A Government Motion – before the Anguilla House of Assembly – to begin the process of acquiring the 178.03 acres of Crown Land, on which Cap Juluca Resort is situated, was set aside on Monday, August 27.
Chief Minister and Minister of Finance and Leader of Government Business, the Hon Hubert Hughes, asked for the Motion, the only agenda item on the Order Paper, to be postponed. He informed the Speaker, the Hon. Barbara Webster-Bourne, and the House, that he had done so in order to give a civil society group an opportunity to intervene in the dispute involving Mr. Charles Hickox and the Brilla Group.
It is to be noted that earlier in the day, Charles and Linda Hickox issued an hourly-repeated radio announcement warning about the consequences of the Government’s move to acquire the Cap Juluca property.
Rather than reading the Motion before the House, Chief Minister Hughes delivered a statement in which he spoke about the circumstances leading to its postponement. An unusual number of people turned up in the galleries of the House of Assembly for the occasion. Following is the text of the Chief Minister’s address for the national record:
“Today the House of Assembly is assembled here to deal with a Motion on the Order Paper in respect to the public acquisition of a hotel, Cap Juluca.
“I would like to make a statement in respect of things going forward. Cap Juluca, as you know, has been considered the flagship of theterritoryofAnguillafor many years. Everybody is concerned about its closure. The Government of Anguilla has received a letter from Mr. Charles Hickox that Cap Juluca is closed indefinitely. This is sad news for the whole country; for the banks; for social security; for the business premises; and, most importantly, for the employees of Cap Juluca.
“This morning history has been made. I received a telephone call from the Reverend Dr. Clifton Niles asking me if even at this late stage another try could be made, and that he would like to convene a meeting with me, and the Leaders of the Opposition, and Christian Council’s representatives in the form of the Right Reverend Bishop Errol Brooks, and Mr. Sutcliffe Hodge, representing collectivelycivil society group.
“Ever since my return from the United Kingdom, many years ago, I have been concerned that civil society plays no role in the life of this island. My experience in the United Kingdomwas that civil society plays a pivotal role in the determination of what the political directorate does in theUnited Kingdom. I had a bitter experience in 1999 when I tried to get civil society involved for what was happening then.
“Today, I am so happy that I said to the three-man delegation that I am very pleased to see civil society now, at long last, getting involved; and this was in the presence of the Honourable Leader of the Opposition, on the other side, and his other colleague member of the Opposition. We had a lengthy discussion and I explained to them why it was necessary for prompt and decisive action to be taken, considering the history of disputes by foreigners over our territory – Government’s territory isAnguilla’s territory. And foreigners have been fighting over Cap Juluca for many years in and out of court in the United States of America and also in Anguilla; and much of the earnings of Cap Juluca have been exhausted in litigation and the workers have hardly had an increase in their hourly payment for all those years.
“We have endeavoured over the past few months – as a matter of fact from the day I got in office on the 16th of February 2010 – the Executive Council has been meeting virtually every week to deal with the Cap Juluca situation – sometimes three/four times a week. We have had delegations come to protest against what was happening there in respect of the threat of closure. I have made several representations to the hotel to explain what our position was as a Government.
“When I received the notice that Cap Juluca is closed indefinitely, I did not know where to run because I felt we had made too much of an effort to ensure that the last thing that happens to Cap Juluca was closure. This sends shock waves throughout the tourism world as far asAnguilla’s tourism product is concerned.
“I have had situations where Starwood Capital who owns Viceroy – many months ago when they saw the threat to Cap Juluca – said we cannot afford for Cap Juluca to close so we are prepared to manage Cap Juluca on behalf of the Government of Anguilla. I have proposals from Mr.Rizzuto separately who made the same suggestion: we cannot allow Cap Juluca to close.For anybody to suggest that Cap Juluca closes, to me, is a criminal offence against the families and their children who depend on Cap Juluca to live.
“Today, I am happy to say that the delegation that came to see me – of highly-ranking ecclesiasticals and a very respectable member of civil society – have appealed to me in the presence of two Permanent Secretaries, Mr. Aidan Harrigan and Mr. Foster Rogers, who went on to explain what the history of our involvement as a Government was in dealing with the Cap Juluca situation, over the past two years, to show that there was no political decision-making when it comes to Cap Juluca. The Cap Juluca situation is too serious for politics. We must take the politics out of the livelihood of the people ofAnguillaonce and for all, and we must do justice to truth.
“The delegation asked if the main issue can be considered – that is to unite Cap Juluca under the two main groups : theBrilla/Manfredi/Rowan Group who owns twenty-seven of the rooms and the Cap Juluca Group who owns the rest of the rooms. I suggested to Mr.Hickox’s lawyer many months ago – that was Mr. Wiggin at the time – that the best thing for Cap Julucais to unite it under a combined ownership of the Brilla Group and Mr.Hickox, and Mr. Wiggin thought it was a wonderful idea. When Mr. Wiggin was the lawyer, representing Cap Juluca, everything went respectfully and there was harmony throughout – although he was doing a very wonderful job representing a client. From the time Mr. Wiggin disappeared from the scene, the whole situation became hostile. I would like to make that tribute to Mr. Wiggin here today. But we did try our best because Cap Juluca is so important.
“After our lengthy discussion, Rev. Niles asked if they would be granted an opportunity to get the Brilla, Manifredi and Rowan Group together with the Hickox Group to see where they can convince these two groups to drop their animosities – and see whether they can come together and settle Cap Juluca once and for all, where both parties would be satisfied.
“The Government of Anguilla, I am sure, will back me of having thought seriously about that. The Leader of the Opposition knew that we did not agree right away, but having thought about it we have now informed Rev. Niles’ and his Group that we will not go head and debate this motion today. We will give them the opportunity to see whether they can bring these two groups together; and if they fail, then we will have to come back to the House …
“I am sorry to disappoint all of you who have come here because it is not normal that we see so much interest in the House of Assembly. And I hope the next time we come back to the House we will have to bring extra chairs because it is sad that we have a democratic process and we have so many important issues being discussed in this House of Assembly [and] few people show an interest in their business. We come here to transact their business, the people’s business, and would like for the people to come and see how their business is transacted in this Honourable House.
“But rest assured, Rev. Niles, Bishop Brooks and Sutcliffe Hodge will be given the opportunity – and we will inform both the Brilla Group and the Hickox Groupthat we have given our blessing to this civil society group, in a civilised and Christian-like manner, to have discussions with them to see whether they can get this issue solved between the two opposing groups.
“I thank you very much for your tolerance and we will just await the outcome of those discussions before resuming this meeting of the House. With that said, I would like to appeal to the Speaker to adjourn the House.”
Just before the adjournment, Leader of the Opposition, the Hon. Evans M. Rogers, said: “I hope this is a step in the right direction where sanity and civility prevail in dealing with some of these national issues.
“As the Chief Minister said, I sat in that meeting and I left there prepared to make a presentation here this afternoon with regards the Motion that is before this House. I am pleased to say, that even though temporarily, that there is a further opportunity for individuals to meet around the discussion table.”
Mr. Rogers continued: “Madam Speaker, during that meeting we were concerned as to the exhaustion of all the possibilities before coming to this House and beginning this process. We all were concerned, Madam Speaker, about the ramifications, legal and otherwise, the world-wide attention and perception of Anguilla coming in this Honourable House and taking this step to move forward.”
The Opposition Leader said he was pleasantly surprised that the Chief Minister had agreed to set aside the Motion and was hoping, as he said previously, that sanity and civility would prevail.
Following closing remarks by the Chief Minister, the House of Assembly was adjourned by the Speaker.
