the amount needed by the old sugar estates.
It must be noted also that the construction of a Gy$2.4 billion packaging facility at Enmore Sugar Estate will ensure that the international sanitary standards are followed.
It becomes mindboggling, therefore, that Greenidge could utter such an asinine pronouncement, when it is known that the sugar industry is this nation’s patrimony, coupled with the fact that in Regions Five and Six, the sugar industry is perhaps the largest employer.
Therefore, it is in the government’s and the nation’s interest to ensure the sustainability of this sector.
One can conclude, therefore, that with Greenidge “doing away” with the entire workforce of the sugar industry, most of whom are Indo-Guyanese, that APNU has shed its “UNITY” skin and has again traversed down the road of the racism that it inherently holds sacrosanct.
Yours respectfully,
Clinton James