Do these “Radio personalities” think that Anguillians are dumb?
Some days ago I listened with some interest and amusement to a discussion between a local radio personality and a “politician”. (I’m being very kind with the second description.) The participants, I felt, were trying to give the impression that theirs was a scholarly discussion and was directed at people who they must believe do not think for themselves.
Around here, you sometimes get the sense that most of Anguilla’s current political pundits share a view that their audiences are comprised of a bunch of stupid people with short memories. I think that belief was much to blame for the demise of the AUM’s in the last election, and it appears to me that most of the AUM exponents of this belief have learned nothing from that catastrophic experience.
The pair were discussing a regionally aired press conference hosted by the Governor of the ECCB relative to current banking matters. A notable omission from the conversation by the pair was that they never advised their audience that former CM Hubert Hughes agreed for the new Banking Act to go to the Anguilla Parliament, never mentioned it during the election campaign, never brought it to Parliament and therefore never made the people of Anguilla aware of it.
The pair, to my mind, glossed over the ECCB Governor’s revelation that the ECCB has not yet provided the GOA with the Report on NBA and CCB. This is the Report which the AUM Leader (Dr. Lorenzo Webster), AUM supporters and Ms. Palmavon Webster (Leader of the Opposition) have been stridently harassing the new Chief Minister to release from a few days after the election.
The AUM and Opposition have been trying to make it appear that the Government which was installed just three short months ago is hiding a number of “important documents” from the public. The facts are that:
1. The ECCB Report. We just found out from the ECCB Governor that the Report has not yet been released. The previous administration knew it had not been released to them.
2. The new Banking Act. Note paragraph three (3) above. The Act is available to anyone and the new GOA will have to study it and, given some of the clauses in it which Anguillians could find touchy, the CM will likely be making it available for public consultation.
3. The Forensic Study. Anyone, and that includes the pair concerned who listened to the ECCB communiques (starting with the second which was published early in 2014) would be aware that one communique stated that a forensic study would be carried out. A later communique stated that the study would be paid for by the FCO. I would believe, and I think, the pair, if they are as smart as they try to make us think they are, would also recognize that if the FCO paid for the study the British Governor would be the first to be given the study. They should also consider that if there was something damning in the Study, Victor Banks would not have the power to hide it. It is rumoured that the Governor received the study and she has the authority to deal with it and its contents.
Now back to the new Banking Act. When discussing it the pair seemed to wholeheartedly agree that the ECCB Governor should have more power over the banks’ management, directors and staffing matters than the elected Government which operates under the labour laws of Anguilla. I’m sure, however, that they hold such a view at this point in time because there is an AUF Government in charge in Anguilla. I believe, however, that their view would likely be completely different if the AUM were the party in power, at this time, and it felt that the powers of the ECCB allowed it to determine matters which affected the AUM Chief Minister’s ability to effect his actions of cronyism and nepotism blatantly practiced by CM Hughes over the last five years. .
I have concerns about several areas of the new Act but in the context of the labour issues it addresses, particularly when considering granting the Office of the ECCB Governor greater powers in the new Act.
In conclusion I think that the Government of Anguilla needs to think long and hard about the implications for the citizens of Anguilla of delegating responsibilities for critical Corporate and Labour matters in Anguilla to the ECCB which is an Authority appointed by a body comprising politicians elected by persons from other islands of the region.
Name withheld upon writer’s request
