Yanchie Leonard Richardson is perhaps one of the most popular persons in Anguilla yet he is frequently off the island. “I go and come”, he told The Anguillian in an interview several days agoas he prepared to return to Palm Bay, Florida, where he has permanent residence. From there, apart from his business interests, he runs the Mayor Show – a Saturday morning programme on Kool FM in Anguilla. He does that along with three other Anguillians in the United States – Conrad Rogers, Tyrone Hodge and Paul Webster – as well as Pam Webster and Leroy (Brother Lee) Richardson in Anguilla.
His wife resides in Florida with him, but his four children, all college graduates, are elsewhere in the United States. He is kept quite busy there, engaged inYLR Consulting which, for some time now, has been associated with Solaire (an investment company doing business in the United States, Anguilla and the Bahamas). Yanchie has recently formed another company called YLR Construction Limited. He is also involved in organising the Solaire Cup Regatta in Anguilla on behalf of the investment company which operates Meads Bay Beach Villas – and is soon to start a tourism villa project at Lockrum as well.
Yanchie, whose name is said to be partly Dutch and Chinese, was born on December 24, 1955. He has been travelling since an early age – first to St. Maarten where he resided and worked; later to St. Thomas and finally to the United States where he lived in New York before moving to Florida. He has been out of Anguilla for up to 43 years, but has always stayed connected to his homeland and its people – and maintained an abiding interest in the socio-economic and political life of the island.
One of the developments Yanchie followed closely, and in fact was on the island for, was the 1967 Anguilla Revolution. His patriotism over the years led him to develop a deep respect and admiration for Revolutionary Leader, Ronald Webster. In recent years, he eventually succeeded, along with others, in canvassing for the official recognition of Mr Webster’s birthday with a full public holiday on the island, a parade at the Webster Park and other celebrations. He blamed the former AUF Government for notapproving a full public holiday for Webster’s birthday. “My thing with Victor was Ronald Webster’s birthday – and everybody knows that,” saidYanchie, who has supported Banks as an individual candidate for 32 years. “When Hubert said to me that hewill give the holiday if he got elected, he didn’t have to say anymore.”
Yanchie was now aware that Mr Webster, as from his 87th birthday in March, this year,announced that he had withdrawn from all the activities marking his birthday and that he wished to live a quiet life. The Government accordingly stopped the official parade, but allowed the public holiday to continueas was requested.Yanchie, too, has accepted Webster’s desire but said: “I have not been in contact with him after the second celebration. I think Ronald Webster didn’t like what the folks around the Government were doing with the holiday. They started to make it political, and he didn’t like that.”
Speaking about the current political situation, Yanchie said: “What should be on the Government’s plate is to get Anguilla into a progressive situation. Whoever comes into the Government [after the elections] should have a different vision even if it was someone on the bandwagon before. Supporters tend to destroy elected officials and it is more common in Anguilla than probably in most places. The new Government – and there will be a new Government—their focus has to be about Anguilla, for Anguilla, by Anguillians. If they don’t do that, it will be [the same old story] all over again. Right now we are at the bottom.”
Yanchie continued: “So far, I have been very good at predicting elections. I think we are going to have a coalition government no matter how you look at it. It is not going to be straight up. It is going to be very tricky this time around.” He even ventured to suggest that there could be a general election before the current term of the House of Assembly runs out.
Yanchie spoke on various other matters as follows:
On the newly-appointed Governor, Her Excellency Christina Scott, he said: “I think she is well-trained. If anybody is expecting her to be any different from the guy that left, that is a total misnomer. She probably will not be worse, but she is part of the British agenda. Stay tuned.”
The economy: “The world economy was falling before – but there is a lot of blame on the present Government as well, rather than blaming the previous Government all the time for everything. But it did start on their watch. The boom was 2006, 2007 and 2008. By the end of 2008, and into 2009, things were starting to go downhill but nobody took precautions. If precautions had been taken the bleeding would have probably stopped.
“When we [Aum Government] went in saying we are going to stop this, and stop that, it was a blame game; and a lot of suggestions were thrown around by different people who were advising the Government…Up to now Cap Juluca and the lay-offs have not been settled, and the place is crumbling. Then there are people with villas and houses that the banks are taking…Who do you blame for that? We have to take some responsibility and look ourselves in the eye and say we are part of it too…I think this Government could have done more. We said we could have done things better, if not different, and I don’t think this was done.
“Look at St.Martin/Maarten. It has gone through election problem cycles but yet the country stays functioning. Probably Anguilla provides up to 55% support for the economy there.”
On the Summer Festival, Yanchie stated: “Carnival is coming up now. Look at that. We have gone fromgood carnivals to something else. It is disastrous – the name-calling, even the songs. We shouldn’t be going through this. It is the celebration of the proclamation of emancipation – whatever that is supposed to mean for us. But everything has turned into total chaos. We have to say enough is enough. Stand for something or you will fall for anything.
“In the Mayor Show, I like to use a quote by Martin Luther King that says: ‘The measure of a man – and I add woman to it now –is not where he or she stands in the time of conflict and convenience, but where he or she stands in the time of challenge and controversy.’
“Another quote I like is the one by Malcolm X: ‘Right is right. Wrong is wrong. You cannot be blind with patriotism that you cannot see. It does not matter who says it or who does it.’’’
Yanchie added: “My advice to the people of Anguilla is that they should stay firm and true to who or what they are. What you say in December, you should be able to say in January and February. Be consistent about your feelings about what the situation is. That’s why I said ‘you cannot be blind with patriotism.’ You got a lot of supporters – it doesn’t matter which Government is in – whether it is the AUM Government in which some of the supporters are blind to the fact that they are doing things wrong or the AUF which is the same way. This is a problem. In my case, I call it as I see it. It doesn’t matter who says it, or who does it, and these are the philosophies that I live by.”
