(Eyewitness)There’s the old story of Emperor Nero fiddling while his capital Rome was burnt to the ground. It’s become THE object lesson for talking about misplaced priorities. If the opposition keep up with the nonsense they’re going on with the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AMLCFT) Bill, it’s highly likely they’re going to bump Nero off the list of champion thumb-twiddlers.

With every business group in sight explaining how the sanctions have already begun to bite on financial transactions, you’d think the opposition might get the hint that they can’t be playing Russian Roulette with the nation’s economic health, wouldn’t you? But not with this opposition, which have delayed the bill that the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) – a world body sponsored by G-20 – requires. Let us count the ways.

First, they said they hadn’t been informed about the request for tightening up our legislation by the Caribbean reps of FATF. So, they were informed. Then they said they had to study the legislation. Then they said it had to go to a select committee. Then they said they had to consult their “stakeholders”. And by the time, the matter came back to the floor before the deadline, they said they needed more time.

So the sanctions kicked in. Then we were given some more time to get our house in order before the real big-time sanctions were unleashed. “Back to the select committee!!” the opposition thundered! But then came the holidays (got to have that specially “spiced” black cake, don’t we?) and that was that for a long while. But the deadline loomed closer.

Now that we’re back with parliamentary business (apart from the dinners that set us back $1.7 million every sitting – these fellas can put it away!) but the opposition’re still “consulting”. And we have no meetings and no proposals from the opposition as to what they find objectionable with any part of the legislation. But the leader of the opposition still says the February deadline, before the guillotine drops on our collective necks, can still be made.

Guyanese, in general, and the business community, in particular, have to stop treating these guys with kid’s gloves. If the opposition can’t appreciate how important the speed of completing financial transactions is important in today’s globalised world, then they’ve got to be told in no uncertain terms. We suggest giving them a dose of their own medicine: protests!!

Your Eyewitness respectfully submits that the Private Sector Commission, the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry, all the various other chambers of commerce and any citizen whose remittance has been delayed, sashay down with their pickets in front of the Office of the Opposition.