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The result of partisan politics

Nov 09, 2013 Editorial

When stubborn partisan politics puts a country at risk then one must wonder in whose interest the politicians are working. In this case there was the anti-money laundering legislation which had been in the making for a number of years.
Guyana has always had anti-money laundering legislation but those pieces that made up the legislation were found to be porous. In short, if applied, they could not have helped the authorities secure convictions.
A long time ago the very legislation mandated that commercial banks report all suspicious transactions. This was hardly done and in any case, the Finance Ministry which houses the Financial Intelligence Unit simply did not have the staff to undertake the investigation. The authorities then explained that the Unit would simply investigate and pass the findings over to the police.
It must be that there were no suspicious transactions because there were no reports to the police. We do know that one banker once said that such was the porous nature of the intelligence that if he were to report any suspicious transaction in the morning he would be dead by the time he leaves for home at noon.
Since then Guyana has been talking about strengthening the legislation but the nation never knew that the new clauses were being fashioned by people outside the country and would be handed to Guyana for tabling in the National Assembly unchanged.  That must have been the case because when the Bill was taken from the Parliamentary Select Committee to which it had been sent for modification, and tabled in the National Assembly the government adopted a position that caused the Bill to die. At least that is the contention of the parliamentary opposition.
There were moves to have the Bill sent back to the Parliamentary Special Select Committee because everyone recognized the importance of the legislation at this time. One can understand the refusal on the part of the government to allow for this course of action. It knows that unless the Bill was passed at this time Guyana was bound to be blacklisted and it knew that any decision other than a ‘yes’ vote for the Bill would be of no use.
To the casual observer, this was allowed to go too far. There should have been discussions between the government and the parliamentary opposition for a very long time knowing the serious nature of this Bill. If the amendments sent to Guyana were the same sent to Jamaica then one must examine what went wrong in Guyana. Jamaica voted unanimously for the amendments to the anti-money laundering legislation.
There are those in the country who feel that Guyana wanted the Bill to fail but this should be debunked given the angry responses one got from the parliamentarians who were piloting the Bill. Having taken the decision, the parliamentary opposition now has time to sit back and either survey the wreckage of what is to become the Guyana financial situation or to gloat; having proven the government wrong about the harsh sanctions that would follow the failure of the National Assembly to pass the anti-money laundering Bill.
Yet one cannot help but ponder on the relationship that exists within the National Assembly. Most problems can be solved through dialogue but there seems to be a marked absence of this civilized course of action between the parliamentary political parties.
Instead, confrontation seems to be the hallmark of their relationship. Budget presentations have seen them failing to agree on issues to the extent that portions of budgets have been cut and the courts are now engaged in determining whether the parliamentary opposition has the right to cut the budgets. This has come about because the government has failed to involve the opposition in the budget preparations.
There is need for a new dispensation. There has always been a measure of hostility between the political parties dating back to the days when the respective leaders took strong positions and refused to budge. That continues to this day to the extent that everything is seen as an issue between ‘us’ and ‘them’. That may be responsible for the state the country is in at this time.

 

 

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