I HAVE been a columnist for all the major newspapers in Guyana since 1988. In those three and a half decades, more than half the population was not born. In those three and a half decades, I cannot recall which topic I have laboured on more than others, but I do know the private commercial banks have featured quite a lot over the decades.

I am writing about the banks once more because of my experience at GBTI on Monday. I start with one central point which is at the core of my ideological belief on the practice of politics in the world.

There are international laws designed by the hegemonic nations in the West that are imposed on developing nations to ensure they do not emerge as a competitor to the dominant position the West holds in the global economy.

I can cite three such examples. The World Trade Organization that replaced the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs favours the West in the global economy. Under the WTO rules, subsidies cannot be placed on industries in any country. But the European Union subsidises its farmers.

The demands for laws in the Third World by the United States against drug trafficking were done in the interest of the US, but those laws have had deleterious results in the sociology of developing states.

A sitting Columbian President, 40 years ago, advised the US to start the war on drugs at home rather than coercing South American states to do it for the US.

President Desmond Hoyte had to implement the draconian anti-drug law in 1988 because it was a precondition for IMF assistance to the economy. That law in Guyana needs complete overhauling. Thirdly, there was the anti-money laundering legislation that the West demanded Third World countries accept. I believe that particular imposition was designed to keep the Third World at a disadvantage.

The anti-money laundering legislation, I firmly believe, has to be applied with respect to each country’s particularities, peculiarities, economic, cultural and sociological conditions.

If the West is asking developing countries to design laws to safeguard the world economy from money laundering, then the West has a right to do so but the developing countries themselves have to apply such laws within the specific conditions prevailing in the country.

I firmly believe that in Guyana the anti-money laundering act is not understood by the banks, and is applied too broadly and in this lop-sided approach, the banks are devastating working people, small savers and the small business class. If in the next ten years, the banks do not apply the law in a commonsensical way, those categories mentioned above will die out.

I assert for the umpteenth time in these columns – money laundering is the movement of money. Money has to move for laundering to take place and most important, the sum is what triggers the red flag. My experience at GBTI on Monday has left me depressed about the future of the class I fought for all my life. Cheddi Jagan must be turning in his grave.

I went to GBTI to bank a very small amount. The lady said that when I started the account (which was over 40 years ago) my salary was $99,000. I was depositing a small amount after years and years of inactivity. But it was above $99,000, therefore, I have to show proof of how I got a sum over and above $99,000. You will not believe how much I was banking.

No sane person would look at that amount I was putting in and see a red flag. I repeat once again- commonsense has to inform the commercial banks as to the amount of money that would draw suspicion. How could a million dollars draw a red flag in an account that has not moved for decades and which has a pittance in it?

This is commonsense man! This is also asininity! In the Guyanese economy, at the rate of one American dollar to a $210 Guyanese, how can any bank see suspicion in the deposit of a million dollars?

There is a restaurant in Guyana where a beef stake is $72,000 and a bottle of wine fetches a price of $300,000. Wealthy people in this country spend millions on their weekend escapades. There are private hospitals in this country where a million dollars would be far below what is required for hospitalisation. Ten years, ago, I paid $400,000 for cataract surgery.

I repeat for the umpteenth time in this column of mine, the commercial banks are devastating small depositors. The complaints I get are heart-breaking. These stories constitute an evil in this country. If Janet and Cheddi Jagan were alive what would they say about the working classes in today’s Guyana?