Shocking: Jordan confirms APNU/AFC wants to fire 15,000 public servants

By: DR. LESLIE RAMSAMMY

Winston Jordan, Guyana’s worst Finance Minister ever, this week confirmed that, in addition to the 7000 sugar workers who were fired between 2016 and 2018, APNU/AFC wants to fire an additional 15,000 persons from the public service, GPL and GuySuCo.

Jordan argued that the combined public service, GPL and GuySuCo have far too many employees and that APNU/AFC will fire 15,000 persons. He was quick to assure that APNU/AFC will be “generous” by not firing 15,000 immediately, but will phase the terminations over a period of time.

This is one of the very many reasons why people must ensure APNU/AFC does not have a chance to implement this wicked plan.

With elections coming up and as public outrage erupts, expect to hear Jordan and his colleagues, including David Granger, deny such a plan exists. But it is déjà vu. It was the same scenario before the 2015 elections.

Several months before the 2015 elections, PNC mouthpieces began spouting nonsense that GuySuCo must be closed, preaching the END of SUGAR in Guyana. Recall, the agriculture spokesman for the PNC at the time, Anthony Viera, at an APNU media conference, chaired by Joe Harmon, called for the closure of GuySuCo and for the sugar fields to be converted to aquaculture for tilapia.

Stanley Ming, soon after, repeated the threat. Asked by the media about this before a parliamentary sitting in 2014, Khemraj Ramjattan agreed.

However, with the May 2015 elections approaching at the time, and the outrage among sugar workers and people in the sugar belt, the leaders of APNU and AFC, led by David Granger himself, changed their tune. They denied closure of estates was part of their plan for government. Granger went around Berbice, on public platforms, and promised none of the sugar estates would be closed and none of the sugar workers will lose their jobs, because SUGAR was too big to fail.

In fact, he promised sugar workers an annual 20% increase in wages. But the chief spokespersons for the “no estate closure and 20% increase for sugar workers” in that 2015 elections campaign were Moses Nagamootoo and Khemraj Ramjattan. They became APNU/AFC foot soldiers to make empty promises to sugar workers, essentially telling them the PPP was spreading a lie and was fear-mongering.

Some sugar workers and their families, unfortunately, fell for the empty promises of APNU/AFC.
Soon after the 2015 elections, the real plan became apparent. In spite of the recommendation that no estate be closed, a recommendation made by the $70M CoI commissioned by Granger, APNU/AFC rapidly moved to close four sugar estates.

In the process, 7000 sugar workers lost their jobs. Furthermore, the rest of the 10,000 sugar workers have had to endure a wage freeze since the end of 2014, being told they should be grateful they still have a job.
Public servants, GPL and GuySuCo workers must learn from this most recent experience.

Just as they did with sugar workers before, they are now doing with public servants, GPL employees and the remaining GuySuCo workers. Indeed, I have cautioned that their plan, if they remain in government, is to immediately close another sugar estate.

Uitvlugt is now on the chopping board and soon after the upcoming March 2020 elections, if APNU/AFC is re-elected, they will move to close this estate. Some of the 15,000 people they intend to fire if they remain in government, will come from this estate. But some will also come from GPL.

The public service will be the main target. Can Jordan and any of his colleagues tell us if there are too many teachers, too many police officers, too many doctors and nurses? Can they tell us if there are too many workers at the various ministries? The truth is that this will be their wicked plan to remove all persons they think might not be politically aligned with them.

It is a clear, present and sinister threat— nothing less.
Jordon argues that the “bloated” public service, GuySuCo and GPL is the reason why they had to increase more than 200 taxes. He argued this is the reason why salaries cannot be increased more rapidly in Guyana, because there are too many of us working.

This is the stupidest excuse so far for them not keeping their promise to increase salaries by significant amounts each year in their term of government. They did make that promise in 2015. They gave themselves hefty increases but have been miserly with the public servants. As elections 2020 approach, they need to find an excuse. But their excuse could not be more stupid.

With the elections campaign rolling out, I fully expect them to deny there is any plan to fire public servants. They will come with sugar in their words and promise “milk and honey” to all public servants. But the plan is real. Mouth open, story jump out, Jordan exposed the nasty plan. No amount of denial and promises must prevent us from being vigilant and stop them from this dastardly plan.