Opposition’s clandestine connections…Rohee must explain his failings before he smears others- Felix

Feb 06, 2014 News

A Partnership for National Unity’s (APNU) shadow Minister of Home Affairs and former Top Cop Winston Felix says Minister Clement Rohee should do some introspection instead of smearing the Opposition.

APNU shadow Minister of Home Affairs Winston Felix

He was referring to the recent comments made by the Home Affairs Minister linking the Opposition with drugs and criminal elements because of what he (Rohee) stated is their non support of the passage of the Anti Money Laundering and Countering of the Financing of Terrorism (AMLCFT) legislation and the Opposition’s actions of walking out of the Parliamentary Select Committee that was tasked with reviewing the said legislation.
According to Felix, Rohee must look at his own role as Minister of Home Affairs against the backdrop of the burdening drug problem that exists locally and the fact that not “one drug arrest has been convicted since he became Minister of Home Affairs from August 2006 to now… and that is one of the reasons why a no confidence motion was passed against the Minister.”
Felix questioned “if he knows that the Opposition is involved with drug dealers then how is he leading his Ministry to unmask those who are really and truly involved, rather than paint brush it? His Ministry, through intelligence gathering and through information sharing should have been able to unmask all Opposition people who he claims is involved in crime or drug trafficking, so Rohee’s statement is useless and is more in support of the inefficiencies of the Ministry of Home Affairs.”
The APNU shadow Minister said that Rohee is jumping to conclusions by saying that they (APNU) are not supportive of the AML CFT legislation. He is adamant that although his party is supportive of the legislation, they have found deficiencies that they want corrected in the old Bill such as the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) not properly established.
Felix said that more input in necessary to make our own Bills effective because even “if you pass the current AML legislation that is being “imposed” by the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) you still don’t have the financial institutions to deal with all of those issues and that is what we want ;a proper functioning FIU, properly staffed, properly resourced, with proper Parliamentary oversight. Those are the things we are looking for… we are not against AML, as a matter of fact we see it as complementary to the drug fight.”
He called on Rohee to explain his failings “before he calls names and smear other people or other political opponents without any proper evidence to support these vicious allegations” said Felix.
The former Top Cop stressed that Rohee has a lot to do to make inroads into drug trafficking in Guyana, “we have had last year a large quantity of cocaine found in a sawmill operating out of the interior and the East Bank. They arrested a large number of people but you know what, everybody went free because nobody has been charged, all they have is the cocaine and they have not dealt with the problem. These are issues Rohee must focus on and he needs to build credible narcotic sections both in the police force and CANU [Customs Anti Narcotics Unit] to deal effectively with these matters whenever they are uncovered.”
Felix stressed that the fact that a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is absent in Guyana is another typical indicator “that the government is not interested in adding muscle to the local drug enforcement agency.”
With respect to the Opposition walking out of this hearing of the Committee, he said the action was taken because of the position taken by the Chairperson of the Committee Gail Teixeira. “One position was passed and she was coming with a motion to counter that motion… what are you intending to create?” He questioned.
He stressed that the decision had nothing to do with what Rohee said about the private sector and media being present at the hearing of the Committee.