Fellow Anguillians,
On Thursday March 6th 2014, I, as General Secretary on behalf of my party the Anguilla United Front, made a presentation in relation to this AUM Government’s track record, their 4 years in office.
As a result of subsequent events, I now make this presentation to you in my personal capacity, as a woman, a female politician, a lawyer/businesswoman, a wife and a mother.
I was extremely disappointed to hear in the House of Assembly, on Friday morning, March 7th 2014, the type of angry, nasty and spiteful attacks that came out of the mouth of our Honourable Chief Minister, Mr. Hubert Hughes. Our Chief Minister, our Leader of Government Business, stood in our Honourable House of Assembly and proceeded with a personal attack on me and my womanhood, all because of my presentation of his Government’s four years in office. It was disgraceful.
One would have expected that the AUM Government would have responded to the issues raised in the presentation. Now, let me say this. I am well aware and accept that as a politician I will be the focal point of discussion from time to time. And while I have no problem with persons responding to the issues, however, I take strong objection to personal, vindictive attacks on my character, person and family. Disrespect and degradation to one’s character is not and should not be the accepted norm.
Our Chief Minister well knew that when he went to the House of Assembly, neither I nor any other person who he personally attacked on Friday March 7th 2014 were in the House or had the ability to immediately respond in the House to his derogatory statements. Mr. Hughes and his son mis-used the House of Assembly (which is for our elected representatives to conduct the people’s business) in order to respond to my presentation which was made on the radio. If the AUM wanted to respond, they were free to go on the radio with a response themselves. They could have held another platform meeting. They could have held a press conference or write an article in their favourite newspaper. But no, they took up the people’s time to campaign, to respond to my presentation, which simply outlined their record for the past four years. A record the AUM Government must surely be judged by the people of Anguilla on next election. But the cowardice act in the HOA must be seen for what it is, a means of defaming people’s character, under the cloak of the HOA where they are supposedly immune from prosecution, where they cannot be sued for anything they say.
Let us talk about the words of our Honourable Chief Minister in particular.
During his political speech at the Highway Tyre Shop on 19th February 2014, our Chief Minister stated that he would not allow “anything like Cora to beat Jerome”. Does this mean that he will not allow a woman to defeat Hon. Jerome Roberts? But, I wish to remind the Honourable Chief Minister, when he referred to me as “anything”, that he and I come from the same place; that my grandfather on my father’s side, James Richardson from The Valley who he claims to be his cousin, and my grandfather on my mother’s side, Thomas Benjamin Connor from Blowing Point, who he also claims to be his cousin, are his elders. And so he must show some sort of respect to his elders.
Would our Honourable Chief Minister refer to his wife as “anything”? Would he refer to his mother as “anything”? Would he refer to any women in his life as “anything”? I think, I would hope his answer is no. It is this type of disrespect coming from the mouth of our Leader towards women that cannot be tolerated in our society.
But this was not the only occasion on which our Honorable Chief Minister shows disrespect towards women. During women’s week, on the same day that the Governor of Anguilla (a woman) hosted a big celebration for 150 women from a cross section of our community, during the same week when a number of Anguillian women were slated as a guest speakers on the radio, our Honourable Chief Minister stood up and displayed to all of the world his disdain and blatant disregard for all women.
Let me briefly recap our Chief Minister’s words in the House of Assembly : (put the actual clip in here)
First he said: “ We want women of dignity, women who can serve as examples to other young women in the heart of our political life, not somebody who would do anything to earn a dollar. And everybody knows what those people are classified as. Because I unfortunately have to say that Cora Richardson is a gold digger. Because it is all about money, because it is not fair to other women that she would get up on radio and continue to publish when she said I gave the parliamentary secretary permission to negotiate with Starwood Capital a MOU for Viceroy where we gave away $18Million Dollars. How can I respect a woman when my wife is a woman and so many other decent Anguillian women are women when she says things like that?”
Then he said: “We respect women because we got a beautiful woman in our House. I will not allow these kinds of political thugs calling themselves women to come with this erroneous information they bring forward.”
So fellow Anguillians, there we have it. Our Chief Minister’s own words in the House. In the first part, our Chief Minister says that I would do anything to earn a dollar and then he calls me a gold digger. Now, I spent 8 years in university educating myself. I worked very hard over the years and was able to open my own law practice and earn an honest living. Is that being a gold digger? I think not.
But it is not just me who has sought to advance myself and make a contribution to our society. Many many women, young and old in Anguilla have their own businesses, from hair dressing to fashion boutiques, restaurants, real estate, villa management and cleaning companies. In Anguilla, we have our first female Governor, our Chief Justice, our High Court Judge and one of our Magistrates are all women. Four (4) out of seven (7) of our Permanent Secretaries are women. The principals of almost every school in Anguilla are women. Our educators are primarily women. I could go on, but you get the picture. Our Anguillian society is filled with strong and influential women that function in every level of our society. But more importantly, women across the country keep our family structures intact.
With such an important role that women play in our lives, how dare our Chief Minister, reduce the message of a female politician to simply demeaning the character of the politician? Little if any reference was made to the actual points of the presentation. The question that I must ask is, if I were a man, would he have referred to me as a gold digger? I think not.
And the description of me as a political thug is so outrageous as to be almost comical. But it is in fact not funny. The reality is that our Leader has missed the boat. He fails to understand that he cannot attack a woman on the basis of her womanhood simply because he dislikes what she has said. Let me repeat this. He fails to understand that he cannot attack a woman on the basis of her womanhood simply because he dislikes what she has said.
