Fellow Anguillians. Let us all together welcome 2017: a New Year offering hope for the future.
We give thanks for the lives of our loved ones, heroes and leaders who left us last year. And we collectively give God thanks for all the achievements and successes accomplished last year by so many Anguillians in so many fields of endeavour.
We reflect as well on our experiences last year and the lessons we take forward to manage the challenges and opportunities this New Year has brought already, and will bring as it progresses.
Personally, my own experiences have reaffirmed that with goals, a smart plan, faith in God and the willingness and commitment to hard work, you can achieve your dreams, even when there is doubt and the odds are stacked against you. And with God’s help, my fellow Anguillians, I have no doubt that together we can raise Anguilla from its present challenges.
The New Year is a time for establishing new objectives and making resolutions to achieve them. I encourage all Anguillians to be unafraid to dream big and to set ambitious goals, not just personally but for Anguilla as a whole.
And I encourage parents to nurture all our children with involvement in the community and high ambitions, however bleak those opportunities may appear to be in the short term. Our Children have unlimited potential and are our future. Their dreams today will become our reality tomorrow. Let them have dreams, ambitions, aspirations and, above all, hope. Let them convert those dreams to reality with a sense of purpose, by disciplined effort, diligent work and faith in God.
In making new resolutions this year, let each of us make a plan and aim to stick to our plan, put in the work, and keep to our resolutions.
Our thoughts go out to those whose employment has been terminated or temporarily suspended, for whatever reason. We pray that our government will have the good judgment to find solutions to the many problems that have caused these losses, and a more compassionate and constructive approach to the creation of jobs and the relief of hardship.
In listening to our Chief Minister on a very recent radio interview I was saddened by his apparent denial of any responsibility on the part of the current government for the problems Anguilla and Anguillians face. His focus was on the blame game: blaming everyone but his government for failing to understand the issues and for, he alleged, distorting those issues for their own advantage. But why, I ask him, does he expect that the issues surrounding the indigenous banks should have been fully understood, when he has resolutely refused to explain those issues or provide us, the people, with sufficient information to understand them? I say again to him, as I said in my Christmas message and as I have said in so many different ways over the past year:
“Transformational leaders develop, empower, and mobilize others, who then provide the collective engine for social, cultural, and systemic change. Transformational leaders are humble. They are constantly learning and listening to others. They are not complacent. They acknowledge that they do not have all the answers and this enables them to be more flexible and to adapt to the needs for change.”
Listening to the Chief Minister, one could not fail to come away with the impression that he has zero humility, that he is deaf to the cries of his people and that it is he, not we the people, who do not understand. But if we do not understand, who is to blame for failing to provide us with the tools to understand – real information, rather than doctored information served up as propaganda? I pray that the Chief Minister will eventually – and sooner rather than later – recognise this most terrible shortcoming, and allow his colleagues to recognise, that Anguilla will only succeed if he and his government carry the people with them, rather than persist in their illusion that their overwhelming majority gives them a mandate to act as a dictatorship.
As the Bishop of the Bahamas and The Turks and Caicos Islands said so eloquently in his address, when I attended the ceremony for the swearing in of the newly elected Turks and Caicos government last week:
“Remember that the government of any country is not a party come together to sit in Parliament. It is a construct of all who come together to sit in Parliament and to direct the national machinery. Parliament is made up of elected and appointed persons. It is a political unit which exercises national authority and performs functions. That is who you parliamentarians are: the government of the land. You must find ways to work together to build the Turks and Caicos Islands [for that read “Anguilla”]. This is not about you. This is not about your egos. This is about building a land which God has blessed you with, a land that many people would like to own. But God in his wisdom has planted you here and so you must come together for the good of TCI [Anguilla]. That sounds simple, even simplistic. But there is a profoundness to it which you must embrace if this country is to move forward. Therefore, I beg you to put aside partisan politics, pettiness, all grudges, political favours and political favourites, as well as under the table deals. This country has suffered from these things for too long and we ain’t going there today”.
I cannot stress strongly enough the importance of every Anguillian child having access to high quality education, to open their minds to wider possibilities than have been available to them hitherto, and to be empowered with the tools to convert their dreams to reality. The importance of growing and diversifying the economy to create new job opportunities cannot be overemphasised.
In the shorter term, every effort and focus must be on enabling those economic activities that have traditionally been the engines of economic prosperity for Anguilla: the tourist industry, construction, fishing and financial services.
Those industries must be encouraged and helped to prosper. They must not be killed by taxation, in whatever guise, that prices them out of the international market. The objective of government must be that every Anguillian should be economically independent, fulfilled and thriving – not just surviving. To make this a reality, we need a national plan to transform the economy, rather than staggering from crisis to crisis, month after month.
The government cannot do it alone, and it is time it realised that it cannot do it alone and that it must bring the wider population into partnership if Anguilla is to succeed. We need all Anguillians to be pulling in the same direction and coming together for the good of all. And we need to learn from other Caribbean countries how this can be achieved, such as partnerships with civil society and other interest groups and possibly through an Economic Programme Oversight such as that in Jamaica, which ensures that the country is informed, buys in, and stays committed to a rational and disciplined economic programme.
Anguilla needs to get to grips with the challenges that its small size presents in terms of the economies of government. It must learn the hard truths which will enable it to achieve economic independence. Anguilla needs a proportionately larger and more active private sector to invest and create enterprise. Such a private sector is not, and should not be, a small grouping of privileged people who corner all the wealth but it includes the small owners as well. Many small businesses, hiring one or more people, have the same or greater investment and employment effect as opening one large hotel, and they provide greater resilience to economic challenges. We must regard and treat our small entrepreneurs and business people as no less an important part of the national economy than the larger businesses.
The bureaucratic processes and regulations to which businesses and potential new businesses are subject are a constraint on the economy. Government should recognise that the public sector only has jobs because it serves private citizens and businesses. Government should realise that the public sector can only thrive when the private sector is growing. Let 2017 be a year in which the transformation of both our private sector and our public sector begins. Every Anguillian can play their part in regenerating Anguilla’s economy, whether you are a clerk or a permanent secretary, or a construction worker, service provider, waiter or hotel manager. We must all make it our duty to be more efficient and effective, for the future prosperity of Anguilla.
Our tourism industry faces challenges from many quarters. We have been blighted by over-pessimistic foreign government advisories concerning the risks of the Zika virus. We have been blighted by allegations of unwelcoming arrival procedures. We have been blighted by the rise in crimes of violence. We have been blighted by the price differentials created by the tax demands on our tourism industry.
We must solve these problems and cooperate with all concerned to enhance the unique attractions of Anguilla so that we are once again a competitive and alluring destination for our niche tourism market. To do so, all Anguillians must come together to play their part in restoring Anguilla’s attractions and reputation.
Let us make new resolutions for the coming year. After two years of false starts and broken promises, I recognise that pessimism is widespread. But if we come together and if the government engages with us, the people of Anguilla, we shall not fail. Our goal must be to ensure that all Anguillians fulfil your dreams.
I wish all Anguilla the very best that life has to offer. I pray that those in need will have the support of their friends and neighbours. I pray that the New Year will afford new opportunities and progress for all Anguillians.
(Published without editing by The Anguillian newspaper.)
