The long-delayed Education Bill forAnguillahas suffered another setback. It came in the House of Assembly on Wednesday this week just when it was thought that the draft legislation had overcome all of its hurdles.
In fact, while the Bill was scheduled on the Order Paper to be given its first reading, the Minister of Education, Edison Baird, had earlier requested the Speaker to allow the Bill to be given its third readings and passed. It is understood that the urgency had to do with a sizeable grant from the European Union which had as one of its conditions the passage of the Education Bill.
At the start of the House of Assembly meeting, Chief Minister, Hubert Hughes, said that the Minister of Education had shown a lot of enthusiasm for the Bill over the years; and that he (Baird)was obliged to respond to a number of international organisations which required the passage of the Education Bill. “We need to get this Education Bill on the Statute Books or else Anguilla stands to lose credibility…and can even lose a certain amount of aid if this Bill is not passed into law,” Mr. Hughes stated.
He went on: “A lot of people have been making noises about this Bill, but unfortunately they have not come back with anything written to the Minister or to the Governor expressing where their concerns are. I have sat in the Executive Council time andtime again and Ihave known that Ministers have debated this Bill among themselves and have triedto settle their differences…We need to come straight because people in the legal profession, on all kinds of talkshows, have been making noises, just noises, and none of them have had a sense of responsibility and commitment to come forward tothe Ministerwith theirwrittencomplaints about which partsof the Bill they would like to see amended.”
Mr. Hughes said that it was only on Wednesday morning (the sameday of the House of Assembly meeting), that he had “received correspondence from Pastor Victor Brooks,Chaplin of the House of Assembly, and Colonel Harrigan, a former important civil servant about the Education Bill.” He continued: “They have come forward with certain amendments whichthey think we should look afterin this Bill. It is the first time I have seen anything written by any member of the general public.One of the things they say is that their concerns… are sections 26, 68, 74 and 143. They are saying they are objectionable and should be revisited. …In the last paragraph of their concerns, they said: ‘We are therefore asking toestablisha working group consisting of the Minister of Education, Ministers of religion, theBar Association and two or three members of civil society to consider certain aspects that are still included in the Bill.’
“Madam Speaker, I am very concerned that it took the Pastor and Mr Harrigan to come forward and actually identify the specific areas of concern. As elected members of the House, as the people’s servants, we are always ready and willing to listen.As Isaid before, everybody in this Government works very hard and it isn’t everything that we can see so when people in the public have concerns,Ido believe that no legislation should be actually passed which does not have the interest of the people at heart…
“This willbe the last time that we will delay the passageof this Bill and we will give three weeks to have these further consultations; and we must come backto the House with a revised Bill before the end of the year and before the budgetary session. I am sending a clear message to the people that we cannot continue to be delaying this important Education Bill because there are certain aspects of this Bill that will impact Anguilla if we don’tget it through. So this is thelast time.”
The Speaker acknowledged that Mr Baird had requested her the day before to allow the suspension of the Rules of Procedure for the passage of the Bill based on its urgency, and to prevent the loss of funding etc. She hoped that Baird would take the Chief Minister’s words into consideration as expressed in the letter from Mr. Harrigan and Pastor Brooks. She nevertheless said that the first reading of the Bill (as was listed on the Order Paper), could proceed.
Mr Baird stood to his feet: “Madam Speaker, I find it strange,” he stated. “This letter is dated October the 31st (today). So why didn’t Pastor Brooks and Colonel Harrigan come forward with their concerns before? Why come on the day on which we are supposed to deal with the Bill to delay the Bill? I find it to be unacceptable. May I suggest that we have a recess – we have Victor Books here…so we can meet with Pastor Brooks; we can send for Colonel Harrigan and we can meet with all the Ministers of Government to see if we can grant them an accommodation.
“We are running against a deadline. If we do not pass this Bill we stand to lose three hundred thousand Euros and I am saying this is very unfair….[for]Pastor Brooks and Colonel Harrigan to hide their concerns and to come in the House on the day on which we were supposed to deal with the Bill and raised their concerns… toblock the Bill. I find that to be unethical so I would like you to give us a 20-minute recess to see if we can deal with the situation.”
The recess was granted by the Speaker. In doing so, she took the opportunity to inform Mr. Baird that his Ministerial colleague, Evan Gumbs, who was off-island, also had certain concerns about the Bill. Mr Baird appeared to be surprised at that, saying Mr.Gumbs did not tell him about those concerns. BothPastorBrooksand Mr.Harrigan are residents in Mr. Gumbs’ Valley South Constituency.
When the House resumed its sitting later, Chief Minister Hughes proceeded to move a number of duty-free motions in his name. No reference was made to the Education Bill matter.
Meanwhile, as regards to the Property Tax Bill, the Chief Minister, who asked for its postponement, said there were serious concerns about it among the general public. As a result, he decided to hold a public consultation later on the draft legislation. He said he had received complaints that the Bill could contribute to hardship in Anguilla, stall the island’s general progress and impact its very culture particularly in relation to property development and other matters.
