In his inaugural address in 1960 President John Kennedy of United States said: “ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country”. That is a serious challenge and indeed there are a lot of things the citizen can do for his country. In order to shape the destiny of Anguilla the simplest action we can take is to give ourselves good government – by voting for the best and most capable persons, as representatives, to form it.
For the voters in Anguilla, at this immediate point in time this means that the present regime must not be returned to office. In other words, do not vote for them because based on the reality of the situation (unless we are sadistic and want more of the same) there is no good reason for them to be around. The truth is: the time has come for them to go. And we should send them home now that we have the opportunity. Their performance has undeniably shown that they are not ready to be Ministers of the Crown and that we can do better. An observant voter population would notice that and correct it at the polls.
Check it out! What have they done on their own initiative for us, in the last five years, that is noteworthy? First and foremost where is the progress? And let us look at it from the standpoint that action speaks louder than words. It is not worth noting the tra-la-la that one spews — what we have to look at is whether there is any motion to go with it. To be fair to the analysis, we have to compare where the country was going before they ascended to power and how it stopped since they took over the Government.
Now, once again, they are offering more of the same lies and irrelevant nonsense that this time around nobody will believe. Such presenters should not be our “representatives”. It seems that they would be more productive shoveling stuff on a cattle farm.
To the informed and politically mature voter, and those of us who were here during the last election, this writer does not need to rehearse the “foggy fraught” they pushed on us last time. But we must remember the high price we paid for swallowing it, and deal with them accordingly. They might think that it is “the same old same old” — but the voter must send the message, when he gets to the polling booth, that we had enough of that and say: “Not this time buddy — I am going to try somebody else!”
Secondly – and of major importance to enable us to make up our minds – are the issues. We must declare loudly and clearly that the issues are not about personalities — but about political problemsolving. And the most important issue that must be wrestled with is economic growth.
We know we have physical limitations to the correction of this problem, therefore we must contrive political apparatus to help us combat it. This is where the importance of having capable people charged with tackling the issues is paramount. From the standpoint of plain common sense, we should never consider giving heavy lifting to pygmies when we know that only giants can handle it.
Our economic limitations derive from the fact that we do not have among us the financial wherewithal to spur growth, thereby we must know how to attract foreign direct investment. We cannot afford to add to this reality, local political limitations. That situation would only exasperate the problem, and make it harder for us to create avenues for growth, simply because our political hacks do not know what to do. And that is a burning issue for this election. Any attempt at unburdening the problem takes us back to where John Kennedy left off: “Ask what can you for your country” — particularly at this election time. You will, on assembling the facts, notice that this government has deepened our limitations and landed us in a rough patch. If you want to do something for your country – and get it out of the rut we are in – then you have to vote them out of existence.
The behaviour of the CM appears to have increased our negatives and decreased our chances for increases in Foreign Direct Investment, and this is a serious dilemma for us here. We cannot afford such government behavior that gives the “would-be-investor” the feeling that Anguilla is not the place to readily invest. The danger and undesirability in such a scenario is that in the long run, or over a protracted period, this can cause the island to become a forbidden paradise, and cause the would-be-investor to think that he/she should have kept his/her money where he/she got it, or go somewhere else. That is the pitfall we seek to avoid, and must modernize and improvize on initiatives that would bring in more MoUs.
But we know that limitations reside in government and that elections are held to find governments. We also understand that it is Joe Blow who by his vote picks the Government. Modern day politics demands that someone has to articulate and present the core elements of issues. In mature political systems the party performs this function and in Anguilla it is the AUF that has better served the people in this regard. The record shows the superior activity of the AUF while in power. What becomes clear, when proper analysis is made of the period of our development, is that the greatest strides in our advancement came when that party (AUF) was the ruling administration. Lately, and under the present leadership, the reverse is true. This makes it abundantly clear that if we are again to move forward we cannot rely on the AUM. Therefore, if you really want to do something good for your country you must go back to the AUF.
