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EDITORIAL
GUYANA CHRONICLE Monday June 22 2015
GUYANA
A most welcome intervention --should it bear fruit
ANOTHER businessman has been shot as bandits robbed a Western Union outlet in Duncan Street, Georgetown. It was reported that two men on Saturday morning pounced on a three-compartment store on Duncan Street, Newtown where a Western Union outlet and Internet Café are also housed, and robbed the owner of that business before shooting him in the leg. “According to the Police, the incident occurred around 10:20 hrs when two men, one of whom was armed with a handgun, entered the business place and held up the proprietor Gordon Nestor, 52 years, and staff member Fernandes Ally, 18 years, of East Ruimveldt, Georgetown, and took away over $400,000 before escaping in a waiting motor car,” read the report in yesterday’s edition of one of the local dailies. What is frightening, however, is that although the businessman had cooperated with the bandits’ request and handed over the cash, the one carrying the weapon still shot him. Entrepreneurs acquire their capital, sometimes by way of loans, then invest in business ventures. One has to garner a lot of courage and will to gamble on investments becoming viable and profitable. It takes a while before seed capital is recouped before profitability can be gauged. There are also overheads that have to be factored into the enterprise at many levels, not least staffing components, all of which necessitate the
generation of funds from somewhere if the business is not immediately successful. It can be a tremendous risk to stake all one’s savings, then borrow money to boot, to establish a business, because business ventures are almost never immediately successful. Then, in the midst of a businessman’s struggles to survive in the competitive world of a free-market economy to the point where he reaches a stage where he feels he is relatively safe and has established an economic safety zone, along come persons who have no intention of creating wealth for themselves through hard labour and sacrifices, but whose sole intention is to get rich quick by preying on those who acquired their wealth and resources by legitimate means. In the process, not only are they terrorized, but their lives, including the lives of their children, are also threatened, their homes and places of business ransacked, ensuing in much damage while the invaders search for what they perceive to be hidden loot. The destruction often left in the wake of such criminal forays is many-pronged, and include inability to repay loans, to pay staff, whose lives would also be negatively impacted in myriad ways, and oftentimes inability to recover the impetus of their business endeavours, leading to the depreciation of their lifestyles and the quality of their lives. Then there are the instances where people are killed during these robberies, which generate another level of
incalculable loss. So when a bandit carts off the takings in a heist, he leaves in his wake much destruction and trauma, which may never be resolved and/or healed. There are too many instances and too many lives that have been destroyed because of the predators in society, and it has assumed an imperative of immediate need for this scourge in society to be effectively eradicated. The assurance by Security Minister, Khemraj Ramjattan that his ministry will adopt a zero-tolerance approach to criminal activities was welcomed with much hope by the citizenry of the land that bandits who attack and rob, injure and even kill law-abiding citizens for their own property would be hunted down and dealt with by the full force of the law. But even with the help of surveillance cameras mounted around the premises, the police seem helpless to catch the criminals in most instances, so there is urgent need for the government to devise more effective mechanisms to enable the law-enforcement bodies to fight crime in the country. However, discussions during a courtesy call by U.S. Charge d’Affaires, Bryan Hunt on Attorney-General and Legal Affairs Minister Basil Williams, promises were made by Hunt that the two countries will work closer on “improving criminal justice, and bringing to account those who are guilty of crimes.” The fructification of this promise heralds a new dimension in crime-fighting in Guyana, if the immense resources, both human and otherwise, of the USA are made available to Guyana’s law-enforcement sector. The current escalation of criminal activity in Guyana needs to be addressed with immediacy, if the private sector and indeed the average citizen of the land, are to feel safe to pursue their undertakings, with full confidence that they are secure from the criminal brotherhood who are prone to acquiring by force, and with impunity, the wherewithal of the law-abiding citizens of the land.
National Assembly sitting this week to cap former Presidents benefits --AML/CFT Amendments, Financial Legislative Reform on agenda
ALMOST one year after the National Assembly last met to conduct the people’s business, Members of Parliament will this week deliberate on a number of critical pieces of legislation that are expected to be tabled for first reading before an eventual debate and vote. This is in addition to a Motion adopting the policies of President David Granger, as adumbrated on the occasion of the Ceremonial Opening of the First Session of the
Eleventh Parliament of Guyana. That Motion is scheduled to be moved by Vice-President, Foreign Affairs Minister Carl Greenidge, and seconded by Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo. Attorney-General Basil Williams is slated to present two pieces of legislation for consideration, namely the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (Amendment) Bill 2015 and a Constitution
(Amendment) Bill. The latter amendment is meant to provide financial autonomy for a number of constitutional bodies. Finance Minister Winston Jordan is also slated to table for consideration the Fiscal Management and Accountability (Amendment) Bill and the Local Government (Amendment) Bill.