Government and FSC playing politics with farmers

[posted 24 Aug 2009,1330] ]

It is clear that the interim Prime Minister/Minister for Sugar has been grossly misinformed and misled about what is happening in the sugar industry.

In an interview to the Fiji Sun newspaper (21/8/09) Mr Bainimarama reportedly said that the decision to dissolve the Sugar Cane Growers Council was in line with reforms outlined in what he described as a Sugar Industry Plan.

“This is the first time that a Sugar Industry Plan has been put together involving the full participation of key stakeholders namely the millers, the growers, the researchers, the Sugar Cane Commission of Fiji and Government,” Mr. Bainimarama told the Fiji Sun.

Well, we know of no consultation that has taken place on a sugar industry master plan with either the Sugar Cane Growers Council or the National Farmers Union. These are two of the most representative cane growers’ organisations in Fiji.

What we do know of is a secret report that was compiled by FSC’s        so-called “local/expatriate” consultants from Australia which according to the Permanent Secretary for Sugar, Pramesh Chand, is the report that government is basing its so-called “reforms” on.

This report was compiled in secret and has been kept a secret. Both the Growers Council and the NFU requested a copy of the report but were not given one.

How can the Sugar Minister claim that the report “involved the full participation of key stakeholders” when the major players in the industry don’t even know what is in the report?

These ‘consultants’ are former executives of FSC, trained by the CSR, and have obviously still not discarded their CSR mentality. NFU is reliably informed that they had at the time strongly opposed the progressive partnership provisions of the Sugar Industry Act of 1984. They have now been presented an opportunity to turn the clock back.

The 1984 Act was one of the most progressive achievements of the late Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara as Prime Minister, the man who also takes much of the credit for the 1975 Sugar Protocol between the European Union and its former colonies in the ACP (the African Caribbean Pacific nations).

The Act was the product of widespread industry consultations and negotiations and ensured accountability from all stakeholders, FSC in particular. Together with the Denning Award of 1970, the 1984 Act had ushered in a period of growth and stability in the industry that had lasted almost two decades.

The FSC made an attempt in 1989 when the Sugar Industry Master Award, based on Lord Denning’s recommendations, came up for renegotiation, to overturn this with the Kermode Award. It failed dismally.

The same people are now making another attempt to revert the clock, with the dismantling of all the major institutions that were set up by the 1984 Act. The interim government has simply played into their hands.

The dissolution of these industry institutions one by one is most regressive and will undoubtedly lead to gross exploitation of cane growers as FSC will be placed in sole control of all aspects of the industry - the cultivation, harvesting, transportation, milling and marketing of sugar.

Mr Bainimarama told the Fiji Sun that the ‘reforms’ were motivated by the need to rid the sugar industry of “politics and bad blood”.

What politics we ask? If anyone is playing politics in the sugar industry, it is government and the Fiji Sugar Corporation, not the industry institutions which have been arbitrarily dismantled by the interim government.

As far as the NFU is concerned, growers have a 70% stake in the sugar industry and they have a right of representation on industry institutions, decisions and policy making.

This right must be respected. What justification is there to rest sole control in a minority stakeholder (FSC)?

All these people who keep harping about ‘politics’ in the sugar industry, obviously know nothing about the history of the industry and the gross injustice, hardship and exploitation that cane farmers suffered for decades under the CSR in the colonial era.

There is no turning back the clock. It must be made very clear that cane farmers are not going to serve another Girmit in Fiji. They have made a tremendous contribution to Fiji’s economy and its development. Their rights must be respected.

NFU has written to the Sugar Minister calling on him to reverse the decision to dissolve the industry institutions. Cane farmers want SCOF and FSM reinstated for the sake of accountability and transparency in the industry, They want no interference by the interim government or FSC in their affairs.

NFU is now awaiting a response from the Minister.