Where is the Christian Council to denounce Mr. Hughes’ words? Where are the talk show evangelists to explain to the Chief Minister that he must give respect to everyone, including female politicians? We talk about our young people and lament about how our young people do not respect our elders or each other. We talk about the lack of respect in our society. How can we do any better when our Leader, the Leader of our Country, the Leader of Government business, the one man that all should be able to look up to, spouts these offensive, rude and disrespectful statements? Right is right and wrong is wrong and our Chief Minister is wrong.
But, not only that, the presentation that I gave on behalf of the AUF Party was based on actual facts. Our Chief Minister and his members of Government got vex because I laid out what everyone in Anguilla have seen, heard and understood for themselves over the last four years. We cannot change history and the AUM Government cannot change its dismal track record. So, for the Government to try to deny their own record shows that it is they who are out of touch. In relation to the comments in the House generally, there were points made that were actually outright lies. And I will address some of these very briefly.
1. Our Honourable Chief Minister stated that I was “in a consultancy representing Mr. Sillerman who had Flag Luxury Golf Course, against the Government. He also stated that I was Mr. Sillerman’s lawyer. This is an outright lie. I never acted for Mr. Sillerman as a lawyer. I was appointed as the Liaison Officer between the Government of Anguilla and Flag Luxury Properties from 2006 to 2009, three (3) years. This was before I even entered the political arena.
2. Our Honourable Chief Minister suggested that the developer for Solaire became my client for political gain, because I was a politician. This is an outright lie. The developer was a client of my Firm years before I even entered the political arena. Contrary to Mr. Hughes’ belief, I did have clients and a book of business before I entered the political arena.
3. Our Honourable Chief Minister stated that the registered office for Solaire was at Banks Professional Services. Again, this is a lie and anyone can visit the Companies Registry to see the company file and they will find that Banks Professional Services was never the registered office.
4. Our Parliamentary Secretary, the Honourable Mr. Haydn Hughes, as well as the representative for the Sandy Hill District the Honourable Mr. Jerome Roberts both stated that I was “out of touch”. Let me remind everyone, that the presentation that I made on behalf of the Anguilla United Front, was a review of this AUM Government’s last four years in office. History cannot be changed. What happened and it was my job to remind the people of Anguilla as to what took place over the last four (4) years.
5. Our Parliamentary Secretary, the Honourable Mr. Haydn Hughes spent a lot of time talking about all of the MOUs and the work that is ongoing on the various projects. That may be all good and well, but the point that I made and the point that I will stick by is how many of these MOUs have translated to jobs for our Anguillians? How many? There are many many Anguillians that are home sitting down and, despite Mr. Hughes’ claims, they are out of work and looking for jobs. Perhaps it is Mr. Hughes who is out of touch.
I never asked the question as to how many of these projects have come to fruition or how many have started? This is a lie. It has become clear over time that this habit of lying seems to be an unfortunate trait of the AUM/APP party, all for the sake of being elected. And unfortunately, I fully expect that the lies will continue and even increase, as we head into the 2015 General Elections.
I understood after the House of Assembly had concluded that Mr. Haydn Hughes had stated that he would go to the gas station and fill his tank so that he could take me on a tour and show me what was happening on the projects, immediately after the House had concluded. I went home at about 8pm that night and I can tell you without a doubt that I never received that call from Mr. Hughes to join him on a tour.
Had he called me, however, I would have stated to him that the tour was not necessary because it was not me who he needed to convince that Anguillians were working. It is all of the Anguillians who are sitting home without work that he needs to convince. And so what I would suggest to him is that he should invite our Anguillian people that need jobs to go on that tour with him, with the idea of them obtaining full employment.
In closing, I would like to say that I find it interesting that our Chief Minister sees it fit to travel to District 2 in order to campaign against me for whom I presume is his AUM candidate for the 2015 general elections, the Honourable Jerome Roberts. I would have expected that by now, on the eve of general elections, that Mr. Roberts would be able to stand on his own accomplishments and not require the assistance of Mr. Hughes. I also find it interesting that, just like the 2010 general elections our District 2 representative appears to be in the backdrop while members of the AUM are at the forefront of the attacks against me. Nevertheless, we are all aware that the purpose, the goal of these attacks is for Mr. Roberts to be re-elected for another term in office, another five years.
To the Residents of District Number 2, please pay close attention to what is happening over the following weeks and months. We can all see and are all aware as to what is happening in this country. We can all see the lack of leadership and direction with which we are currently faced, and if we did not know before, we know now where our District Representative’s interests are aligned. I, Cora Richardson Hodge, stand before you as a proud, strong woman, an Anguillian that truly has Anguilla’s interests at heart, and a leader that can make a difference in your lives, our lives and in our community.
If these vicious attacks on me are meant to silence me or scare me then they need to think again. I will not allow other people to intimidate me. My reason for entering the political arena was not for personal gain, but to give back to Anguilla, to my country, the country of my parents. Anguilla has given much to me and I can do no less than to give back in any way possible. I am strong, I have gotten stronger, and I will NOT be deterred. I have fought, and I will continue to fight the good fight, for you, for our children, for Anguilla, for myself!
God Bless You and God Bless Anguilla
(Published without editing by The Anguillian newspaper.)
