Former Prime Minister Nagamootoo thinks sugar workers are fools

The GAWU notes a social media post by former Prime Minister (PM) Moses Nagamootoo titled “Martyrdom or Mockery.” After reading the post, which was also published on other social media, it is evident that the former Prime Minister is mocking the truth. From all appearances, the erstwhile gentleman is attempting to rewrite the sordid record while he occupied a senior role in the APNU+AFC Government from 2015 to 2020.

In his post, Mr Nagamootoo talks about the ILO’s socio-impact assessment of the closure of estates in a most convenient and, in our view, misleading manner. Though the former Prime Minister may feign ignorance, he knows well, in our minds, that thousands of temporary workers were denied work opportunities when his Government decided to close estates. Those workers never received compensation or assistance, but were left to fend for themselves. This was highlighted in the study and deliberately ignored by the former government official. But given the former PM’s chameleon-like attributes, we should not be amazed.

While Mr Nagamootoo seeks to highlight one element of the ILO’s study, we suggest he read on. The subsequent pages and chapters speak to the human toll of the closure. The report highlighted the social upheaval, the economic bleakness, and the tragedy that repeatedly played out in many homes due to the decisions of the ex-PM and his colleagues in the then government. Of course, we are highly doubtful that the former high-ranking government official was unaware of the consequences of their decision. Indeed, they were conscious and fully aware of the implications.

To come now and shed crocodile tears is simply appalling. On March 29, 2015, Mr Nagamootoo’s then colleague, Khemraj Ramjattan, at a public meeting at Whim highlighted the importance of the sugar industry and declared to those present, “…we will not in any way close the sugar industry…”. In the August 15, 2015, Kaieteur News, the former PM reportedly said “…there was no question of Government scaling down or abandoning the industry.” Yet weeks later, the two (2) joined the chorus in the Coalition with the decision to close Wales Estate. These facts, Mr Nagamootoo, are not the invented obfuscations as you seek to pontificate.

It is oxymoronic that Mr Nagamootoo seeks to cling to the ILO’s examination selectively. His Government bluntly refused even to consider such an assessment, telling GAWU, and now President Irfaan Ali, among others, on February 03, 2017, that if we wanted such a study, we should do it ourselves. It says a lot about responsibility in office and compassion for our people. Again, it’s not hard to distinguish between facts and figments of one’s imagination.

The ex-PM, true to form, attempts to hoodwink the nation and tells us that the redundancy payments to the sugar workers were as he puts it, “…initially delayed…”. Does he not have any shame? The then Finance Minister, Winston Jordan, admitted publicly that the Coalition Government did not budget to pay the jobless sugar workers. As history records, a hurriedly supplementary allocation was approved to partially settle the workers’ entitlements. This was in stark contradiction to the law. And it was after the courts ruled that the workers received their outstanding entitlements with interest in an effort to cure, in some sense, the illegality that was perpetuated against them.

Mr Nagamootoo attempts to burnish his care and compassion for the sugar workers and the sugar industry. Of course, his record speaks unequivocally. Under his tenure as PM, sugar workers’ wages remained frozen, the industry was massively downsized, and progress was markedly reversed. No amount of propaganda or airy-fairy writings can erase the legacy of destruction under a government in which Mr Nagamootoo was a senior leader. Today, the ashes of that destruction are still being righted, and the deep cuts inflicted are being healed.

The sugar workers, their families and their communities are keenly aware of these truths. They will not be deceived and misled.  As Mr Nagamootoo puts it, the sugar workers will see through his gaffe. If he chooses to write on sugar, once more, we urge him to begin with the phrase “once upon a time…” as all that will follow will be truly fiction, hypocrisy, and deception.