Dear Editor,
“President Donald Ramotar on Saturday last reiterated his call for unity in the sugar industry and commitment to working with the industry and all associated stakeholders to ensure that it continues to play a central role in the economy in order that many of the services that were provided in the past, can continue.”
The above extract from page 3 of the Guyana Chronicle, Monday, June 18, 2012, should make any self-respecting editor blush, after re-reading its formulation – which he/she had a weekend to do.
Re-read:
i) “Call for unity in the sugar industry”
ii) “Commitment to working with the industry and all associated stakeholders”
iii) “many of the services that were provided in the past, can continue”
Query:
i) Amongst whom is ‘unity’ being called for? The workers, managers, unions? If any of this is the case, it provides serious pause for reflection, and an explicit strategy to address such a fundamental dislocation as identified by the President.
ii) Who are the persons and/or entities that must commit to working with the sugar industry per se, and presumably all [its] ‘associated stakeholders’?
This surely is a welcome invitation by the President, with which the Minister of Agriculture should be asked to comply, particularly in relation to those stakeholders – former high-powered managers of GuySuCo – who have offered to make their expertise and experience available – individually and severally.
iii) A careful recount of the ‘services’ the industry provided in the past would reveal several that have been terminated as a matter of policy – the closure of the Diagnostic (Health) Centre and the Residential Training Centre being egregious examples which readily come to mind.
Others, recognisable to managers and managed, have suffered along with the decay of the industry.
But reference to them pale in the glaring absence of any mention of increased production (and productivity) – surely the greatest service the industry can provide in attempting to revive its ‘central role in the economy.’
Yours faithfully,
E B John
