This is Guyana, no wrong is righted

Nov 13, 2013 Letters

Dear Editor,
The big news beyond our garbage situation is of course, the Opposition rejection of the Government’s proposal in the Anti Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Bill.
For us ordinary folks, the situation can be made quite simple. First, we need to note the heavy Government propaganda as I listened to President Ramotar at his Press Conference on Friday. The technique is as old as the hills; scare the people by telling them, the Opposition rejection of the Bill will suffocate citizens. Even my one media friend posed the hypothetical question.
The PPP government says that the amendments tabled by the PPP side in the National Assembly came from the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force and that the very amendments were given to the other Caribbean territories that required legislation – that Guyana seemed to be the only country in the Region that had a problem with the proposed amendment (Bill).0
Let us see this in its proper context. First, even PPP supporters I have spoken with in Queens, New York, Guyana and elsewhere admit that there is much “skullduggery” in high places. Second, the context – other Caribbean States and Parliament play by the rules- not so in Guyana.
Mr. Ramotar and his group have not yet come around to the fact that he has to behave accepting that his is a minority government, and it could not be business as usual.
Those who make references to our sister Caricom States must know that Guyana is unique; one is tempted to say, a wayward hamlet called a country. Anywhere else, statements made by an Attorney General would have forced his resignation, not so in Guyana.
A PPP Minister and a Bishop of the Christian Church say that if Jesus Christ came to Guyana, he would vote for the PPP. Anywhere else, he would be chased out of his Church and Cabinet. But this is Guyana.
Where else could a Roger Khan operate freely and publish a full page advertisement in 2009 and no investigation. Thank God for the Americans who nabbed him in Suriname, we assume, to overcome the protection of the Guyana’s State apparatus. This former King Pin is now behind bars.
Where else could a head of State defy the National Assembly? But this is Guyana. Where else could you find the brazen emasculation of the Local Government System but this is Guyana.
Burnham initiated one of the best National Insurance Schemes (NIS) in the Commonwealth, intended to benefit among others, the ordinary workers. This Government has lent the money out, massaged the scheme, so it is now in crisis and nobody is in jail. But this is Guyana.
Corruption is no secret but no big fish has been charged – But this is Guyana. Cocaine and other illegal drugs turn up everywhere, but nobody is in jail. The government must therefore know that the citizens and the Opposition need to see the President and Cabinet behave in a way to engender some degree of trust, not to bully and talk about re-examining their relation with the Opposition. Was this a veiled threat?
Has the Government not understood that they jettisoned the National Drug Strategic Master Plan – the British tried to help. The Anti-Money laundering Act was in our law books for thirteen years, but no big fish has been caught.
Since the PPP assumed office, we have had a series of corrupt contracts, we hear statements that contractors who underperform will be surcharge, so far, we have had not one instance. But this is Guyana.
You pay $200 to cross the Demerara Bridge but $4,000 to cross the Jagdeo Berbice bridge and millions stacked away.
No one is in jail- no one has repaid one cent for all of those incomplete and poorly executed works. How can a responsible Opposition in Parliament support a Bill with loopholes and where, unlike other government, exists a respect for time honoured protocol?
Mr. President we had great hopes in you – do not fail to restore some confidence in the Presidency.
Hamilton Green, J.P.

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