Poverty and sugar

In Guyana, far too many of our people are considered poor and are still waiting to access the opportunities that would allow them to lift themselves out of poverty. In his early months in Government, President David Granger had said that Guyana has enough resources to banish poverty forever. However, after almost five years in power, the nation did not see many real programmes implemented to address poverty and to create “the good life for all” that was promised on the campaign trail during the May 2015 polls.
In fact, during one of his special addresses to the National Assembly, the President regurgitated this same promise of providing a “good life for all”. He had said his vision is to create a good life for all Guyanese based on “happy communities, happy households and happy people”. According to the President at the time, “the ‘good life’ entails providing every citizen with opportunities to be the best that they can be”. He had said, “the ‘good life’ is about securing sustained economic prosperity, ensuring citizens’ access to quality public services and promoting social cohesion… eliminating extreme poverty and removing social, ethnic and geographic inequalities”.
At the time, all of these promises sounded very well to the ordinary man, and many were optimistic that the coalition would have taken a path which would have resulted in many citizens being better off. However, one cannot ignore the present realities our country is faced with. Sugar workers are facing extremely tough times due to the downsizing of the sugar estates, the rice sector is in decline, miners are complaining about high taxes and are closing operations, small and medium-scale businesses are closing their doors and barring developments in the oil and gas sector, there is hardly anything being done to create job opportunities or generate wealth in the society.
Not long after the APNU/AFC coalition got into power in May 2015, they started a process to downsize the sugar industry to just three estates – Uitvlugt, Blairmont and Albion— placing over 7000 workers on the breadline. Insisting that the sugar industry was bleeding the treasury, the coalition government had noted that downsizing the sector will make it more economically viable. However, to date, the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) continues to perform below par, failing to meet its output targets.
This newspaper has carried a series of reports in relation to the heavy toll the closure of the sugar estates is having on communities, especially those who were, directly and indirectly, dependent on sugar for a livelihood. It could be recalled that the coalition government had promised to find alternative job opportunities and give lands to these displaced workers to sustain themselves and their families; however, these promises are yet to be fulfilled.
Several stakeholders, including the Opposition, had criticised the administration for moving ahead with closing the sugar estates without any fact-based approach which would have included a socioeconomic impact study; which, in any case, was recommended by a Commission of Inquiry (CoI) set up by this very Government. We had suggested that the issue be brought for discussion and debate at the national level with the involvement of all stakeholders but this was ignored.
Certainly, the estates were a major source of sustenance and the impact of their closure is being felt deep and wide. Just a few days ago, we carried a report where a number of these still unemployed workers from the closed Wales, East Demerara (Enmore), Rose Hall and Skeldon Estates, are pleading with the public, government, and private sector for assistance.
Sugar workers and their families are witnessing their communities being destroyed, families being broken up and increased incidences of crime and other social problems.
The elections campaign is in full swing and we are certain that citizens will carefully examine the plans and policies of the various parties as they relate to tacking the issues confronting the sugar sector. In a more general sense, they will look to see which party has the best plan in terms of creating decent jobs, generating wealth and encouraging the growth and development of small and medium-scale businesses etc. This time around, the coalition is singing the same song again of their plan to provide “a good life for all”.