18th July 2013
Mr Alistair Harrison
c/o Governor’s Office
Old Ta
Anguilla
Dear Mr Harrison
Re: Media Statement Published on 18th July 2013
I write to you with respect to a Media Statement published by you on instant date which was aired by radio broadcast and which, in an email emanating from your Office, confirms that your Statement has also been sent to representatives of the print media.
I refer in particular to the portion of your statement which reads as follows:
“But I was particularly saddened by the recent demonstration against the AG [Attorney-General]. Demonstrations against the Governor or Ministers are fair enough, and I have always received such demonstrations courteously, and enjoyed discussing the issues with the demonstrators. But demonstrations against a public servant are unacceptable. The presence of a lawyer of some seniority was particularly disturbing. An attack on the AG is an attack on the rule of law. By her presence she let down Anguilla, she let down her profession and she let down herself.”
Given the recognition of the seniority in the profession that you have accorded to me, requires that firstly I lay the foundation to prove to you, those persons outside of Anguilla, and to those that have been copied in this correspondence, that the person to whom you refer is the author herein and establishes my locus standi to address you with my response.
I was the only female Lawyer who attended the protest gathering which occurred some three (3) weeks ago on the 21st June 2013 against the Attorney-General of Anguilla. However, I am aware that you summoned the President of the Bar of Anguilla to your Office just yesterday and that one of the issues of discussion was with respect to my participation in the protest gathering. As I was the only lawyer whose participation was questioned during the extent of the meeting, I should think that there can be no greater proof of identity than that coming from you.
With my identity being established, I wish to say at the outset that I am surprised that the valor you have displayed to level your virulent attack of my citizenry, my profession and my person should have caused you to stop short of mentioning my name. I have no tolerance for cowardice. The conviction of your position, especially given your high Office, should have allowed you to refer to me by name. Similarly, you could have attacked my participation in an event some three (3) weeks ago, during any one of the several broadcasts which you have given since that time to the Press. I suspect that cowardice got in the way since to have done so prior to now, would have meant that you would have had to ponder my response; it appears as though a parting shot just as you flee our shores was your preferred modus operandi.
I would accept that you should be very familiar with demonstrations – there have been so many conducted against you in the discharge of your duties during your tenure. However, if by ‘discussion’ with the Protesters you wish to convey to the wider world anything other than that you formally thanked the Protesters for coming – all captured by the media – is to enlargen the truth.
As Anguilla knows, all the issues that have been raised in those numerous demonstrations against you that included questioning how you signed away one of Anguilla’s best tracks of beach land to a Developer for 125 years with an automatic renewal for another 125 years on Election Day; that questioned how your Office could allow Indians and Chinese artisans to be paid slave wages of US$8.00 per day by a British company on British soil and for those workers to be allowed to be housed in makeshift containers; that questioned the highest levels of disrespect accorded to the Elected Leaders of this country from their very first day of Office; that questioned the continual lack of consultation of the Chief Minister by yourself for example on the movement of key Permanent Secretaries, even from his office, and notwithstanding the fact that the Leaders of All the Caribbean Overseas Territories advocated that the action was undemocratic and should be reversed; and even now, the lack of consultation with the Chief Minister on the appointment and renewal of the contract of the Attorney-General who has a history of Court pronouncements of ‘mala fides’ or bad faith and unethical conduct on his part and where there have been expressions of lack of confidence by the Chief Minister and Ministers of Government in him, are all issues that have remained un-answered.
However, I am intrigued by the concept that you should seek to describe the Attorney-General simply as a Public Servant without qualifying your statement, as though he were simply your average public servant and therefore whose conduct ought not to checked by the criticism of the People in the form of Protest. You have deemed a Protest against his Office as “unacceptable”.
Of course, for the wider world it would have been helpful to share that the Attorney-General in Anguilla is a specific designation under our Constitution that sets him apart from all Public Servants.
