THE determination to rid Guyana of the administration of destruction, oppression and dictatorship gave rise to a national avalanche that eventually swept the PNC out of the corridors of power and installed, for the first time in decades, a constitutionally-elected government in October of 1992.

This was indeed the ‘dawn of a new era’ and a new broom that gradually, miraculously, transformed Guyana in an unparalleled dynamic of social development and economic growth.

This transformation is under threat once again by the very people who took Guyana and Guyanese to subterranean levels of international growth indices before a PPP/C Government took office.

Governing the nation during the last two decades and creating a growth pattern with a consistent upward trajectory has not been an easy proposition for the PPP/C because the PNC, in its new avatar of APNU and its ally, the AFC, has had a continuum of destructive actions that caused much angst and retrogression in the fortunes of this nation, with many major developmental and job and wealth-creational initiatives being stymied and/or stopped cold by the combined Opposition.

But the country descended into a new low with the new configuration in the National Assembly, which gave the combined Opposition (APNU and AFC) a majority of one seat, and today the ugly head of the PNC is reared to strike once again into the heart of the nation.

Non-compliance with FATF regulations regarding countering of money laundering and terrorism in the world would visit recalcitrant nation states with such punitive ‘blacklisting’ that would take them into semblances of Guyana under PNC administration. Unfortunately, for Guyana, this nation is being held to ransom by a vengeful combined Opposition, which refuses to support the vital passage of the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) (Amendment) Bill.

Their power-drunk and vengeful grandstanding has reached a level where their conditions for support of this vital bill has put this nation between the devil and the deep blue sea – that the Government accepts their recommendations for amendments, which will revert Guyana to the days of the draconian rule of the PNC; or else non-support of the bill with a consequential blacklisting by FATF, which will transpose this nation again to a socio-economic landscape and ethos of want, hunger and hopelessness.
The amendment the Opposition proposes seeks to give Police and customs officers the power to seize currency of over $2M (US$10,000) in cash, cheques or value, such as money orders, jewelry, gold, bills of exchange, negotiable instruments, precious metals and gems, et cetera, and arrest persons if it is suspected that it is the proceeds of money laundering.
These officers would also be vested with the powers to invade homes and business places, at any hour, to ransack private spaces for what would then be contraband; as in the good old days of yore under PNC administration, when almost every householder became a criminal under PNC’s Draconian rule.

One letter-writer to this newspaper, Mr. Roshan Khan, recalled those days of horror thus: “This is madness, as prohibition will cause wholesale smuggling of currencies out of Guyana, due to the reality that people will not have faith in the country and economy, and will wonder if next time the APNU might want to seize any money anywhere. The people of Guyana cannot forget the whole banning of food items, particularly flour and like, which led to an amazing growth of illegal wealth by the smugglers, and the export of cash by every and any means.
“I ask the people of this country if they recall the days when Guyanese under the Burnhamite PNC could not pass the airport with anything more than $25US. The time when fingers were prodded into peoples anuses and even female vaginas. Yes, youths who do not know, under the Burnhamite PNC this happened, and many were imprisoned, as some had to get money out for medicine, a gallon of paint, some building material.”

Mr. Khan continued: “One could not go on a holiday with anything of value, not even a piece of jewelery except the married ring, and that had to be small. Jewels and monies that were seized were used as bribe in order not to be charged. In the search room people will tell the police or customs officials to keep the money and gold…it was truly a shameful era.

“And many were bribed to get money out, and others with tins of smuggled sardines or corn beef, or a pound of flour, onions or garlic for Government officials’ assistance. During this time Guyana broke, fell on its knees as Guyana became a basket case and the mockery state in the Caribbean. It was a time when women had to sell their bodies in Suriname and Trinidad to bring food stuff to sell in Guyana’s market and feed the nation. Guyanese were in shame everywhere we went. Many slept at airports and wharves.”

Then also the question of the integrity of mandated officers is in doubt, and numerous incidences abound – of monies, jewelry and other items, such as drugs seized by law enforcement and customs officers with only partial, or in some instances non-delivery of these items to designated authorities; the time-consuming, frustrating, expensive process of recovery, most often through the courts by the legitimate owner and/or legal authority will frustrate the process into extinction.

This does not take into consideration the dangers posed to home owners and private entrepreneurs, and among the plethora of instances when bandits pretending to represent a legal entity, force entry into premises then proceed to rob, injure and even kill their victims. One can recall the brutal death of Frank Persaud of Bel Air, who was forced to open his warehouse to bandits posing as Customs officers, only to be killed and robbed. The implications of the Opposition’s to the safety and wellbeing of Guyanese citizens are too horrendous to contemplate.

Alternatively, the Opposition’s non-support of the AML/CFT (Amendment) Bill would mean blacklisting by FATF, which will consequence, inter alia: developmental and charitable loans and grants drying up; banking internationally will be impossible; money transfers will freeze; many will lose jobs, as industries will close or minimise operations, among other consequences no less deleterious to the national economy and Guyanese welfare and wellbeing. The combined parliamentary Opposition’s grandstanding and blackmail for irrational demands to be met has stymied the passage of the amended Bill which currently sits in a Special Parliamentary Select Committee.