Haslington, East Coast Demerara – August 23, 2025 – Former GuySuCo Estate Manager and Agriculture Director Vishnu Panday has delivered a blistering attack on the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C), accusing it of “crippling” Guyana’s sugar industry and denying that A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) was to blame for its decline.
Speaking at a WIN party meeting in Haslington, Panday unleashed sharp criticism of the government’s record. “So when these jackasses telling you APNU closed the industry, tell them a man name Panday said: Nah, Nah! Nah! They closed the industry and let them hear that loud and clear,” he declared to loud applause.
Panday, who managed the Enmore and Skeldon estates, insisted the PPP/C presided over more than two decades of mismanagement. “It was the PPP/C for 23 years that crippled the industry. And like taking off a leg to survive, the APNU said we have to close some estates to survive,” he argued, describing APNU’s 2017 estate closures as a painful but unavoidable decision.
The outspoken former manager revealed that he twice walked away from GuySuCo, in 2010 and again in 2024, because of what he called corruption and incompetence. “I can’t deal with these crooks and these scamps any longer,” he said.
APNU, for its part, is pitching an ambitious plan to revitalize and refashion GuySuCo. The party says sugar cane will remain the backbone but will be expanded into aquaculture, food crops, manufacturing, and housing. Its manifesto also proposes using sugar plants to produce ethanol, livestock feed, bagasse board, and electricity, along with a fertilizer plant to slash costs.
Workers, APNU promises, would see better pay, working conditions, and opportunities—including a 35% graduated salary increase and an increase of the tax-free threshold to $400,000 in the first year.
The party argues these measures would create thousands of jobs and transform GuySuCo into a profitable venture that contributes to the treasury instead of draining it. Guyana heads to the polls on September 1, 2025, with sugar once again a fiery election issue.
