UNDOUBTEDLY, the current question that is sure to be uppermost in the minds of all Guyanese pertains to when will the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Bill finally going to be passed by the National Assembly. More particular is the question: When will the Parliamentary Opposition (A Partnership For National Unity and the Alliance For Change) quit their unpatriotic behaviour, which, at best, means tinkering with the probity of the nation; the welfare and wellbeing of the citizens, and, above all, their dignity.
OBSERVER believes that since all Guyanese are fully conversant with the importance of the Bill and its dire necessity, it may not be necessary to recall its finite details; yet, it still is, because of its pivotal importance to the conduct, protection and continuation of the country’s economic life.
But we should first understand the nature of this pervasive international criminal beast that is money laundering; what it is. In simple terms, this is an illegal activity, which means making money that comes from an illicit activity (‘dirty’ money) so it appears to be legitimate, by moving it from point A to point B.
This is called laundering or washing the money. It is a myriad strategy, often complex, among which principally involves banking the proceeds from criminal activities, to moving same for investment purposes, tax payment, and other similar apparent initiatives, seemingly legitimate.
This explains why such legislation as the (AML/CTF) becomes necessary, because it establishes the legal framework for the nation’s law enforcement authorities and judicial system to effectively take action against all forms of money-launderers, plugging the necessary loopholes, inclusive also of those who seek to finance acts of terrorism.
And since this offence largely arises out of transnational crime, there will also be provision for working closely with other jurisdictions in the pursuit of those guilty of such an offence.
There is no opposition party, despite adhering to the tradition of adversarial politics, that has refused support of its particular State’s efforts to enact such legislative safeguards. Sister CARICOM States, Trinidad and Tobago and Belize are two classical cases where their respective opposition parties put aside political differences and supported such a Bill’s legislative passage through their parliaments. In the Twin-island Republic’s experience, both sides of the House of Representatives worked through the night so as to complete the process.
But here we have the unfortunate tragedy of two parties that, despite their individual public affirmations as to the necessity of such a Bill requiring their support, have not transformed such into the desired end-product of supporting its passage through the National Assembly.
It has been an amazing scenario, unbelievable anywhere in the region especially, given the scale of such intransigence as displayed by the opposition parties, as the country and people that it professes to love, are now going to be further blacklisted.
How does one explain this painful and disrespectful occurrence to a country, the government of which has, since 1992, done so much for its restoration to economic and financial viability and international respect?
How contradictory it has been for APNU to have refused support for the Bill, under the guise of wanting to make amendments; wasted extremely valuable time before presenting same, then suddenly shifting the goalpost to a position that its support for legislation will be had in exchange for assent of previously un-assented Bills. Its smaller opposition colleague, the AFC, initially offered its support, in exchange for the National Procurement Commission, and then suddenly announced the SHOCKER: That they want the same demands as APNU!
This recent position clearly exposes both opposition parties outright waste-of-time tactics, pretending amendments. It leads inevitably to the conclusion that appending the conditions meant that there was really no problem with the Bill from the onset, and that it ought to have  been legislated ever since, with their wholehearted support.
Couple this with the very late submission of the Amendments, which CFAT advisor, Mr Roger Hernandez warned are risky, because of their potential to make an already compliant Bill non-compliant.
Here, OBSERVER emphasises, presents the Parliamentary Opposition for what they have been comprehensively doing for this entire Tenth Parliament thus far: Sabotaging the national interest. Any lesser description of its action is tantamount to being passive at a moment when the utmost condemnation must be voiced: ALL GUYANA WANTS THE BILL LEGISLATED, NOW!