GIVING power to bullyism by conceding to the terms of the bullies is rank cowardice; but while this can be acceptable to individuals in certain circumstances, when a nation’s very survival is threatened then the Head of that state has to stand firm against the oppressive forces.
And here one cannot help but remember Liberator of Guyana and Father of the Nation, Dr. Cheddi Jagan’s relegating the formidable IMF to insignificance when, upon attaining office in 1992, he reversed their PNC-implemented freeze on Public Servants’ wages and gave back teeth to labour unions; and former President Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo’s courageous stance on border issues and other threats to this nation’s sovereignty and national welfare, especially against the Draconian EPA that the powerful European Union was threatening to impose on CARICOM.

President Ramotar has proven true to the legacy of firm, courageous and caring leadership that is the legacy of Dr. Jagan and the PPP by rejecting the draconian terms by way of which the joint Opposition meant to wrest Governmental powers away from the PPP by withholding their support for the Anti-Money Laundering/Countering the Financing of Terrorism (Amendment) bill.

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 a majority of one seat, acquired with six votes, and today the ugly and venomous head of the PNC struck 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 refused to support the vital passage of the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) Bill.
Their power-drunk and vengeful grandstanding reached a level where their conditions for support of this vital bill 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 proposed 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.

The Opposition’s non-support of the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism 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 minimize 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.

But Guyana prevailed many times over the continuum of the horror inflicted on the nation by the PNC under the stewardship of successive PPP leaders. The witches’ brew concocted by the PNC/APNU/AFC combination, in this instance, cannot supersede the dynamics of the Cheddi Jagan legacy of compromising for peace, but standing firm against dictatorship and oppressive forces.

Kudos to President Ramotar for standing his ground. The nation stands with you, Sir!