More than 60,000 Guyanese may have to go to Switzerland

Mar 04, 2009 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Where are the pension monies for over sixty thousand Guyanese that was invested in CLICO? No one knows that at the time of writing. By the time this newspaper hits the stands we may know the answer but for know the argument herein is valid. I doubt we will get answers in the coming months.
Those would-be pensioners (over 60,000 including me) are in a deep, deep part of the Atlantic Ocean. We were told that the pensions were invested in the Bahamas. But the lead headlines for both independent dailies yesterday quoted the Bahamian Prime Minister as saying that he has seen no such indication. Is that money in Switzerland?
Before we go on, let me say a word about Switzerland. Will President Barack Obama do something about this country? Switzerland can be described as a rogue territory. It thrives on earning an income from its banking industry. But its banking industry is one of life’s most Byzantine processes.
Swiss banking laws are more secretive than the operations of the world’s secret services. It took decades for the Philippine government to get Swiss authorities to move against the billions that its former dictator, Marcos, had stashed there. The Duvalier family has money in Switzerland that is still to be repatriated to poor Haiti that needs it. The Pakistani Government in the nineties did not succeed in persuading the Swiss to investigate the Swiss holdings of the late Benazir Bhuto and her husband, who is now President of Pakistan (Lord help that country with that man that is now in power). The private media in Russia continues to insist that Prime Minister Putin has dirty money in Switzerland. A leaked CIA report to the New York Times has supported the Russian media on this story.
The reason why Switzerland would not open up its vaults is because the very secrecy is what it thrives on. Swiss politicians would remain stubborn because they fear that if they open up, then the depositors may move elsewhere. This explains why hundreds (yes hundreds) of ex-Third World dictators have illegal holdings in that country.
There was only one time when Switzerland felt threatened and it was because President Bush insisted that either they hand over the funds or US will weaken their banking structure given the investment Swiss banks have in New York. It had to do with gold that the Nazi psychopaths took from the Jews and hid in the Swiss faults.
The gold was traced to Swiss accounts. At first, Swiss bankers were defiant, but Bush stood his ground, and they handed the stack over to those survivors of the Holocaust that had perfect claims on it.
I honestly believe that powerful politicians in this country have money in Switzerland. I was jogging with Khemraj Ramjattan and the issue came up. He said he is definite in his knowledge that at least one such person has a Swiss account.
So, are the pension funds locked away in Switzerland? If they were not invested in the Bahamas, then where are they? I hope I am wrong but I have this suspicion that the mischief has already taken place. The more intrigue that comes out of the CLICO collapse, the more a certain kind of nastiness gets obfuscated. I am asking my media colleagues to stay on the tale and tail of the NBS buy out of CLICO’s share in the Berbice Bridge.
I believe that certain powerful politicians knew CLICO was sinking rapidly and to collect their hundreds of millions, the NBS was used as a deus ex machina. The Opposition parties, human rights groups and all the major stakeholders have to focus on the NBS purchase of CLICO’s Berbice bridge shares. It is the key to unlocking one of the most unpatriotic conspiracies that has ever taken place in the West Indies.
Certain people helped their friends to recover their vast wealth from CLICO while over 60,000 potential pensioners may lose their future. My figure here of 60,000 is a conservative number. I think it is much more.
This is a testing time for the Parliamentary Opposition. Once they keep the loss of money in CLICO, they will obscure from the view of the Guyanese people, the role of this anti-patriotic conspiracy.
The future of a huge number of poor people, hard working class citizens were deliberately jeopardised in favour of a tiny wealthy elite with the right connections. Guyana is in its worst crisis since the deadly killings of the sixties. All Guyanese must now struggle to bring into being the Velvet Revolution. It must happen right now!

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More than 60,000 Guyanese may have to go to Switzerland

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