A bid to distract from the elections?

THE EDITOR: The Minister of National Security and economists believe in the theory that the introduction of the new $100 bill will aid in the battle against money related crimes.

The fact is that it is a security risk in itself to be going to the bank with old hundred-dollar bills to have them exchanged, especially in these “wild wild west” times when it seems that everybody has a gun. People will be at the mercy of criminals.

Secondly, citizens are being told that there is a limit that can be exchanged or even deposited, which is way lower than what is being said by the banks publicly.

This leads to the other point of why bring this level of anxiety and discomfort to an already stressed-out public?

I am sure there are thousands of people panicking about the prospect of losing their hard-earned savings.

Why would the Government impose such a strict deadline? Why must the innocent pay for the guilty white-collar criminals?

Have the authorities taken into consideration that there are undocumented migrants living here for years with money saved and have no bank account?

Would their money become useless? Would they be considered as criminals? Or would the Government grant them a reprieve to put their paperwork in order?

I hope the real agenda for this harsh move is not to distract the population from the recent local government elections in an attempt to break a perceived momentum against the Government’s popularity.

There are so many unanswered questions about this move, but the convenient answer is that it is being done for national security reasons.

WASIM ALI

Curepe