Dear Editor,
The AFC must be commended for initiating this courageous balking of the PPP political bull in a china shop antic with the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering of Financing Terrorism Act (AMLCFTA). Again, it distinguished itself from the slothful APNU just as it did on the Linden electricity tariff issue. However, the AFC faces political self-impalement if it continues with this horse-trading with the PPP seeking concessions when the APNU horse, which started late as usual, has now firmly bolted the barn. APNU will not support the PPP in passing the AMLCFTA, leaving only the PPP and AFC at the table. It is time the AFC gets out of the game before the game gets it. The AFC’s act of political tit for tat is now a worn gambit with the APNU’s departure from the fray, and the AFC could imperil its political future by playing the wrong hand with the wrong crowd if it continues to dialogue with the PPP in order to seek concessions, which will inevitably not materialize.
For a party teeming with legal minds, the AFC must know its first demand for the President to sign into law the Fiscal Management and Accountability (Amendment) Bill and the Former Presidents (Facilities and Other Benefits) Bill is not attainable under current constitutional constraints. Because the President blocked and rejected those bills, there is a six-month moratorium imposed before these bills can be brought again before the President unless two-thirds of the National Assembly passes the bills. Well, the AFC and PPP combined do not form two-thirds of the National Assembly. Therefore, the only concession the AFC could get on this front from the PPP is a promise and a PPP promise is as good as a resounding default. So, for the AFC to continue this masquerade is to corner itself strategically since it will continue to negotiate on an issue from which it cannot extract any immediately redeemable national or political value.
The other aspect to the AFC’s demand is the establishment of the Public Procurement Commission. This is achievable before the looming May 27 deadline, but it is impossible to see how with APNU’s pullout from the process any viable consensus will be attainable in the near future. The PPP, already strangled with the opposition’s scissors on its budgetary spending, is deathly afraid of constituting the Procurement Commission, which will further deflate its ability to mastermind its runaway fiscal profligacy. Again, the AFC’s continued frolic on the Special Committee with the PPP on the AMLCFTA is strategically unproductive, politically sapping and unlikely to bear any tangible fruit. To make matters worse, the PPP is now trapped in a position of rendering promises as it cannot constitutionally and practically accomplish any of the AFC’s proposals (excellent on paper) by the May 27 deadline.
The recurring phantasmagoria of PPP rule in the past 20 years has been the legacy of broken promises and unending deceit in this regard. Simply, the PPP cannot be trusted and it has destroyed the very institution of political trust with its shameful antics in the past 20 years. This is a political entity that secretly restored the budget cuts last year and has palpably failed to address some of the key concerns that triggered the disaster in Linden. This is an entity that wails in one breath and then vituperates in the other and exactly as it is imploring the opposition to support it, it is lambasting the same opposition with miasmic virulence.
There is no benefit to the AFC continuing this farcical dance with the PPP. None of its demands can be achieved and even if they were attainable, the PPP would have stymied them the very day after imposing them. The AFC has to realize as APNU has that the PPP and the opposition are woefully inept at policing financial crimes in Guyana, from money laundering to corruption to siphoning off the nation’s wealth. Frankly, even if the Procurement Commission is constituted today and the two bills are passed tomorrow, Guyana under the PPP lacks the apparatus, enforcement mechanisms, detection capability, prosecutorial vigilance and political will to fix the problem non-passage of the AMLCFTA will eventually correct. The opposition badly needs help in this area and if it knows what is good for it, it will use this opportunity to get the world’s most powerful nations to do what Guyana is clearly incapable of doing. Nothing will bring the PPP to heel more than the intense scrutiny of its reckless borrowing sprees. It will have to name investors in projects, unlike its continued dastardly Marriott silence. It will have to disclose financial details to international agencies and foreign governments. The PPP will have to improve its systems in monitoring money laundering and financial crimes. The people of Guyana will get greater transparency and accountability from the PPP out of its rush to regain credibility. Compliance systems will have to be revamped. There is no political risk to the AFC in abandoning the PPP as nothing could be done to save the PPP from its own manufactured demise. Guyana will be better off with a blacklisted PPP for now. Less access to foreign funds to fund its orgy of reckless spending and corruption will force the PPP to radically adjust its approach to the use of taxpayers’ money. This is a win-win for Guyana. Patriotism is the last refuge of vagabonds. It is no wonder the PPP now drapes itself with the flag on this burning issue when the PPP knew at the moment the President refused to sign the opposition bills, the AMLCFTA would face this backlash from the opposition. This is the kind of senseless bullyism, and reckless decision-making that degrades the PPP at every turn. The PPP made its coffin on this issue and it must lie willingly in it.
Yours faithfully,
M Maxwell