(i) The Attorney-General is one of three (3) appointments in which you have the sole discretion to appoint without even the necessity of consultation with the Public Service Commission which is required for ALL other Public Servants; Indeed neither are you obliged to consult even the Chief Minister of the Country even though the Chief Minister has to accept the ‘advice’ of whomever is appointed as the Attorney-General. The ‘spirit’ of our Constitution should therefore anticipate a climate of consultation, but as you have so eminently demonstrated, bolstered in a colonial framework, you were not so required.
(ii) As you well know by virtue of our Constitution, the Attorney-General in Anguilla is one of two ex-officio members of the Executive Council of Anguilla, the other members being Ministers of Government, the Deputy Governor and with you as the Chair of the Executive Council – the Attorney-General is therefore a member of the highest Executive authority in Anguilla.
(iii) Under the Constitution the Attorney-General is embued with specific Constitutional authority and powers some aspects of which are “to the exclusion of any other person or authority” (Constitution of Anguilla) which demonstrates the scope and breadth his powers.
(iv) Further, by virtue of our same Constitution the Attorney-General is an ex-officio member of the House of Assembly – the People’s House in which he has a voice – not even your Office as Governor has such authority.
Therefore your suggestion that the Attorney-General is a ‘Public Servant’ does not do justice to the scope of powers and Constitutional preeminence and that is given to his Office.
It is that preeminence accorded by our Constitution which also calls upon the holder of that Office to recognize that such Public Office will attract Public Scrutiny and that with the privilege of that Office may from time to time require the holder to give accountability for their actions.
Therefore for the reasons outlined, the armour with which you attempt to shield your Appointee, the Attorney-General, from the scrutiny the People of Anguilla is wafer thin and falls away in the wind.
I further suspect, however, that you are forced to go down the route of offering a token of protection to the Attorney-General as a result of the Protest on his Office because of the stunning, incredulous and unabashed display of discourtesy to the People of Anguilla on the 21st of June 2013.
Notably in this excerpt you have failed to mention the reason that the People of Anguilla conducted the Protest gathering outside the Attorney-General’s Chambers. I reasonably suspect that you are au fait with the fact that the Protest gathering outside the Attorney-General’s Chambers occurred because the Attorney-General failed to provide the People of Anguilla the courtesy of his presence at your Office on 18th June 2013,where as scheduled, a protest had occurred. The Attorney-General was asked to be present at your Office to receive a letter documenting their concerns about his handling of certain issues. The Organizer of the Protest had requested his presence in writing. Not only did the Attorney-General not respond to the Organizer, he did not attend, nor apologise for his absence. The Protest Gathering therefore occurred outside his Chambers on 21st June 2013, based on the blatant disregard the Attorney-General had for their concerns. What could only be described as a spectacular display of arrogance, lack of concern and complete disrespect for the concerns of the People of Anguilla, occurred on the said 21st June 2013; having kept the protesters waiting in the heat of the afternoon sun in excess of an hour after the appointed time, (as per the communication of the Organizer to the Attorney-General) the Attorney-General proceeded from his Office to his vehicle, drove his vehicle from where it was located to within 6 feet or so to where the protesters were then standing and had the weight of Law Enforcement clear a path through the Protesters for him.
To your credit Governor, at least you would receive the concerns of the People of Anguilla on the several demonstrations made against you even if you have chosen over the years not to respond to those concerns or to redress your positions and practice the ‘good governance’ to which you have so often referred.
Now with respect to my participation:
“The presence of a lawyer of some seniority was particularly disturbing. An attack on the AG is an attack on the rule of law. By her presence she let down Anguilla, she let down her profession and she let down herself.”
I have had to rationalize your attack on me on the several bases on which you have launched it. In a very quiet moment, a reflective moment, when the immediate sting of what has been to date your most vicious attack against me, I was buoyed when I recognized the significance of the day.
