The root of Guyana’s parliamentary woes

May 23, 2013 Editorial

Guyana has been told that it stands to be punished to the point that it may not be able to even transfer money from the local commercial banks to buyers overseas. Indeed the world, particularly the United States, has not taken kindly to the fact that tons of money move across borders to fund operations that threaten global peace.
For some time now, the United States has been trying to curb this flow of money which increased in volume as the drug trade grew and expanded and as the United States drove the demand more money began to circulate outside the established forums. It is the same in many other countries particularly as the drug dealers reap the rewards of the sale of drugs.
Tracking paper money has never been easy so the drug dealer with his tons of money often avoided tax and declaration simply by avoiding the commercial banks. Transactions were done in cash, some of which purchased weapons from the underground and helped finance terrorist operations.
Up until September 11, 2001, the world was not pressured to implement stringent financial regulations. For example, the laws of Guyana allow a person to refrain from disclosing his source of income. And because of this it was difficult to make seizures in the wake of drug arrests, not that such attempts have not been tried.
Then came the worst attack that the United States ever suffered. At the same time it was faced with a growing number of drug addicts. It started to chase after the money that allowed these things to happen. In the end it has managed to persuade countries worldwide to tighten up on financial transactions and Guyana is no exception.
Guyana has until May 27 to present its amended legislation. All week the nation has been hearing about the possible blacklisting with its attendant pressures and ability to disrupt national life. We have heard that doing business with foreign countries could become a nightmare.
What seems to be worse is the foreign inflow from the donor agencies. We are told that the donors would not be too keen to release money to a country in which there is no financial accountability. The private sector is most fearful because they would not be able to enjoy hassle-free access goods and services overseas.
These frightening things caused the government to seek to get the necessary piece of legislation in place. Then came the madness in the National Assembly. One opposition party sought to hold the piece of anti-money laundering legislation to ransom—a threat that this party would vote against every piece of legislation that the government brings.
The other parliamentary party queried the haste with which the government was seeking to pass the piece of legislation and wondered whether mischief was not afoot. The piece of legislation has not been tabled in the National Assembly and when the deadline reaches, Guyana will not have the necessary anti-money laundering legislation that would signal this country’s intention to fight terrorism and the movement of illegal money.
So the country is in a bind. There is nothing to prevent the international community from blacklisting Guyana. However, the situation exposes many shortcomings in the political system; for one the government has not been as accommodating with the opposition as it should.
The problem with Guyana is that at all times there has been a majority parliament with the result that the government has always had its way. Opposition arguments, more often than not, fell on deaf ears. There was always rancor. Compromise was the exception.
Now that there is a minority parliament the government is still trying to fashion ways to function as a majority. It refuses to accept that in a democracy the majority is what dictates the needs of the country. That is why there is a separation of powers in relation to the judiciary, the executive and the legislature. It is this acceptance that is the root of all the parliamentary problems at this time.

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The root of Guyana’s parliamentary woes

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