The following is the full text of a Christmas Message delivered by Chief Minister, Hubert Hughes, on Radio Anguilla on Tuesday, December 25, 2012:
My fellow Anguillians, as well as those from other lands who are spending this Christmas Season here with us in this beloved land we call Anguilla, greetings!
This year is the third year since I was officially appointed the leader of government business, that I am delivering this annual Christmas message.
Since this message is on the occasion of the celebration of the birth of Christ – the Holy Son of God whom prophets foretold was to come as the Saviour of mankind – and – Who declared Himself to be The Truth, we who are governed by our Christian beliefs are bound to be truthful ourselves. Any message delivered by the political leadership must therefore embody truth.
If I am to live up to this obligation of truthfulness, I would have to admit that this year’s Christmas message is being delivered at the most painful and agonizing period of my long political career in Anguilla.
I believe that politics is aboutthe interest – and should be conducted – in the interest of the people who chose the politicians from among those persons who volunteered to represent them if elected. At least this is my belief, and I am controlled and humbled by this belief.
As I progress in the delivery of this message, I hope that you who hear it will grasp the idea that I feel very sad, and why I feel so sad at a time which, by the occasion it is meant to celebrate, and therefore by its very nature, should be a Season of real joy and real delight.
On the 16th February, 2010 I entered Government in Anguilla for the fourth time, having first been elected as the lone and first Opposition Member to the Anguilla House of Assembly in 1976. The other three occasions when I entered Government as a member of the Executive Council – or in what is known as the inner Cabinet in countries which are free and Independent – were in 1980 as Deputy to the Revolutionary Leader, the Honourable James Ronald Webster; in 1984 as the Minister of Finance and Lands under the leader of Mr – now Sir – Emile Gumbs; and in 1994 as the leader in a Coalition Government with the two members of the A.D.P.
On each of those three occasions – 1980, 1984 and 1994 – I felt happy, despite the obstacles from a colonial governor, helped, of course, by some greedy, bad Anguillian citizens. I was happy because I was able to go to work, realizing that there were many resources to work with. On each of those victories I could feel the power of victory and I did go to work, especially during the period when I was more at the centre of Government. In spite of the obstacles, I was able to accomplish much in a short space of time, using the resources at my disposal.
I must admit that the Anguillians who sided with Anguilla’s archenemy then were few in comparison to the numbers my government met when I was returned to office in February 2010. In addition, my government met an Anguilla that had been gutted of its economic resources.
During the 10 years of the destructive AUF Government, Anguilla’s resources were depleted and squandered on an unimaginable scale, with its prime tourist resources turned into unsustainable real estate projects. Fellow Anguillians, even though an element of Anguillians was involved in the deprivation and degradation of Anguilla’s economic resources, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) was an essential element in its destruction.
My fellow Anguillians, as I deliver this message, I am fully aware that it does not sound like a Christmas message – and I must confess that it does not feel like one to me either. However, to tell you the truth, I do not, and cannot feel like Christmas under the pressure and traumatic experience of knowing and seeing that the people I represent are not comfortable and happy. I cannot feel merry when the less fortunate among us are struggling to make ends meet, and some are not getting the ends to meet at all. So please bear with me, for even though I do intend to wish you a Happy Christmas and God’s blessings for the New Year, I have to be truthful and realistic about our present situation.
I cannot be happy when Anguilla and its people are in a sad state of conflict on many fronts; conflict among our own people, conflict among our priceless assets – our young people; conflict in our Christian churches; conflict in politics – in and out of Government. Fellow citizens, it is difficult for me to be happy as I deliver this Christmas message, because I know that all these conflicts ill prepare us to challenge and win the most dangerous conflict of all – conflict between Anguilla and its colonial masters in London.
Today many of us are consumed by the Education Bill that was just passed in the House; and while that piece of legislations contains much that some consider undesirable and challenging, there is a much greater threat that is more devastating than the tsunami that recently destroyed a section of Japan.
