The Opposition Anguilla United Front told reporters on Tuesday, April 23, that the visit by some of its executive members to England earlier this month was not political but in fact in support of the Anguilla United Movement Government of Chief Minister, Hubert Hughes.
“Despite what you may have heard over the various radio talk shows and other programmes concerning our recent trip to the UK, we consider ourselves a responsible Opposition,” Mr. Evans Rogers, Leader of the Opposition, said. “We value Anguillians wherever they are… and we can attest to some of the benefits of Anguillians who lived abroad…so wherever they reside in sizeable numbers we will go and find them and speak to them with regards to developments in Anguilla. We have already visited Anguillians in French and Dutch St. Martin/St.Maarten and intend to visit Anguillians in St. Thomas and New York as well.”
“Our trip to the UK was apolitical. We did not go to campaign against the Government…We went with an agenda about issues which are relevant and important to all of us in Anguilla,” Mr. Rogers said. “In fact, we went to support the Government in their approach to some of these particular issues which are not contentious in anyway. We all would look out for tertiary education, health matters and issues relating to trade and investment. So we went to support the Government with its challenges.”
He said a number of questions were raised by his delegation, and by Anguillians in Slough and officials at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. “One of the questions we raised was in relation to the Cap Juluca issue,” he continued. “Our concerns, with regards to that, were the utterances by the Chief Minister that the Governor, the British Government and the FCO, are responsible for resolving the issues regarding Cap Juluca. From our standpoint, this seems to be way out of line. We were told categorically that it is an issue for the local Government and the private sector to deal with.”
The Opposition Leader said that the AUF would not use Cap Juluca as a political football. “Cap Juluca is too serious for us to make it a political football,” he stressed.
He added that another matter commented on by the FCO was the proposed referendum and independence issue being spoken about by Chief Minister Hughes.“If the people of Anguilla thought a referendum is where they want to go, the British Government said to us they would assist us in moving forward,” Mr. Rogers added.
AUF Leader, Victor Banks, reiterated that the Opposition’s trip was to support the Government in its presentations to the British Government. “It was to show that the Anguilla Government and the Opposition are in one place as regards what is required to ensureAnguilla’s development.”
Apart from commenting on the Chief Minister’s fixation on independence for Anguilla, Mr. Banks also expressed concern over the Cap Juluca issue. He criticised the Chief Minister’s view that the Governor and the British Government were the ones to solve the Cap Juluca issue.
“You can’t say, as the Chief Minister says, it is not your responsibility and you are going to wipe your hands of it,” Mr. Banks said. “It is something that you have been elected to do …[so] get it done. I am not going to be political about this, as the Leader of the Opposition pointed out. We are definitely going to work with the Government. We are throwing out an olive branch in giving our support to work with the Government to see if we can resolve a number of these issues. We recognise that there are issues and disputes which have been going on for more than twenty years with regards to that property, but the time has certainly come and we need to take it seriously. Cap Juluca is a critical project in the tourism plant and we need to give it our support.”
Mr. Othlyn Vanterpool, another party delegate to the UK, said the trip had been very productive, particularly with regard to the discussions with Anguillians in Slough.
“In all, I think our trip was very successful,” he went on. “We achieved our objectives, and I am looking forward to AXA Food CareBank receiving the contributions that have been identified. I am also looking forward to us being able to continue our interaction and communication – not only with the group in the UK – but our Anguillians throughout the rest of the world.”
