My article last week was entitled “Let the goodwill of the season lead to change in 2019”. And I said, “I will take the inspiration of your support – and the message of Christmas – into the New Year. Indeed we shall look towards 2019 with both hope and excitement. The New Year will give us all the opportunity to revive proper leadership in this land; to build on a people’s yearning for unity and bi-partisanship”.
Your leader in the same issue of The Anguillian pointed in the same direction, by advocating that, “The sharing of information may lead to a greater understanding of the rationale for actions being taken – or for apparent inaction. Alternatively, the sharing of information might allow for the suggestion of solutions that were not immediately apparent to decision-makers”.
How true that is, and how disappointing that our Honourable Chief Minister holds his cards so close to his chest, and has so little faith in the fairmindedness and goodwill of the Anguillian people, that he has not, even now, been able to bring himself to tell us the outcome of his recent trip to London, together with the Honourable Minister of Infrastructure, to attend the Joint Ministerial Council, when he would have sought to persuade the British government to make changes to the Constitution of Anguilla without the consent or concurrence of a vast proportion of the population.
Nelson Mandela once said: “Where people of goodwill get together and transcend their differences for the common good, peaceful and just solutions can be found even for those problems which seem most intractable”.
So again I say: Let peace reign; and let love and a common purpose that informs all our endeavours be the thing that powers us all. And in 2019, let us all pull in the same direction for the greater good of Anguilla and ALL – not just some – of its people.
My best wishes and hopes for each and every one of you for a joyous and caring Christmas, and may the New Year bring us all closer to each other and to God.