Our very survival on this beautiful island we call home is under threat from a much greater and more ruthless colonial power we trusted to govern our island in our interest when we opted out of the arrangement for Associated Statehood with Britain in the company of St. Kitts and Nevis in 1967.
In this Christmas Season, I must warn you of the dangers we as a people face from our colonial masters, and say to you that those dangers are on our doorsteps, and that the livelihood and high standard of living Anguillians had grown accustomed to enjoying are now seriously threatened by England. England, whom some Anguillians still think of as the Mother Country, has virtually imposed ruthless economic sanctions against the people of Anguilla. My people, it is no accident that we cannot benefit from the alienation of large sections of Anguilla’s beach land resources. Anguilla is run by a clique of civil servants in the FCO in London, and they do their best to turn away and discourage any investment of foreign money in Anguilla’s economy.
Fellow Anguillians, it is no accident that the Malliouhana Hotel remains closed; that real construction has not begun on the Golf Course lands since the stoppage of work there in 2008; that there is a lack of any form of activity on the Pelican Cove land that was alienated to Robert Sillerman; that Cinnamon Reef Hotel remains closed; that there is limited activity in Altamar; that the Mariners Hotel continues to remain closed; and that an unfortunate situation has been allowed to develop at Cap Juluca which threatens its very survival.
Fellow citizens, even though the British governor may succeed in getting my own police brothers to arrest and humiliate me, as has been done elsewhere to the true fighters and champions against colonial slavery and, more recently, to the premier of the Cayman Islands, Mokeba Bush, I will tell the truth. I recall that the British tried, but failed, to get our local police force to arrest the Father of the Nation the Hon. Ronald Webster when they invaded Anguilla on 19 March 1969. Kudos to the patriotism of the police force back then.
Recently, four hundred workers in Cap Juluca were deprived of the decent standard of living they had been enjoying for many years. This was no accident. I have, up to now, not been permitted to say much on that topic, but all I will say now is that if the British Government refuses to come to the rescue of Cap Juluca, the world will know of the role played by agents at the FCO in the disaster and uncertain future surrounding our workers at Cap Juluca.
Most recently still, Anguilla lost concessionary funding for a needy little college building and a small piece of road, because I, the Chief Minister, did not sign the FCO’s Framework for Fiscal Responsibility (FFR) in its present form. Some parts of that framework are good, while other parts are a noose around our necks.
My fellow citizens, while Britain blocks foreign aid, and continues to block foreign private investors from investing in Anguilla, it is using its constitutional powers over Anguilla, to threaten us if we do not agree to sign our own death warrant in the form of the FFR with no changes to it, Britain will starve us into subjection by subjugating us to conditions which we, a self-respecting people cannot agree to, the FCO has set out to ensure that the only little aid that we get from the European Union (EU), or the financial ease we are due from the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) are both blocked by Britain.
That is not all, fellow Anguillians. While foreign investors are being driven away from Anguilla’s shores, and aid is being blocked, more and more pressure is being brought to bear on the government of Anguilla to find more and more money for increasing expenditure.
The governor is arguing that we need 30 more police officers, and the government has been forced to agree immediately to hire 15 of that 30. The governor is also demanding that the GOA find $2.5 million to pay the cost of running the top heavy Air and Seaports Authority (AASPA) for the months of October, November and December. The governor is also saying that the GOA is responsible for properly financing all the Statutory Boards. The only reason he is insisting on this is that these Boards are his responsibility. Therefore, he is dictating that the Anguilla taxpayers must pay for the bad decisions the AUF government made when they set up these Boards in the first place.
While all this is happening the FCO is insisting that Anguilla must balance its budget. You will recall, fellow Anguillians, that this government was forced to agree to an arrangement to balance the budget in 3 years. Well, when our hard working civil servants labour like beasts to meet all the stringent budgetary standards set by Britain since this AUM government came to office, and the government succeeds in presenting 2 balanced budgets with surplus we well in less than 3 years, what does the FCO do? The FCO brings in new conditions that are totally unrelated to the arrangement to balance the budget in three years that this government was forced to agree to.
