The last sitting of the House of Assembly caused island- wide debate as the Leader of the Opposition attempted to move an unprecedented motion calling for an apology from the Speaker to: the Members of the Opposition, the Honourable House, and the people of Anguilla, for her abuse of the rules of procedure. The Speaker had facilitated the passing legislation at the previous sitting without having the required quorum. The debate was generally along party lines with supporters of the AUM crying foul, and the supporters of the AUF applauding what they considered a long-awaited reprimand of the Speaker’s management of the House. However, it was not the motion of privilege that sparked the debate – but rather the fact that the Opposition Members having left, the Speaker was then forced to adjourn the House when the Deputy Speaker and Second Nominated Member, Hon. Leroy Rogers, rose and pointed out that there was no quorum.
Few people have been paying attention to the fact that the absence of a quorum is not the Opposition’s fault. The Chief Minister, shortly after the beginning of his term, had five of the seven elected seats in the House, with the crossing over of the Hon. Jerome Roberts. It looked like a situation impossible to overcome. It was like a well-stacked freight train heading out of the station on its way to achieving good governance and the restoration of integrity and prosperity. The Chief Minister from this position of overwhelming strength proceeded to attack the former Government on alleged mismanagement of the economy, and felt encouraged to take on all adversaries, real or perceived, to include the British Government; the Governor; the Opposition; the Indigenous Banks; the Developers; the Public Service; the Attorney General; and all other comers.
For those of us who have known the Chief Minister over the years, chaos; confusion and confrontation are his comfort zone. They get his adrenalin going — and the carnage and destruction that lie in the wake of these battles are incentives and justification for further attacks. Typically, these attacks take place when his opponent is unable or unwilling to respond. So when the British Government are too diplomatic to take him on — that gives him the zeal to pursue them even further. When the Governor is reluctant to answer him back — he presses on with more attacks. When he is in the House of Assembly and believes that he is sheltered from the possibility of being sued — he is at his slanderous best. When he is in the House of Assembly and knows that his adversaries in the community cannot defend themselves — his bravado reaches its crescendo. Plainly speaking, the Chief Minister is a bully and a coward, who takes full advantage of any circumstances that afford him protection.
But almost four years have passed in a five-year term and the normal attrition of a Hubert Hughes administration has set in. I am quite certain that reality is beginning to unfold and the CM is beginning to regret the dismissal of Edison Baird. We know that he made that decision reluctantly in the face of angry supporters who he had convinced, for other reasons, that Mr. Baird was a part of a conspiracy to retard development. It is the same Edison Baird who stood by his side when the similar issue of a quorum threatened to bring down his Government. The Opposition did not cause him to be in a position where any member absent from the Government side gives it more leverage to move its agenda forward. That is a part of the parliamentary process – and it rears its ugly head especially at times when an incompetent Government is retarding the progress of the country. People are losing their homes; their land; their health; their jobs; their businesses; their lives; and their families – while the Government pretends that everything is going well.
The Opposition had to sit helplessly by while the Government used its majority to railroad increased and new tax measures through the House; messed up MOA’s just to prove that they are different; messed up ANGLEC; messed up the Tourist Board; messed up Social Security; messed up morale in the public service; messed up the indigenous banks; messed up Cap Juluca; messed up the passage of the Education Act; tried to mess up the Medical School – the list goes on. Now the Opposition is determined that if there is an opportunity to stop them from messing up things any further they will take it.
It is amusing when I hear the Parliamentary Secretary talking about the Opposition preventing the business of the House, when they spent their entire four years holding up all kinds of urgent Bills from reaching the House. They complained that the Opposition was preventing some young people from getting gifts for Christmas because a duty free concession did not go through. Is he aware of how many people they have prevented from enjoying a good Xmas because they have lost their jobs and their businesses? Does he realize how many children are not going to school because they are hungry?
Come on, Haydn! Stop the foolish games! Stop trying to distract people’s attention away from the real issues by passing out silly papers talking about indictments in the United States. Start talking about the moral indictment of the AUM for playing politics with people’s lives. Stop filling the social media with lie after lie just to clear the way for another campaign of deception. The game is up! Quorum or no quorum the election is just over a year away. When will the Government deliver on its false promises? When you stated on Radio Anguilla on October 25, 2013 that you do not lie — do you realize how many victims of your lies were listening? The game is up!
The Opposition does not need to bring down the House — you guys are doing a pretty good job at that yourselves. It is only a matter of time!
I have said all of that to say this. It is obvious that the Government is now in full campaign mode. Its members have been planting seeds that they need more time because they spent the first four years cleaning up the mess left by the former Government. But you have heard that before — you were even told that there was a plan. Obviously, that invisible plan has not been very effective because they cannot point to any mess that has been cleaned up. What we have seen is the blatant incompetence of a Government stumbling from error to error. And as they travel along there are less and less elected representatives involved in the process. The Chief Minister had a component of five elected members with administrative responsibility in 2010. He now has only two elected Ministers. Where does he intend in 2015 to derive a Government that can carry out the invisible plan that he contrived? Let’s face it. We have a broken Government with two “junior” Ministers with absolutely no experience and no real say in the decision-making process. Is this the future that we are being asked to wish for? Where is the depth of experience that we obviously need for the challenges ahead? It would be my advice to the undecided to be very diligent in your search.
But if the Government is in campaign mode it behooves the Opposition to be ready for any eventuality. There are those who claimed that Haydn is more in a rush for elections than the Opposition. In fact, it is believed that Mr. Baird has chided him so much about his electability that he cannot wait to put his chances to the test in Road South. The word is that even though there is still much reluctance in Hubert to step down, the hunger in Haydn to step up is much more aggressive. And even after that decision is made there still remains another even more worrisome concern for the AUM organization, that is, who will be the Party Leader? Little wonder the AUM is trying to deflect its indecision on to the AUF organization in an effort to down play the magnitude of its anxieties. It will be most interesting to see how Mr. Hubert Hughes accepts political retirement.
The Leader of the Opposition, the Hon. Evans McNiel Rogers, made the emphatic statement on “To the Point” talk show last evening, that there will be a Motion of No Confidence against the Speaker in the next sitting of the House of Assembly. It therefore promises that the Opposition has also stepped up its game. Will the Speaker’s response to this trigger another quorum issue? These are the questions that will decide the future of the AUM Government. As I said earlier, the Parliamentary Opposition is not impressed with the competence of this Government to make any real difference in the lives of Anguillians by the end of their term. As a consequence its members hardly see the point in pandering to them any further. So if the quorum issue continues to be a problem it is conceivable that, somewhere in the process of time, Haydn and Hubert will eventually get the message that the games is up! Pack up your marbles! It’s time to go!
