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{
    "id": 124120,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/124120/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 308,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Shakeel",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 140,
        "legal_name": "Ahmed Shakeel Shabbir Ahmed",
        "slug": "shakeel-shabbir"
    },
    "content": "Thank you very much, Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, for giving me this opportunity. I stand to strongly support this Bill. The proceeds of crime and money laundering are not different from corruption. It is not that it came after 9/11, although people feel that this money laundering started when the so called war against terrorism started. The money laundering took root at the time of the Goldenberg Scandal when there were tonnes of money coming into the country, much of it was laundered to the extent that the inflation rate in this country was over 75 per cent, yet nothing happened. Now when it came up here, people start targeting communities and start targeting religions. Bad money is bad money and that is the end of it. A bad tree will always give bad fruits. This money laundering is a virus that must be stopped. It is a virus in our financial system. But I think we must go back to see what happened when everything was thrown open. There are some people who are here and who benefited greatly from the Goldenberg scandal. That was money laundering in its own truest form. The main thing was money laundering and we will not go back that way. Madam, Temporary Deputy Speaker, I would like the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance to kindly just hear what I want to say. As I said, when the Foreign Exchange Act was thrown open, nobody worried about where money was coming from; that is when the Goldenberg Scandal started. We need to reinstate a form of foreign exchange control. If there are genuine people who want to invest in this country, they will say that I am bringing you 10 million or 100 million dollars and here it is. This is where it is coming from; please record it because when I want to take it back out of the country, I will not have a problem. The difficult here is because any Tom, Dick and Harry can bring in money and take it out. Madam, Temporary Deputy Speaker, I sometimes receive money through the Money Gram and the Western Union. Because my name is Shakeel Ahmed or Ali, or Mohammed, it is always blocked. My small money that comes in is always blocked. Where? In the United States of America. So, we are wondering that the systems here, as it is happening, are hitting those people who are small and genuine transmitters of money. What is happening is that somebody comes with a billion dollars in here and gets away with it! As much as we thought that our financial foreign exchange control should be done away with, it is very important that it comes in. I want to state one thing and, I want to clearly say that I am a Muslim. I am not very informed or I am not an intellectual in the Muslim laws, but I know one thing, that the very tenets of Islam forbid money"
}