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THE ANTI-MONEY LAUNDERING LAW WAS UNDESERVING OF PRIORITY

Jul 01, 2015 Letters

Dear Editor,
I find it surprising that the APNU/AFC coalition has decided to fiddle around with this anti-money laundering law in the same way the PPP/C did.
I find it even more surprising that the APNU/AFC government would want to make this law its signal legislative achievement at the dawn of its ascendency to office.
My attitude to the money laundering issue is similar to that of the late Jamaican writer and columnist Morris Cargill. He was reported once to have said that if Caribbean countries have any sense they would specialize in money laundering rather than pass laws to ban the practice. He went on to say that the United States insistence that these laws are necessary to protect us from money laundering is the height of “cynical absurdity”.
Indeed the very concept of “dirty money” is an American creation. For a poor country like Guyana, we need every cent we can get to help our economic development.
These anti-money laundering laws are foisted on Caribbean countries at the behest of the United States and other powerful countries in the developed world.
In passing these laws, APNU/AFC is doing nothing more than following the pack. But at least it could have spared us the grand talk about its determination to put people in jail for handling suspicious transactions. There is no economic benefit to us that the law in itself would cause to materialize. Our people will have no more money in their pockets because of it.
All the advantages that APNU/AFC legislators spoke about in championing this law are beside the point.  Only more spending will cause our economy to turn.
Overall, this anti-money laundering law is symbolically out of place. APNU/AFC should have selected a law at this early stage that would have more appropriately herald its legislative agenda going forward, a law that directly addresses domestic concerns. The anti-money laundering law is just a stark reminder of the power of foreign governments and international institutions in dictating our affairs.
WESLEY HICKEN

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