BHARRAT IS THE MAN FOR THE JOB

July 16, 2014, By KNews, Filed Under Features/Columnists, Peeping Tom, Source

The private cane farmers were supposed to be a key link in the plan to restructure the sugar industry and restore it to profitability after the price cuts initiated in the European Union.

Private farmers were encouraged to go into cane cultivation. They were promised that they would do well, because the Skeldon Sugar factory would drastically reduce the TC/TS (Tonnes cane per tonne sugar) ratio for farmers.

In non–technical jargon what this meant was that when the factory was up and running it would reduce drastically the amount of cane that it would take to produce a unit of sugar.

The private cane farmers proceeded on this basis. They calculated that if the TC/TS was reduced, they could make a fortune from cane cultivation.

They are now being buried in debts and their farms, for which they have invested billions, may end up being taken over by the Guyana Sugar Corporation. In other words, instead of privatization of the industry, what we are having is a mini-nationalization of private farms.

At the heart of the cane farmers’ problems is the Skeldon Sugar Factory. It has been six years and this factory is still not operating how it ought to be.

And the ones bearing the losses are not just the sugar corporation and the private farmers. The taxpayers of Guyana are also being burdened with having to bail out the Sugar Corporation.

This could not have been happening at a worse time. Because apart from bailing out the Sugar Corporation and possibly having to finance a rescue package for the private cane farmers – this is what they are coaxing the government towards – there is the added burden of paying those pension benefits to the former President of Guyana, Bharrat Jagdeo.

Now Bharrat Jagdeo is a big man. He is a good man. He is a decent man. And boy, we all know that he is an extremely honest man. He has done good things for Guyana.

Things were proper bad when he took over and he made things good for Guyana, and also for himself too. He prepared a lovely little pension package for himself. Well the light bill alone on the package is enough to give anyone hydrocele.

He was the one also who built this sugar factory. Even when some persons told him that he was biting off more than he could chew, he still went ahead with the plans to build the factory.

And people did not object too much because they know that Bharrat is a smart man. He is champion. He has plenty brains. He is very intelligent. But most of all he is a good man, a decent man, and an honest man.

So he built this factory, and like the contractors, put the screws in the wrong place. The factory was not working anywhere near full capacity and a lot of canes were being spoilt.

But the people did not worry too much because Bharrat Jagdeo said that even if he himself had to go and fix the problems with the factory, he would.

Well, he has left office, is now enjoying a fat pension, and the factory still not working.

So dem boys seh that in return for that fat pension that he is getting from the taxpayers’, he should do some work to fix the factory. That is what dem boys seh. I am selling it like I bought it.

Since Bharrat is still young and since he is not working at the moment, he should take up the job as Chief Executive Office of the Skeldon Sugar factory, and do what he promised that he would do.

He did promise that even if he had to fix it himself he would fix the factory.
Well the factory needs fixing and Bharrat is known as a fixer. So let us all lobby for him to be appointed to fix the problems of the Skeldon Sugar Factory.

If he fixes that problem, he can continue to enjoy his very generous pension. Is this not a fair deal?