Today is the 95th Birthday of the Iconic Nelson Mandela, a Black Man, a Citizen of South Africa, a Lawyer, and individual who found himself 70 years ago fighting the Rule of Law which was Oppressive and against the Interests of his People. I can well imagine how many in the Apartheid establishment and perhaps some of his own People would have considered Mr Mandela as letting South Africa down, letting his profession down and letting himself down. Today, as a Black Woman, an Anguillian, a Lawyer, and an individual, I defend against a Rule of Law in words, what was once defended by a Man who sacrificed the better part of his life to the attack on the Rule of Law. I am fortunate.
In addition, in two weeks to this day will be the 1st of August. One hundred and seventy-nine (179) years ago on 1st August 1834 the People of the Caribbean were given their freedom from a Rule of Law – a slave system of the most oppressive kind that violated the Dignity of our People.
I consider it an honour Governor, that you should, at this period in time, have associated me with both an Icon and my Forbears and it will be indelibly committed to my memory.
The deeper message of your missive however, has not been lost on me, nor will it be lost on other Anguillians. The primary reason why I marched was with respect to the Attorney-General’s attempt to elevate an Expatriate over that of an Anguillian when the Anguillian is more qualified to hold the position. It is to enforce this Regime that you, Governor, wrongfully sought to use your Constitutional Reserved Powers to override the views of the Elected Leaders of the Country and promote this Expatriate. Is your Media statement meant to stifle my constitutional rights to protest this Regime that you and the Attorney-General are seeking to impose on the People of Anguilla? Or are you seeking to use the History of our Forbears against me by singling out and making an example of me in the public’s eye as a deterrent to others who would use their education to enlighten others about their rights? By so doing perhaps you hoped to crush the temerity of others who would dare to question.
What you have always failed to appreciate in your tenure among us, is that while many of us have been fortunate to go to schools of higher learning and gain “professions”, we had to ascend from the sacrifices of those who didn’t need higher education to teach them about Dignity, Integrity and when a Rule of Law acts against their interests as Anguillians. Our History as an Island in 1969 demonstrated that. So those of us who are fortunate to have had that opportunity ought never to feel ashamed of the ordinary People who helped us to get there, but instead use our Education to assist in their Cause.
I know that the exposure of your conduct and treatment of us in Anguilla as the Representative of the Administering Power when I made presentations to the United Nations in 2011in Ecuador and in New York did not sit well with you. Exposure seldom does. However, as you have on several occasions mentioned to me, agitated, you “read it over 15 or 16 times” and yet my statements to the Decolonization Committee remained unchallenged and by that, you have obviously come to terms with the Truth of my Reports.
I suppose that you remained emboldened when the Administering Power despite hearing the several complaints of Anguilla against you, expressed that “they had the fullest confidence in you.” That is why Governor, I, like others before me, with me and perhaps coming after me, will continue to challenge those who hold Office at the highest levels, until we are liberated from a Regime, a Relationship and a Rule of Law that does not serve the Interests of the Dignity of us as Anguillians.
Yours sincerely
Josephine A G Gumbs-Connor
Barrister & Solicitor
cc: The Right Honourable William Hague MP, Foreign Secretary, fcocorrespondence@fco.gov.uk
The Right Honourable Dominic Grieve QC MP, Attorney General of the United Kingdom, correspondence@attorneygeneral.gsi.gov.uk
Honourable Mr Mark Simmonds MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary for Foreign &
Commonwealth Affairs, fcocorrespondence@fco.gov.uk
Her Excellency, The Governor of Anguilla, Miss Christina Scott, governorsoffice@gov.ai and Christina.Scott99@fco.gov.uk
Ms Jullyette Ukabiala, Secretary to Decolonization Committee (C-24), ukabiala@un.org
Miss Dorothea Hodge, UK/EU Representative of Anguilla, ukeurep@anguillagovlondon.org
(Published without editing by The Anguillian newspaper.)
