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Eureka! Eureka! Stabroek News discovers the death of Guyana

Nov 27, 2018 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

On Friday, I got stuck in really horrible traffic that was created by the unadulterated asininity of the Ministry of Public Infrastructure (see my Sunday last column). I normally read the print version of the two newspapers I buy – KN and SN – early in the morning, but I didn’t last Friday. There were many things to be done that morning; a priority was my wife’s dentist appointment.
I came home after stuck for hours in idiotic traffic. Then I read the newspapers. I could not believe what I was seeing in the editorial of that day in Stabroek News. It was a critical denunciation of the mistreatment by commercial banks of the ordinary man and woman. This editorial appeared three years after I did several columns on these horror stories, many of which were derived from sad letters I read in the Stabroek News itself.
You know, this country is tragic, but I keep on writing because it is so amusing that the laughter helps to make your day. I look at my country and its people and I know they are all leaving; who are here will leave soon, and still I laugh at Guyana. When I pen these columns, I don’t ever think that others will see the insanity that has enveloped this nation and try to save Guyana. But at the back of my mind, I know one day another voice will come up, but when it does it will be too late.
I have plugged away for three consecutive years at the sadistic mistreatment of small customers by all the commercial banks. The stories were so cruel that it should have moved the media and the government big wigs a long time ago. I cannot help asking Stabroek News why three years after. People began to write about their plights years ago.
When you hear about what the commercial banks are doing and how careless and reckless the Bank of Guyana and the Finance Ministry behave in this situation, it leaves you so eager to leave this country behind. I interviewed the people who monitor the anti-money laundering law and they told me the law does not say anything about an envelope with an address as the required proof of address. I read the law. It doesn’t.
I complained to the Bank of Guyana that the banks are doing nonsense by requiring persons to produce an envelope as a definite requirement of proof of address. After the publication of my column denouncing this atrocity, I remember the day well. Senior Bank of Guyana official, Joseph Lall called me. I was driving and I got the call when I was at the junction of Camp and New Market Streets. Lall said the Governor spoke to Republic Bank and an envelope is not required.
The next week, I got a complaint about the envelope requirement. I then did a follow up column on whether the Governor misled me or the bank misled the Governor. The envelope edict is still alive at all banks and the post office now has got into the act. To post a parcel, you must produce an envelope with your address on it. This is not legal. It is complete ignorance of the anti-money laundering law.
A group of persons agreed to finance a writ in court to stop the post office from imposing this draconian rule. The lawyer I consulted (the former Chancellor, Carl Singh’s son) told me something that makes sense. He said a writ could only be filed if someone goes to the post office with the parcel and has the imposition thrown at them. So if you are reading this and you are going to send a parcel, please call me when the post office does its nonsense. I will make contact with lawyers immediately. My cell is 614-5927. My email is [email protected].
Let me leave you with a description of how the banks are ignorant of what is in the law. My wife has an account since 1984 with a certain bank. She worked all her life honestly and saved her money. We have a joint account. Your normal ATM card limits you to $200,000. So we went to take out another card that has a million-dollar ceiling.
The bank told my wife that she cannot get the card because she is not officially employed. I said the card is based on her savings, which were legitimately earned. They said that is the law. I went and read the law. There is nothing like that in the law. The Finance Minister will hear from me soon. It is my right to say I do not respect him as Finance Minister.

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