OUR beloved politician, a former leader of the National Federation Party, Honourable SM Koya, went to the grave fighting for the cause of Fijian sugarcane farmers.
Despite his great efforts, even he was unable to get the Fiji Sugar Corporation (FSC) to see eye to eye on many of the issues, raised during the master award negotiations, which to this day have sections where either party has not agreed to substantive matters during negotiations.
The master award came into effect on November 23, 1989 and replaced the sugar cane contract. Independent arbitrators who had set the contract terms were Sir Malcolm Eve, Lord Silso and a judge, Lord Denning, all British.
Koya was the lawyer and farmers’ representative during the prolonged and often tiring negotiations. FSC stonewalled everything and never gave any heed to the farmers’ welfare and Koya, one of the greatest criminal lawyers of all times in Fiji’s history, and an astute politician, could not make FSC yield in many areas he would have liked to benefit sugarcane farmers.
The same master award drives the sugar industry, which the present FSC CEO was referring to when he refused to pay a special cane payment to farmers under financial woes, citing it was not in the award, and also saying many did not want the payment — and referring others to a costly loan facility, which many would not even qualify for, on risk assessment grounds.
For the benefit of those who do not know, the FSC was incorporated by an Act of Parliament in 1972, and officially came to existence on April 1, 1973, some two and half years after Fiji’s Independence. The Sugar Industry Act of 1984 restructured the industry and established three new organisations, namely, the Sugar Commission of Fiji, the Sugar Industry Tribunal and the Sugar Cane Growers Council.
One of the major functions of the Sugar Industry Tribunal is to establish and regulate master award controlling contractual relationship between the FSC and farmers.
Thus when I read the standard reply to my article (FS 22/02/15) by a former FSC staffer, Mohammed Afroz (FS 23/01/15), I was not at all surprised at his spin in favour of the FSC and its CEO.
Fijians have not forgotten that under the great inefficiencies, mismanagement, and often ridiculously high wages of former staffers and CEOs and other in-house issues uncovered during the Bainimarama clean-up campaign after 2006, they left the FSC on the verge of bankruptcy, when the government stepped in to clean up the mess and injected funds in excess of $F120 million.
Thus former staffers need to be cautious when trying to grandstand issues as they were the very people responsible for the downfall of an icon which put food on the table for many families — not only farmers but the entire nation, who were directly or indirectly involved with the industry.
The following events at the time may refresh readers’ recollection to the state of affairs and the manner in which the FSC was managed and left in a state of bankruptcy.
The late Manasa Vaniqi, as the PS Sugar, said in October, 2010 Government was planning on changing the ownership of the Fiji Sugar Corporation. He said the financially depressed FSC was not in a position to operate on its own.
At the same time South Pacific Stock Exchange (SPSE) suspended all trading in the FSC stock until further notice as it believed the FSC did not have a sufficient level of working capital. SPSE CEO Jinita Prasad said then the decision was made to try and protect investors and shareholders investments.
One of the requirements of the SPSE Listing Rules was for listed companies to have at least 12 months’ working capital and FSC failed to meet this requirement.
The Fiji Government, Fiji National Provident Fund, Fijian Holdings Ltd, Unit Trust of Fiji, Colonial Mutual Life Assurance Society Ltd and the Sugar Cane Growers Council were the major shareholders, at the time.
The letter writer (FS 23/01/15) wrongly assumes we are suggesting a novice sugarcane farmer be the CEO of FSC. What is suggested is a knowledgeable, experienced and astute person, who has a farming background or affinity or understanding and sensitivity of this group, should ideally be the CEO.
The farming community has produced many brilliant lawyers, doctors, politicians, scientists, accountants, businessmen and many of them have gone on to to become prominent both locally and internationally, but have never forgotten that in their younger days they harvested, planted sugarcane, while with their parents and grandparents, where they understood many aspects of the industry.
The present CEO of FSC has never been seen by farmers anywhere in their meetings, who continually say “he should at least open the window and look out of his air-conditioned office”, on radio talkback shows.
Further the burden of debt and expense has continually been passed or kept on the farmers’ side because the rail network system has not been fully utilised needlessly costing farmers millions of dollars.
Cane delivered by trucks at costs of $100 to $200 per single load of eight-12 tonnes, often only five-10km away from the mills, and right next to and a few metres from the rail lines which remain abandoned by the FSC in all sections of its secondary network. By rail it would cost the farmer about $6 to $10 and negligible costs to the FSC except in capital costs of the rail carts.
A rail line can bear upwards of 100 carts with the same cost which would cost 1000 times more by cane trucks — as you need many more of them and they clog the highways, pollute and lead to bottle necks. In wet weather they cannot supply cane and thus there is no cane in the mills, which have to be shut down leading to burnt cane often being thrown away after seven days and the list goes on and on.
The present FSC CEO needs to be proactive in these regards, though many promises have been made during his tenure to reform the railway system. To date we have the status quo of the past five-10 years.
Thus I would ask that stakeholders refrain from a false sense of security and hope, as none of the many promised reforms, on the basis of which the present CEO was hired more than five years ago have eventuated, to the detriment of the Fiji sugar industry.
* Dr Sushil K Sharma is a former associate professor of meteorology and head of the Meteorology Department, Fiji National University. He is not affiliated to any political party and is an independent analyst. The views expressed are his and not of this newspaper.
