OP-ED | GUYSUCO chatter has died to undecipherable murmur

By Mark Jacob’s

The outlandish chattering of making sugar sweet again has died down to an almost undecipherable murmur.

Three months ago our last installment Sasenarine Singh and GuySuCo: A masquerade of sweet deceptions outlines a number of stark realities that no one at the company or the political directorate have ever bothered to refute. Simply put, they cannot. All the while, they’ve poured another seven billions dollars into the company the past five months. 2021 will see more waste of precious resources as this masquerade of deceptions ambles to a slow painful end.

Depends on who is murmuring, the narrative switches without rhyme of reason from profitability to break even and back again. We don’t see numbers, we haven’t seen a plan and the idea of selling brown sugar in one pound bags to the Guyanese Diaspora would silence the best asylum poets and dreamers.

In summary, in the past few months the nation has been told the following, among other tall tales, listed in no particular order of significance:

1) GUYSUCO can be profitable again
2) Selling one pound bags of sugar to the Guyanese Diaspora will bring
GUYSUCO to profitability
3) Break even is as good as profitability
4) GUYSUCO will go into ethanol production soon
5) Cutting cane is a noble profession to be preserved
6) Arabs are coming to invest in GUYSUCO
7) Wales Estate will be our primary onshore oil and gas facility

Guyanese should know by now that all the persons talking about making GUYSUCO great again have no money invested in this misadventure. They cannot and must not be taken seriously under any circumstances. The
political pretenders prancing back and forth, the junior capitalists of the Private Sector Commission and the talking heads and usual suspects have zero dollars invested in sugar or cane production. The question need not be asked but we will. Why not?

The PPP has caused untold destruction to the agriculture sector of this country. They measure success using metrics like tons of rice harvested, number of koker doors patched up and miles of trenches men with cutlass cleared grass from. This is not agriculture nor should it be discussed as some sort of development or progress.

The latest twist in this sordid saga is the vice president announcing that Wales Estate will now be converted in an onshore oil and gas facility. I am not knowledgeable of this industry, but the information presented is laughable. As the clock ticks on and the debts keep mounting they are clutching at straws as they’re sucked deeper into the vortex.

This column is focused on solution driven farming and agro-processing techniques for small farmers and artisans. We will refrain from commenting on the misadventures of the political directorate other than to point out nonsense that should not be emulated. The development of this sector rests in our hands.