Latest update April 25th, 2024 12:59 AM
Sep 26, 2017 Letters
Dear Editor,
Letter writers should know that resorting to personal attacks on me will never suffice in any argument-the ad hominem fallacy is as old as mankind itself. We must address and attack issues not personalities or whether I have been the author of my letters. Many parliamentarians, ministers and Presidents have their speech written for them but in the final analysis the speech is attributed to them.
Is the GAWU General Secretary, Mr S. Narine writing his own letters, I hardly think so, but I never questioned his letters on that basis, I questioned the factuality of his statements contained therein. These writers need to be aware that ‘red herring’ and ad hominem fallacies do not win an argument though it may appeal to the more gullible readers. They should provide facts against the propositions on the issues which I have argued for in my letters.
They never argue on all aspect of the subject matter, if they talk about increased production they are omitting increased costs and losses during the PPP era. They never seem able to make an all-round assessment and analysis. They are only interested in that the Government should not close or privatize and that it must continue to subsidize. However, Mr Narine himself admitted in his letter to the press wherein he stated that, ‘…our Union accepts the fact that the Government cannot support the sugar industry ad infinitum’. They also seem bent on confusing the issues of privatization, diversification and closure.
I have stressed in all my letters that I support the privatization of the industry not closure or diversification of Guysuco. I have provided ample reasons why it should be privatized and have stressed the fact that the labor turnout being at just over 50% will not warrant the laying off of the majority of workers as being currently peddled. In fact the same or more workers will be needed. At this time Rose Hall workers are not being laid off, Albion needs more workers and so does Skeldon Estate.
In his letter, Mr Narine and Mr Sookram Persaud always stressed that I am ‘not au fait with the industry, its challenges and solutions to make it into a viable industry’. I must seriously remind these ‘knowledgeable sugar men’, that they had 23 years to change the fate of GUYSUCO and they have miserably failed and the Skeldon Estate which supposed to be producing 110,000 tons of sugar per annum became the millstone around the neck of Guysuco. Jagdeo’s Skeldon Modernisation Project ‘vampirized’ the entire sugar industry. What solutions are Mr Narine now proposing? Did he not give these proposals to the PPP while they were 23 years in Government? Is it to be understood that now he and his Union has all the solutions?
There was too much ‘political’ flavor in the sugar and it became too bitter. This Government needs to move away from this type of behaviour and adhere to the findings of the COI. No amount of subsidy will ever bring the shattered Guysuco out of ‘black hole’ it currently is in. This reminds me of the last line of ‘Humpty Dumpty’ –”All the King’s horses and all the King’s men, couldn’t put Humpty together again”. No Government with all its resources can put Guysuco together again-it is time to privatize.
I wish to quote what I said in one of my letters, ’There has been an increasing decline in production and productivity and this was reflected in the increasing losses from $2.3 billion in 2009 to over $16 billion per annum in 2016.
This has forced this and previous governments to inject billions of tax dollars with no solution in sight, (more than $60 billion to date including $32 billion by this Government). But the opportunity costs forbid such subsidies.’ These subsidies can be more beneficially used to further economic development in depressed areas in the country.
Knowing that the Sugar Industry depends on bailouts from the Government, GAWU keeps on agitating for increased wages pushing it from $14.5 billion in 2010 to over $20 billion currently. Can Guysuco continue to increase wages when labor is more than 65% of total costs of production? Yet this is exactly what the Union is agitating for, creating more hardships for the Industry. Harping about election promises about 20% wage increase for sugar workers is utter rubbish. Nowhere in the APNU/AFC manifesto have I seen this.
Circular reasoning will not help the industry. We cannot start with the wrong premise that workers will lose their jobs if the Industry is privatized. Privatization will make the industry efficient and profitable and once this is achieved then workers’ wages and working conditions will improve. I could recall that in the days before nationalization workers used to be paid profit sharing as well as other incentives by Bookers Limited.
It was the nationalization of the industry which paved the way for the decline of the industry-corruption, theft, cronyism, squandermania, lack of capitalization in addition to the harsh sugar levy (implemented in 1974) which the PPP held on to until 2002. If the Industry was not nationalized, what would have been its fate today? Would Bookers have closed it down? I doubt it. But the sugar levy forced the nationalization process. The politicians wanted total control but failed to keep the ‘milking cow’, in good and healthy shape. I wish to stress that privatization is the only solution to Guysuco’s problems. Do we want to try all the failed solutions all over again?
Gobin Harbhajan
Regional Democratic Councilor, APNU+AFC
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