This Government came to power on the slogan of “Transparency,” and recently it has added a new option: “The need to educate the people”. But how is it doing this? It has chosen to ignore the positive; highlight the negative; and propagandize everything else. Anguillians deserve better from the people whom they pay to represent them. One gets the distinct impression that they believe that once they are elected the people must follow like a herd of sheep. That is wrong! Essentially what is being promoted is the rule of “ignorance, arrogance and rudeness”. But that could be part of their sinister plot to confuse the people in their decision-making.
This is where the importance of the voice of a vibrant Opposition comes into play. In such a role, the AUF party is determined to expose and report to the public what it believes the people are entitled to know. The Party believes that the Chief Minister should tell the Anguilla people what he does and where he goes when he is spending their money. Furthermore, the proper forum for his reporting should be directly to the people, and not obliquely through some diatribe on a Radio Station during a Talk Show with intent to harangue rather than to inform. It is recognized that the Chief Minister is first among equals but in the interest of good governance and transparency he ought to be more forthcoming. The Leader of the Opposition has the right to call upon the Chief Minister to report the results of his visits abroad through the proper media because he is a servant of the People.
Two recent instances prompt the need to examine the attitude of Government on very important issues. Firstly, the EDF money in the present budget; and secondly the ministers meeting earlier this month in London on which we have not yet had a comprehensive report. Indeed, there need to be questions about his frequent travels generally. When are we going to begin to act responsibly and remove the “bush league yoke”? Apart from the CM’s eternal opposition to the British way of doing things, is the other much-touted argument in favour of Independence — based on the claim that it enhances our opportunities for foreign aid. This being the main plank in his political agenda, his refusal to raise the importance of EDF money in the present budget makes what he says otherwise about money donors and budgeting a “bunch of lies”.
But whom can we beg tomorrow that we cannot beg today? In considering the list of donors the European Development Fund (EDF) is of major significance. There are numerous donors who make “one-off” contributions usually based on a specific agenda. The EDF does not function like that. Technically, the EDF has a constitutional basis for its contribution and that was deliberately included in the Treaty of Rome which established the European Union. Most other donors give aid with strings attached.
The USA is the world’s biggest donor. We are close to that country — yet we get very little if anything from it whereas they pump billions of dollars into such far away places like Egypt; Israel; Pakistan; Afghanistan, just to name a few. It is not because we are a British Overseas Territory but because we are of no strategic importance to them. The best the Americans did for us was to set up the “Caribbean Basin Initiative” that has effectively been “more shadow than substance” and has had very little impact on development in these islands. Aid from a number of other donors may be considered almost mercenary. Chinese aid in the Caribbean is largely influenced by the problems of the two “Chinas”. The country that votes for Taiwan in the UN gets Taiwanese aid; while the country that votes for the People’s Republic of China gets Chinese aid. Nobody knows what will happen when that game is over. Japan on the other hand needs support for its position on the whaling industry and may be prepared to buy a solution.
Obviously, begging for aid, and getting it is more easily said than done. EDF aid does come with strings attached — it is based on linkages. The aid in the budget was given because this is a British Overseas Territory for which it was designated. And the Fund itself is financed by the Member States of the European Union. Britain, France and Germany are the biggest contributors to the Fund. This therefore puts Anguilla in a preferential position and, as the Leader of the Opposition pointed out, the amount received and posted in the budget should be publicly noted and not glossed over. This Government declares its willingness to educate the people. So does the AUF! But it must be done by presenting the pertinent facts and not by resorting to omission, lies and propaganda.
The joint ministers meeting in London this month was a very useful and informative one for Overseas Territories yet the CM failed to properly inform the people of the substance of that meeting. This leaves one to come to a number of possible conclusions: that the Chief Minister finds it useful to keep Anguillians in the dark; that he was asleep during the meeting; that he does not attach much relevance to the meeting; or that if he was awake during the meeting he did not understand what was going on. In the interest of transparency and good governance this puts the onus on the Opposition to search for the truth. It must be constantly borne in mind that everything the Government does is the business of every Anguillian. So when EDF aid is lumped in as an item in the budget, it must be fully explained for what it is. Likewise, when the CM goes off on a trip that is not a private trip, we the people have the right to be properly appraised of what transpired on that trip.
