It can be done, but please stop the lies!

DEAR EDITOR, In Hindu philosophy we have a Sanskrit quote from the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upanishad “asato ma sadgamaya” which translates loosely into “lead me from the asat to the sat – from untruth and non-reality to truth and reality”. What the PPP has attempted on Mr. Khemraj Ramjattan with respect to this latest GuySuCo issue, is a revelation that the PPP is very prepared to continue to live in the domain of the “quadrupled monster”. Only such a beast can tell such a blatant untruth with such a straight face and hope to get away with it. For the record, Mr. Ramjattan never said, “if the AFC has its way, they will close the sugar industry and use the cane fields to cultivate tilapia,” as was willingly misrepresented by GINA. If one is to reflect back to May 11, 2011 in the run-up to the 2011 General Elections, it was Mr. Ramjattan who at an AFC Press Conference categorically stated that GuySuCo must move to greater mechanization to cut cost and it is the duty of the industry to find employment for the disenchanted workers who are staying away from the slave-like conditions in the field. At that Press Conference, Mr. Ramjattan clearly stated that his party is “committed to building a sugar industry that is based on innovation and sustainability where the infrastructural and technological needs of the industry are in place”. The operative words here are “building a sugar industry”. He further told reporters at that Press Conference that in the AFC’s sugar action plan, the party has plans to create many new jobs by engaging investors in ethanol production. He commended the Jagdeo Government on the Enmore Packaging Plant and demanded that more of such value added ventures could be undertaken to save the industry. This is a clear AFC public policy, as certified in the AFC Action Plan. Nowhere in the AFC’s Action Plan is there any strategy to close down sugar production as is being misrepresented by the PPP today as they practice their trade-mark of “gutter politics” in their determined quest to follow their racist political playbook to regain lost political grounds in Berbice that the AFC took from them in a fair campaign on the issues. Any rational mind reading such positions from the AFC will find not one statement to substantiate this blatant falsehood from the PPP. So why this untruth? This public display of gross deception brings us straight to Romans 3:13 and we quote “Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit. The poison of vipers is on their lips”. This is NOT how politics ought to be practiced. It has been more than five years now and even after two Ministers, GuySuCo is still turning on its head, all because the PPP remains clueless on how to undo the travesty called the Skeldon White Elephant. In 1990 under Hoyte, the cost of production at GuySuCo was 18.8 cents per lb as certified by the World Bank. By 1998 when the Jagans departed office, the production cost was 22.1 cents per lb as certified by the National Development Strategy. At the end of 2013, after 14 years of the Jagdeo/Ramotar cabal, GuySuCo was producing sugar at 39.9 cents per lb, while we sell sugar to the EU market at 21.9 cents per lb as certified by the GuySuCo 2013-2017 Strategic Plan. These facts cannot be washed away with lies and untruths. The Skeldon Sugar Factory was presented to the Guyanese people as the primary strategy to reducing the production cost to 21.8 cents per lb by 2013, but the PPP failed miserably on this task. This continued mis-management of the industry over the last 14 years under the Jagdeo/Ramotar cabal, has brought nothing but perpetual poverty to the majority of the people on the sugar belt. But as classic Stalinists, they blame the world for their under-performance. Well in 2011 the Berbicians saw through their lies and told them at the ballot boxes what they think of them as a Government. So does the PPP think more lies today will help them at the ballot boxes in 2014 or 2016? We in the AFC firmly believe that the sugar belt can be turned around, but it has to be done using the best technical skills, both locally and internationally, especially from Brazil and India. The Government of Guyana has to make a determined effort to increase production along with a strategy to move the process to more value added activities like more production of packaged “food-grade” Demerara Gold, more sale of electricity to the national grid and of course, ethanol production to aid our fuel imports. Yes, we in the AFC believe it can be done, but please stop the lies! Dr. Veersammy Ramaya (MP) and Sasenarine Singh