History has an interesting way of repeating itself. In the heat of the 1967-1969 Anguilla Revolution the defence, advanced by a majority of sympathetic nationals and other persons, was that 6,000 Anguillians – then the small but adamant population of Anguilla – “couldn’t be wrong”. Now, almost two generations later, and with a much larger population, it is also being said by many that 15,000 Anguillians, including the six elected representatives who did not support the highly-controversial Goods and Services Tax, 2021, “can’t be wrong”.
It is a situation that not only involved the casting votes of the two Ex-Officio Members of the House of the Assembly (the Attorney General and the Deputy Governor) who voted for the GST Bill on July 29, thus ensuring its passage – but two Ministers of Government and the four Opposition Members who voted against it. While the constitutional position appears that it was legal for both Ex-Officio Members to vote, irrespective that it appears that it was never done before, it is claimed that their voting to override the nays of the two elected Ministers of Government was morally wrong.
That has been the cusp of the complaints of the chain of letters and a petition that were delivered to the Governor recently. The letters came from the Concerned Citizens represented by Attorney-At-Law, Mrs. Josephine Gumbs-Connor, Mr. Mitchell Lake, Miss Khadijah Muhammad and Mr. Percy Thomas; the Anguilla Christian Council; the Anguilla Evangelical Association; the Anguilla Hotel and Tourism Association and the Leader of the Opposition.
The Anguillian newspaper has been advised by Attorney Mrs. Gumbs-Connor that all of the correspondence, and expected further communication, will be packaged together and sent to the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, The Right Honourable Dominic Raab. He was first appointed to that position and First Secretary of State on July 24, 2019.
The Anguillian further understands that the bone of contention is really not the matter of the voting by the Attorney General and the Deputy Governor per se. It is the fact that there has been such a huge widespread condemnation of the GST Act by various opposing organisations and the mass dissenting voices and signatures of the people of Anguilla. It is thought, perhaps, that such a tumult of public opinion should appeal to the Secretary of State especially when the point is made that there are certain alternatives to the Goods and Services Tax which can relieve Anguillians of this imposing burden.
In The Anguillian’s Editorial, of August 13, 2021, the headline was: “GST – Is it now a fait accompli?” This question was predicated on the fact that with 10 months between now and the implementation of the GST legislation on July 1, 2022, whether there is not an opportunity for the Governor to nullify the Act on instructions from the Secretary of State.
Is the GST Act cast in stone or will the current Secretary of State, do like his 1969 predecessor, Mr. Michael Stuart, who re-emphasised the promise in the Caradon Declaration that the people of Anguilla would not be forced to live under an administration they did not want and it was done? By a stroke of his pen, the Right Honourable Dominic Raab should be in a position to disallow the GST Act. What will he say? Which was more difficult to legally divide, in the eyes of the world, the former Associated State of St. Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla or to simply write off a burdensome and replaceable Tax Act in the interest of the people?
If, at that period, 1967-1969, 6,000 Anguillians could not be wrong about self-determination, as the history and accomplishments of the island now show – 15,000 can’t be wrong in asking for a disallowance of the GST Act and its replacement by other compassionate but productive tax alternatives.
