Cool it at Couva

COUVA will be the centre today of political activity by both the PNM and the UNC over the issue of Caroni (1975) restructuring and, because of the passion and emotion this matter has already provoked, we would appeal to supporters of the governing and opposition parties to maintain their cool and allow reason and good sense to prevail. Also, we would urge speakers, particularly those representing constituencies of the sugar belt, to refrain from the use of inflammatory rhetoric in presenting their case against the government's VSEP offer to sugar workers and its plans for reconstructing the company.

We believe the days for using sugar workers as pawns in a political chess game are over. For decades this has been the strategy of political representatives objecting to every attempt at structural or manpower change to ease the enormous financial burden which the bankrupt and inefficient company has imposed on the national treasury. We feel that in their hearts and minds even sugar workers themselves have come to accept the glaring truth about Caroni (1975) Ltd., that the sugar operation is an industrial dinosaur which must be laid to rest. The company is perhaps the world's most expensive producer of sugar and is a gross liability not only for its enormous annual losses but also for the embarrassment it presents in the world of free trade and in our relations with international lending agencies.

The necessity then to radically restructure the company should no longer be an issue. Even the previous UNC regime had its plans for dealing with the problem of Caroni. What now appears to be the bone of contention is the Government's attempt to reduce the company's manpower through its VSEP offer which, with good-will on boths sides, should have been satisfactorily settled between the Agriculture Ministry and the ATSGWTU. Given the history of opposition politics in the sugar belt, however, it seems that the production of a mutually acceptable severance agreement for Caroni workers is asking for, or expecting, too much.

In our view, this is unfortunate. It presents another sad example of the kind of obscurantism that has long bedevilled the politics of the country, where partisan concerns override the national interest and where reason, logic and the need for mutual cooperation count for little or nothing. For example, Minister Rahael's offer of a parcel of land to VSEP acceptees who do not own their own homes seems reasonable enough. The union, however, is insisting that all workers accepting the severance package must be given a plot of land whether or not they own their own homes.

Indeed, we are now concerned about the ugly and highly emotional turn this issue has taken. Recently, Minister Raheal had to be escorted out of a meeting with sugar workers when it erupted into a rowdy shouting match. And we had the union leader and central representatives fanning the flames by warning Government ministers not to enter the sugar belt areas because their safety could not be guaranteed. The senseless passion over this issue even reached the nation's parliament with the Opposition declaring its non-support for major government legislation until a national debate on Caroni is held. We sincerely hope that this emotion will not overflow into the public events organised by both parties for Couva today and that good sense will prevail on both sides.

The UNC decided to hold their sugar workers' rally and march long after the PNM had announced their public meeting to be held at the Old Southern Main Road at 7.30 pm. Both Prime Minister Manning and Minister Rahael will speak on the Caroni issue. Sugar workers and residents of the sugar belt should want to hear what they have to say.