Like last week, this week continues to be a worrisome period in Anguilla with the closure of Cap Juluca, and the surrounding issues, on everybody’s lips.
Certainly, there was much uneasiness when the Government, through Chief Minister, Hubert Hughes,went to the House of Assembly on Monday, August 27,with a Motion of acquisition as the only agenda item. When one added this to the repeated terse radio announcement, during that day, from the Hickox Group, setting out the consequencesof compulsorily acquiring the property, it indeed appeared to have been an explosive and runaway situation.
No one guessed the reason for the Chief Minister’s abrupt disappearance from the High Court during the farewell ceremony on Monday morning for Justice Louise Blenman,who now takes up the appointment of Justice of Appeal. No one either in the House of Assembly, or in the wider public, hours later, guessed what else, other than moving the Motion to begin the acquisition process of Cap Juluca, was on the Chief Minister’s mind. It all only became clear when he reported to the House in the afternoon that he had met earlier in the day with a civil society group which had persuaded him to defer the Motion to acquire Cap Juluca.
The Government has the power and the right to acquire any property for a public purpose. But there are a number of legal constraints which include, of course justification; having all the money available to pay the owners upfront, as well as perhaps ensuring that there are no appearances of dictatorship or infringements of the Constitution.
The Chief Minister apologised to the House, and to members of the public present, for not being in a position to move the Motion. He spoke highly about the civil society group’s offer to mediate between the disputing owners of the hotel – the Hickox and Brilla Groups – describing it as a history-making event. He told the House the Government had agreed to give the mediators – Rev. Dr. H. Clifton Niles, Bishop Errol Brooks and Sutcliffe Hodge – an opportunity to meet with the opposing parties. But he was quick to warn that he would return to the House with the Motion to acquire Cap Juluca if no settlement was arrived at.
The matter is a sensitive one and it might not be an easy task for the two clerics and the other private mediator to deal with, taking into account the complexity of the ownership problem and all the other factors involved. The three are courageous men, dedicated to the cause of peace and prosperity forAnguillaand deserve the support and prayers of all persons on the island. It is certainly encouraging that the Hickox Group have indicated their willingness to work with them. But the Government must be prepared to assume overall responsibility to secure an amicable agreement between the two parties – one to which they are joint and binding signatories.
In the meantime, it is matter of much concern that almost 400 employees are out of work at Cap Juluca which, in the past, had been a world-class resort with rave reviews, and that the island’s economy has worsened due to its closure.
Let us all hope that our “three wise men” will be able to crack the code to a dispute which the Government could not solve despite the many meetings in Executive Council. The people of Anguilla should be grateful to them for their intervention and to hopefully show whether the Motion to acquire Cap Juluca was ill-advised, hasty or unnecessary. One thing most people are saying is that the Government’s decision to postpone the Motion was a good one.