The tactic the FCO has hit upon, fellow citizens, is to blackmail Anguilla. If you don’t do this, it threatens, we won’t sign you budget, and we will starve you for aid. Last year, the tool for blackmailing us was the passing of the Interim Stabilisation Act. You will recall, fellow citizens, that even when the House passes that Act, His Excellency, the Governor, announced that he was not signing the budget unless the GOA go back into the House to remove a minor change that was made to the Act which in no way affected its force. That meeting of the House lasted a mere 5 minutes. This year, the tool to blackmail us is the signing of our death warrant, the FFR in its unchanged form.
All of this amounts to ruthless economic sanctions that Britain is virtually imposing on Aguilla, while at the same time insisting that the GOA shoulder additional financial burdens and balance its budget. Because of these draconian measures, we cannot find money to put medicines in our clinics and in our hospital; we cannot find money to properly educate our children; we cannot find money to care for the sick, the aged, the needy; we cannot find money to repair our roads, our government buildings. We cannot find money to repay civil servants that was deducted from their salaries.
We all know, fellow Anguillians, that the increase in salaries of public servants was nothing more than a political gimmick by the AUF government to ensure that politicians filled their pockets with fat salaries, gratuities and pensions. Salaries were increased at a time when the GOA was spending millions of dollars more than it was collecting in revenue, and as a result, every year the budget was showing a huge deficit. Despite the boom in economic activity, Anguilla’s economy had crashed long before the beginning of the world depression in 2008. But you will, remember, fellow Anguillians, that in spite of this, every year her Majesty’s representative on Anguilla, His Excellency the Governor, readily signed every AUF Government’s budget.
With increased salaries, public servants naturally felt safe to secure higher bank loans, and take other steps to enjoy a higher standard of living. When the economy crashed, one of the austerity measures taken by the AUF government was to reduce the public servants’ salaries promising to give reconsideration to repaying them partially of in full “if the situation changed positively and significantly”.
The bankrupt treasury which the AUM government met when it was voted into office forced a further reduction in civil servants pay, and the situation has not changed positively and significantly enough to allow the GOA to repay any of the funds, as much as it would like to, especially at Christmas time.
The GOA is in full sympathy of the plight of civil servants who have to meet higher debt burdens on reduced salaries. This is all due to the mindless recklessness of the AUF government who took the island on a spending spree, living far beyond its means.
The sad fact is that there is no cushion in Anguilla to blunt the hardships of our people. We do not have a social security net like our St. Martin neighbours. We do not supply school meals as is done in French and Dutch St. Martin. Unlike France and Holland, our colonial master, England, put no such social systems in place, but yet wants to bully us by micromanaging our economy.
We do not experience winter, but this year many people in Anguilla are having a cold, wintry Christmas. Thanks to England.
But all is not lost if we put our trust in God. He promised to never leave or forsake us, whether we are walking through the river of through the fire. I believe, I sincerely believe, that He will deliver His people from that type of Egyptian bondage England is attempting to force on us. But we have our part to pay, a part that the FCO can have no control over, so long as we do not allow ourselves to be manipulated.
We can stand firm together against any of the colonial master’s attempts to rob us of our dignity and take bread from our mouths.
We can love one another, refuse to bear false witness against one another, and refuse to covet, or be envious of one another’s success.
And so, my people, even though this Christmas may lack the usual merriment, remember that there is a silver lining behind every dark cloud. Because back of the clouds the sun is always shining, no matter how dark and gloomy those clouds look, and one day the sunlight breaks through in all its glory.
So despite all the gloom that threatens to darken our Christmas at this moment, I still have the hope and the faith that God will bring us great relief in the New Year.
With this conviction, my dear people, I wish you a safe, happy, and holy season as we look forward to a bright and prosperous 2013. May God bless each one of you, and may God bless Anguilla.
