“THE budget cuts are unconscionable and unconstitutional and the fact that the modus operandi of the ‘unholy alliance’ is to make our country ungovernable so that the duly elected PPP/C Government is forced to relinquish office, resulting in us being catapulted into the black holes era.’

This is the view held by none other than Haseef Yusuf, an Alliance for Change (AFC) senior member who also hold the post of regional councilor in the Region 6 district for the party.
Yusuf, this past week said that the joint opposition A Partnership For National Unity (APNU) and the AFC have stepped up the ‘ungovernable accelerator.’
According to the AFC Councilor, the two parties that constitute the largest bloc in the National Assembly have moved from ‘scissoring’ projects, vitally important for national development to blocking a bill “which is so vital for our local and international trade and livelihoods.”
He was referring to recent moves to stymie the passage of the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism amendments.
“They are wickedly bent on their ungovernable campaign started by the PNC…They want Guyanese to cease to benefit from international trade which is so vital for national development, that without it the wheels of industry will come to a grinding halt; also, our international image will be tarnished just like countries that are promoting and funding terrorism.”
Yusuf, in a letter which was published in this newspaper on Monday, says the APNU/AFC combination has now refused to support amendments and has been making a host of ridiculous excuses to ensure that the impending deadline to pass the said Bill can be missed.
“As expected,” he posits that the AFC has gone a step further and are now resorting to “political blackmail.”
The AFC Councilor says that his party can find no fault with the vitally important Bill except that a six-week time span is not enough to evaluate a couple of pages.
“But they then dropped the bombshell – they want to force the President to assent to two bills which includes the Former Presidents (Facilities and Other Benefits) Bill.”
In seeking to point out what he has termed an anomaly, Yusuf said “the Bill that they have inadequate time to study can be passed if those two bills are assented to…There will then be no time constraint.”
According to the AFC Councilor, the government has supplied valid reasons why the President cannot assent to those Bills, but the billion-dollar ‘cutting’ question is: have the AFC given any valid reason why they refused to support the Anti-Money and Countering the Financing Bill?
“Is this not the ‘lil boy’ attitude of the Opposition that has now characterised the supreme law- making body of this land?”
He questioned how can the development of an entire nation be held hostage just because a few ‘big boys’ in the AFC have a fixation on Jagdeo’s pension entitlement?
According to the AFC Councilor, “Our people need to understand fully the negative effects that the refusal to pass this important Bill – the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Terrorism Bill, will have on our country.”
He sought to remind that Guyana is a signatory to many treaties that make it clear that such a piece of legislation should be implemented in order for those treaties to be of any substance.
“Therefore, if Guyana does not pass such a Bill, then it will renege on those treaties…This will cause our country to be blacklisted.”
As a result of being blacklisted, the AFC Councilor reminds that there “there will be no financial support from financial institutions and their bilateral partners…It will be difficult to negotiate loans from these entities”.
He says too that as a result of being blacklisted, the movement of money in and out of Guyana will be intensely scrutinised since many restrictions, terms and conditions will be put in place to ensure that such monies are not from drugs and they are not used for the funding of terrorism.
Money transfers, he said, will also become more costly and time consuming, “our relatives abroad sending money to us, will have to go through numerous time consuming procedures and restrictions and this will send the cost up substantially – they will spend more time and money to do a simple MoneyGram transaction.”
Yusuf is adamant that the negative effects of not passing this amendment to the law Bill are enough to systematically erase all the economic progress that our country has made in the past 20 years.
“These effects together with the illegal budget cuts spearheaded by the AFC (Alliance For Cuts) are enough to make this country ungovernable and to once again plunge this nation into poverty, hunger and lawlessness.”
He asks, “will the good people of this nation stand idly and allow this to happen?”
The AFC Councilor has since publicly indicated that he is not intended to stand idly by in the face of the moves by his party and said too that “from responses of numerous AFC members and supporters, they will not.”
He said the party supporters, “in their wildest dreams (or nightmares) did not envisage such irrational and spiteful attitudes from the AFC leaders or that the AFC will aid and abet the PNC in their quest to make this nation ungovernable.”
The Leader of the AFC, Khemraj Ramjattan, according to the party councilor, “cannot bluff this nation by saying that the party is ready for a snap election.
“With the current state of affairs, the AFC will not survive such an event…If this is the AFC’s ‘swan song,’ then let it sing on happily, It is not too late to indeed make the right turn – the AFC’s campaign mantra,” reminded Yusuf.