“If you once forfeit the confidence of your fellow citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem. It is true that you may fool all of the people some of the time; you can even fool some of the people all of the time; but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.” Abraham Lincoln.
Turhane Doerga of the Alesie rice company had long lost the confidence of rice farmers and he is trying to regain some amount of credibility in the rice industry by using the `back door.’ Sorry, but he cannot fool all of the people all of the time. He probably managed to fool some of the gullible people some of the time. That is why sometimes when the media use him as a resource person for rice related matters, I am at a loss as to the investigative role of the journalist.
Ever since he was made a beneficiary of the state’s largesse when he was sold state rice milling complexes at Black Bush Polder and Corriverton in Berbice and Ruimzeight and Wakenaam in Essequibo at give-away prices by the PNC regime around 1990, Doerga has been troublesome to the rice industry.
Many times over the years, the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) had to employ various sanctions against the Alesie Company for major breaches. One can never forget the many rice farmers and small millers who were owed millions of dollars for years for paddy and rice sold to outfits controlled by Doerga.
Happily, those days are over and it is the mandate of the GRDB to ensure full compliance with the Rice Factories (Amendment) Act of 2009 to ensure all rice farmers are paid in full and on time for all paddy supplied to millers including Doerga. Fortunately, many farmers have learnt the lesson so that today only a few supply Alesie with paddy- and not on credit anymore.
Today, fast becoming an “also-ran” in the rice sector of Guyana, this man is rapidly fading into oblivion.
Emboldened by a media ready to carry his distorted views, another such whimper, erroneous as it is, has been published in the Tuesday 23rd March edition of the Stabroek News.
The article reported Doerga as saying he spoke with me earlier this month in which I told him the last consignment of paddy shipped to Venezuela “was infested with weevil…” This is nothing but a pathetic lie.
Doerga is not someone to whom you will say anything because of his penchant for distorting the facts. Now, having seemingly arrogated unto himself the new function of de facto spokesperson for the rice industry, Doerga is predicting the current El Nino will affect Guyana’s performance of the renegotiated paddy and rice supplies contracts with Venezuela.
But, I have news for him.
Despite El Nino, each and every tonne of paddy and rice which we are committed to supplying Venezuela will be sent to that country as we seek to diversify our rice markets. We have the commitment and support of good Guyanese millers around the country to ensure full compliance with the contracts.
Doerga should realize that the very government which he often unjustifiably criticizes is the very government which affords him his right to criticize.
However, the GRDB as the regulatory institution for the rice industry would not sit idly by and allow such an individual as Doerga to spew lies and distortions.
Yours faithfully,
Jagnarine Singh, BSc. MSc.
Guyana Rice Development Board
