A crucial test for APNU/AFC

As if their partisan anti-national posturings that have to date frustrated Guyana’s single biggest economic development project, the Amaila hydropower scheme, are not enough, the opposition alliance of APNU and AFC now seem bent on placing further burden on the Guyanese people by stubbornly misusing a one-seat parliamentary majority to block enactment of the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering of the Financing of Terrorism (Amendment) Bill.
They continue to maintain their immature political footwork, consistent with pitiful opposition to the PPP/C-led government. Even, that is, in the face of reasoned pleas and initiatives from the leading private sector and other civic society organizations, and the independent efforts by the foreign  diplomatic representatives of governments accredited to Guyana.
What makes the APNU/AFC immature posturings all the more tragic for the Guyanese people, is that they continue to reveal a surprising level of ignorance in their opposition to the ‘anti-money laundering and countering financing of terrorism’ legislation.
It is as if they are unmindful that its restructuring must satisfy, or confirm, to what’s required by the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF), and that it is NOT a matter of just satisfying the Guyana Government.
It is, therefore, in Guyana’s national interest that the Bill satisfies also the requirements of the CFATF. At stake also is the combined opposition’s own moral and political integrity, as well as their depth of commitment to Guyana.
The leadership of APNU, in particular, should therefore understand by now that the personal political bitterness of a frustrated former Finance Minister, in the person of Carl Greenidge, is clouding his ability to provide the objective competent advice necessary for a matured response to resolve the lingering, dangerous impasse.
Ultimately, however, it is the collective matured responses by the APNU/AFC coalition that could help in ensuring approval of this most vital legislation to further advance Guyana’s future social and economic progress.
Time will tell. Hopefully, the parliamentary opposition may yet surprise us by acting responsibly. It’s a crucial test of opposition leadership.

Taken from the Guyanachronicle