– warns that ‘those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it’

THE Progressive Youth Organisation (PYO) said it is exasperated by the callous nature of the Opposition that has again been revealed in the non-passage of the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Amendment Bill.

“Unlike the Amaila Falls project, the Specialty Hospital Project or the CJIA, all of which are aimed to move Guyana forward, the AML/CFT amendment bill is intended to continue the status quo on how the private sector and individual citizens conduct business with their overseas partners,” the PYO said in a statement.
It argued that the defeat of the bill is a clear indication of the Opposition’s willingness to directly hurt the current economic climate and force a regression. It is clear that the Opposition is gearing up for elections and wishes to effect economic instability in our country in order to create an economic platform from which to attack the PPP.
The people of Guyana cannot continue to turn a blind eye to what is clearly an act of sabotage by the Opposition. Their rhetoric that they need more time to examine the bill is non-sensical. We just have to look at the records, the Bill was in the Special Select Committee from May 16 2013, yet we are to believe that the intervening 5 months was not sufficient for the Committee to complete the work on the Bill.
According to the PYO, it is a childish excuse equivalent to saying that the ‘Dog ate my homework’. The records show that the most vocal critics of the bill, Mr. Khemraj Ramjattan and Mrs. Deborah Backer attended less than 42% and 36% of meetings respectively for the consideration of the Bill.
“What is also clear is that the Opposition, on August 5 2013, outvoted the PPP/C and further delayed any meetings until October, the month the Bill was to be read again. They apparently believed that by using the Goebbels trick that ‘If you tell a lie…and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it’ they will get some kind of sympathy from the people.”
The PYO, which is the youth arm of the governing People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C), said the dictatorial nature of the Opposition is quite astounding. When the Private Sector Commission requested that their petition be heard in Parliament, one Opposition member said the Private Sector Commission “does not have a vote”.
This, the PYO contends is a clear indication that the Opposition does not understand the meaning of Democracy. When the Private Sector Commission, representing Guyana’s Private Sector and the hundreds of thousands of people who work in it and play a major role in Guyana’s economy; the largest trade union organisation, FITUG and the Guyana Rice Producers Association are ignored by a political Opposition with a slim one seat majority in Parliament, it is a clear sign of their undemocratic and authoritarian nature.
“We are surely facing a clear and present danger when to spite the PPP, the Opposition is willing to do harm to the workers and the private citizens of Guyana once again,” the PYO asserted.
The PYO, therefore, calls on all citizens of Guyana, on the Private Sector and the labour movement – the engine of economic growth, “to do to the Opposition what has been done to all of us”.
“Withhold your support for them,” the PYO charged. “We have to show them that Democracy is the will of the people and that the personal vendetta of a few political dinosaurs cannot impede our future.”
The PYO is also urging Guyanese to guard against their historical tyrannical tendencies which are coming to the fore once again for “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”