The PPP/C government in the 2020 National Budget pumped five billion dollars ($5B) into the besieged sugar industry to be spent in the next three months. For years, the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) has been cash-strapped and relied on funding from the National Treasury to keep the operation running. Not even the government could deny sugar is not economically viable, it costs more to produce and sell, and the taxpaying public has been carrying the load. At the first official meeting of GuySuCo, Agriculture Minister, Zulfikar Mustapha reminded of the windfall, telling the members “In budget 2020, Government has allocated $3B for the recapitalisation of GuySuCo and an additional $2 billion as required.”
The Government, in a previous term in office, converted high-yielding cane fields (Diamond) to housing development and closed estate. Said government does not deny the fact sugar workers are primarily their supporters. Thus, for the party though the industry is not economically-viable, political sustainability will determine ‘survival’ based on financial investment.
Last Saturday, President Irfaan Ali said, “We understand, you can see, you can physically see the socio-economic impact of the closure of the estates in those communities. I can’t [make] apologies for bringing back those jobs, creating those jobs.” His was a response to comments made by the protesting nurses that the government is not treating them favourably as they are doing with sugar workers.
To accept the President’s view that the reopening of the sugar estates has to do with socio-economic impact, it would be good to hear his view on the psychosocial and economic impact of the nurses. It is hoped nurses’ lives matter to the government. The chaotic management of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) by the Government puts every healthcare worker at risk. For instance, the PPP/C government has abandoned the former APNU+AFC Coalition Government’s strategy of isolating those who contracted the virus, were exposed or are under watch. They were housed separate from their families and isolated from the general population. The PPP/C government is asking these same categories of persons to stay home and self-quarantine. This is not likely to happen. Persons known to be on quarantine are out and about mingling with the general population, going to the market and elsewhere.
Even within the homes those who are supposed to be in isolation may not always have the spatial capacity to social distance or follow through using separate utensils, engaging in hand washing etc., which are necessary precautions. Guyana is also not doing enough testing. Infection and deaths are climbing, and these are no longer confined to the elderly and general population. Persons in the 40s are dying with COVID-19 complications. The prisons, a restricted population, have more than 100 persons tested positive and this was only at a given time.
As President Ali seeks to protect the socioeconomic impact of sugar workers he cannot ignore the psychosocial and economic impact nurses are facing everyday of their lives, on the job and in the general population. Nurses live in constant fear. Should they contract the virus because of the government’s poor management, including having to work with inadequate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), the socioeconomic effects on them, their families, and communities will be grave. In addition to being out of work and unable to provide they risk exposing others and worsening the crisis. This nexus cannot escape the President unless he chooses to ignore it.
Surely the government could do better than $105 million for nurses when evidently they could afford five billion dollars for sugar workers. This is not begrudging sugar workers but proof of what the government can do when it wants to. The President asked the nurses, via the media, where were their solidarity for the sugar workers when the estates were closed. By extension, the nurses could ask Mr. Ali where is his government’s solidarity when nurses are providing care to the sick as the pandemic rages and likely to become epidemic in Guyana if the deficient management is not reverted. Nurses are putting their lives at risk to save the lives of all. Mr. President, they need your solidarity.
