–cites Singapore example

FORMER health minister and Guyana’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Office in Geneva, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy has drawn sharp comparisons between Guyana and Singapore’s parliamentary standards as the National Assembly prepares to elect a new Leader of the Opposition (LOO) at its first business sitting tomorrow, Monday, January 26.
In a public commentary issued this week, Ramsammy referenced developments in Singapore, where lawmakers recently stripped Opposition Leader Pritam Singh of his title after he was convicted of lying under oath to a parliamentary committee.
While Singh remains a member of parliament and leader of his party, the Workers’ Party, Singapore’s legislature voted to remove him from the opposition leadership post in what Ramsammy described as a defence of parliamentary integrity.
Ramsammy contrasted that action with the current situation in Guyana, where Opposition Members of Parliament are expected to elect United States Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC)-sanctioned and embattled businessman Azruddin Mohamed as Leader of the Opposition, despite his ongoing legal battle in the courts over an extradition request from the United States and his status under international sanctions.
“Singapore acted to protect the integrity of its parliament. In Guyana, we are about to do the opposite,” Ramsammy said in his commentary.
Speaker of the National Assembly Manzoor Nadir recently announced that the meeting to appoint the Leader of the Opposition will be held at 10:00 hrs tomorrow ahead of the presentation of Budget 2026 later in the day.
The sitting will mark the first business meeting of the 13th Parliament, which was inaugurated on November 3, 2025.
Ramsammy argued that the Speaker acted prudently by waiting until the first business sitting to convene the meeting for the election of the opposition leader, given the extraordinary circumstances surrounding the presumptive nominee, and the pending court proceedings.
“The Constitution does not stipulate a specific timeline for this appointment,” Ramsammy noted, adding that the Speaker had a responsibility to avoid undermining the integrity of the legislature while still acting within the law.
He rejected claims made by Mohamed and some commentators that the delay amounted to a constitutional breach, describing those arguments as “without merit” in light of the exceptional situation.
According to Ramsammy, Speaker Nadir sought to “walk between the raindrops” by neither violating the Constitution nor rushing the process, while hoping that the courts would have resolved the matter before Parliament was convened.
However, with the legal proceedings still unresolved, Ramsammy said Guyana now faces the prospect of installing an opposition leader who is under U.S. indictment and subject to international sanctions.
He described that possibility as “a disgrace”, and said it would damage the credibility of the country’s parliamentary system.
“It is scandalous that opposition MPs, fully aware of the circumstances, are prepared to swear in a man facing serious criminal charges by the U.S. government,” Ramsammy said.
He also criticised the broader political implications of the move, arguing that it stands in sharp contrast to international parliamentary norms, and weakens public confidence in the integrity of the National Assembly.
The election of the new Leader of the Opposition is expected to take place before the start of formal parliamentary business on Monday.
On June 11, 2024, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced sanctions on one of Guyana’s wealthiest families, Nazar Mohamed (Nazar) and his son, Azruddin Mohamed, their company, Mohamed’s Enterprise, and a Guyanese government official, Mae Thomas, for their roles in public corruption.
Based on reports, Azruddin and Mohamed’s Enterprise evaded Guyana’s tax on gold exports, conspired to commit wire fraud, mail fraud and money laundering, smuggled drugs and defrauded the Guyanese government of tax revenues by under-declaring their gold exports to Guyanese authorities.
Between 2019 and 2023, Mohamed’s Enterprise omitted more than 10,000 kilograms of gold from import and export declarations, and avoided paying more than $50 million in duty taxes to the Guyana Government.
The US prosecutors are seeking to have the businessmen forfeit property, including a $5.3 million shipment of gold bars seized at a Miami airport in 2024.