NAGAMOOTOO CANNOT EXTRICATE HIMSELF FROM APNU+AFC DIABOLICAL PLAN TO CLOSE SUGAR

I heard Mr. Nagamootoo speaking to sugar workers as part of a political advertisement. He spoke as the Prime Minister of Guyana, a dream he salivate over, but which will never come through. He spoke with a forked tongue, with different messages intended to misrepresent the facts and to mislead people. As Minister of Agriculture I feel duty bound to reject Mr. Nagamootoos claims and promises on the sugar industry.

Mr. Nagamootoo spoke directly to sugar workers because he knows that he and APNU+AFC have been exposed the sugar workers are not fooled anymore and they know that APNU+AFC has only one thing on their mind for sugar close it.

The sugar workers know that APNU+AFC has nothing to say about sugar in their manifesto. Sugar workers and people everywhere are asking why APNU+AFC has nothing to say about sugar in their manifesto. Having found total rejection in the sugar estates around Guyana, Nagamootoo and APNU+AFC are in serious damage control mode. It will not work the people know the truth that APNU+AFC will close sugar. That is no secret anymore, it is a diabolical plot that has been fully exposed.

In desperation, Mr. Nagamootoo is trying to persuade sugar workers that APNU+AFC will ensure sugar survives, but he is being wickedly hypocritical. Worse yet, Mr. Nagamootoo is shameless. Mr. Nagamootoo on May 5th, Indian Arrival Day, at Highbury stated unequivocally that APNU+AFC will distribute the sugar lands to sugar workers to grow rice, rear livestock, including fish etc. Nowhere in that statement was any indication how sugar would be kept alive in Guyana. Everything in that statement is that sugar would be closed. Guyanese and especially farmers are not stupid. This was a clear statement APNU+AFC will close sugar, no ands, ifs or buts. Finding a very smart population of sugar workers, Nagamootoo is trying desperately to change the message he wants them to now think that APNU+AFC will help sugar.

Mr. Nagamootoo was even more clear at a public meeting at Angoys Avenue, New Amsterdam when he repeated at that meeting what another APNU+AFC Member, Mr. Austin, stated that APNU and AFC would close sugar as the most sensible thing to do. They have an obsession about sugar and a love story with growing tilapia in the sugar cane fields. There are innumerable times that other members of APNU+AFC have been on TV in Berbice with signals that they cannot wait to have an opportunity to close sugar.

Mr. Nagamootoo must tell us why he and all other leaders and members of APNU+AFC refuse to dissociate themselves from a statement which was issued at an official APNU Media Briefing at the APNU Headquarters which demanded a closure of sugar and replacing it with tilapia. Just a few weeks ago, another senior advisor to APNU+AFC called again for the closure of sugar. None of the senior leadership or anyone in the membership of APNU+AFC has dissociated themselves from a clear statement from APNU+AFC that they will close sugar.

The question is why has none of the APNU+AFC leaders felt compelled to disagree with their sugar advisors who were so bold to reveal the APNU+AFC plan for sugar. That is the real reason they have nothing to say about sugar in their manifesto.

Mr. Nagamootoo must further apologize to sugar workers and their families for demanding that the EU refuse to release funds for GUYSUCO that was earned by GUYSUCO as part of an agreement for the EU to terminate the Sugar Protocol and reduce the sugar price. This arbitrary and immoral withholding of EU sugar funds affect sugar workers and their families. The question is why Nagamootoo and APNU+AFC so cruelly want the EU to withhold financial resources that would help sugar workers and their families?

For all their efforts to fool people, Nagamootoo and APNU+AFC have never apologized to workers and their families for not supporting subsidies that helped to pay sugar workers. Mr. Nagamootoo will help himself if he comes out now and apologize to sugar workers for betraying them yet again. He must sincerely apologize to sugar workers for being part of a conspiracy to punish them by hatching together an APNU+AFC plan to close the sugar industry.

The truth is that APNU+AFC is anti-sugar. The truth is that no amount of appealing to sugar workers and their families will rescue Nagamootoo and APNU+AFC. The PPP/C, the sugar workers and their families and decent people who can appreciate the importance of sugar in Guyanas economic and social development will never allow Nagamootoo and APNU+AFC to close sugar.

Sugar was left on death bed by APNU+AFC when they went by the name PNC. Today, they have changed their name, but people, young and old, know that their names have changed, but the PNC lives on, its stripes still fearfully plain for all to see. Sugar is not their priority. In Parliament, no one will forget how plainly they articulated their position sugar is a black hole and sugar is not their concern.

Sugar has always been a PPP priority. It is part of our DNA, part of our genes. We took an almost dead sugar industry in 1992 when it was struggling to even make 100,000 tons, when we were unable to meet our export commitments and when we had given up the total of the CARICOM market.

Today, sugar is alive and well. At the end of today, GUYSUCO has produced more than 80,000 tons of sugar, an almost 10% increase over the production figure for the first crop of 2014. GUYSUCO is confident that it will surpass the 83,000 tons target for this first crop before it completes its 2015 first grinding season and that it will reach the 240,000 tons target for 2015.

This will mean that an industry which by 1992 was struggling to reach 100,000 tons of sugar, has produced more than 200,000 tons of sugar every year, but one since the PPP/C took government in 1992. We are still on target to reach 300,000 tons by end of 2017 and 400,000 tons by end of 2020.

GUYSUCO has a business plan that is now reflected in the PPP/Cs manifesto for the 2015 elections. We have presented a detailed plan for GUYSUCO and we have committed a financial package of more than $20B. These are specific proposals that are presented to people with no ambiguity and no double-meaning. APNU+AFC has no specific plans, other than one it will close sugar.

Instead of trying to fool sugar workers, Nagamootoo must come out clearly and state that no matter what the results of the election, he and APNU+AFC commit to support the $20B investment in sugar.

The PPP/C, with the help of sugar workers and their families will ensure that APNU+AFC will have no opportunity to implement their diabolical plan to close sugar.

Dr. Leslie Ramsammy

May 9, 2015