Winston Churchill during Britain’s dark days of WW II was quoted to have said that he who fails to learn from history is doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past. Mr. Churchill continued in his assertion that “when the situation was manageable it was neglected and now that it is thoroughly out of hand, we apply too late the remedies that might have affected a cure.” Well, Mr. Churchill’s assertion may very well apply to our indigenous banks. We as a people are in the fight of our lives. We have sat idly by and let total strangers, who like thieves into the night, came in under the guise of helping us, to actually hurt us.
I’m speaking of course of the unceremonious hostile takeover of our own indigenous banks, NBA and CCB. While the ECCB (Eastern Caribbean Central Bank) came in with the blessing of our Chief Minister, who also happens to be our Minister of Finance, it was understood that this was to be a temporary operation whose primary objective was to stabilize both banks. This operation has morphed into something that is now entirely different. It appears that the ECCB’s Governor, Mr. Venner, has taken a page out of President Barak Obama’s first Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel’s, playbook which is to never let a good crisis go to waste. Sir Dwight Venner is not by any stretch of the imagination about to waste a good crisis, for in Anguilla’s local banks he sees one. His true intentions were made abundantly clear last week when the ECCB decided that they needed more time to accomplish their mission.
From the outset, very little information was disseminated to the people of Anguilla who, by the way, are the shareholders of these two banks and I would think that they should be kept abreast of what’s going on. Instead, it continued to be business as usual. Despite the fact that Sir Dwight Venner has made known his intentions from way back that these two banks should be amalgamated, we nevertheless went along with the ECCB.
While the global downturn in the economy struck Anguilla the same as it has everywhere else, very little was done to help us. The indigenous banks continued to carry their toxic portfolio on their books while the ECCB were aware of the difficulties that were being experienced. When our CM invited them to come and stabilize our banks the whole episode did not pass the smell test – but since they were the ones to “save” the banks, they were given free reign to perform the necessary actions. However, matters were further compounded when the House passed that quorum-less Banking Bill amendment that gave ECCB unfettered powers with immunity that meant they could do whatever they want under the guise of trying to help Anguilla, and we would have no recourse. In other words, they could close the banks, go home to St. Kitts and then thumb their noses at us and we could do nothing. How about that? Aren’t our elected officials just marvelous? How was that for a Christmas gift?
Citizens of Anguilla, shareholders alike, we’d like to believe that our Minister of Finance acted in our best interests and it is still up to him to show us the people of Anguilla that he does indeed care what happens to our indigenous banks. It is a well known fact that the ECCB are probably the most inept organization in the Caribbean and, for the life of me, I can’t understand why we would acquiesce to anything that they would propose. The revelation in last week’s Anguillian, that the said organization will need additional time to put in place those measures to shore up our banks was indeed an eye opener. If anything, it serves as a wake up call to those of us who want to restore our identity. We in the past have been a passive people until being chucked and pushed to the brink. This is one of those times. Our forefathers freed us from the tyranny of a dictatorial central government, and we had the temerity to take the fight to them on their own soil. Well, the time has come once again for us to stand up and fight for what we believe in. We believe in building our own homes with money borrowed from our own banks. With the loss of the banks, that would cease to exist for generations to come, we cannot allow the ECCB to come in and seize our banks.
Their actions have little to do with saving the banks for us. We are of little consequence here. Sir Dwight Venner wants to shore up his weak Eastern Caribbean States banking system and Anguilla’s use of the US dollar, 65% of which it would provide a boost to the worthless EC dollar.
My fellow Anguillians, are we going to stand by and let our banks be snatched from under our noses? Are we going to let total strangers come in and dictate what happens to us? Since when did we start to roll over and play dead? Are we the same people who told Mr. Bradshaw where to go? Who asked Mr. Whitlock to leave because we could no longer guarantee his safety? I could go on and on, and maybe I should so that this new generation learn from whence they came. They need to know that that big house they now live in, that stateside college education, the nice lifestyle to which they’ve become accustomed, were made possible with money borrowed from our indigenous banks. They need to know that all of us, regardless of party affiliation, creed or class, will have to belly up to the bar and make the ECCB wish they had never set foot on Anguilla.
It was the job of the ECCB to monitor and take any corrective measures that they deemed necessary, but I think it might be fair to say that they’ve been derelict in their duties, for the banks began to struggle as far back as 2009, and yet they did nothing. The question then becomes, why didn’t they act before? This is like the fireman who starts fires only to help put them out and be seen as a local hero. One also has to ask the question of, why us? True we were struggling, but so too was St. Lucia. The ECCB has not done anything about them. Antigua and Barbuda’s banks are being protected by their government. We want to maintain our autonomy over our banks and we call upon our CM to block any attempt by ECCB to seize our assets.
Sir Dwight. Venner has made his intentions known and they are not in our best interests. It is therefore incumbent upon us to oppose his every move one way or the other. We are in the fight of our lives, but then this is nothing new to us. We have had to fight for everything we ever got, so we have them right where we want them. Anguilla’s banks belong to Anguillians and we’ll be damned if we let some stranger, even if he has the blessings of our Finance Minister, come in and tell us any differently. When we were struggling to stay alive, none of these people knew us, but now because we possess 65% of the foreign currency in the Eastern Caribbean States, we are of some value. Franklin D.Roosevelt, in his address announcing the second New Deal, told the American people that he was trying to restore American democracy and, in so doing, had this to say: “Give me your help, not just to win votes alone, but to use this crusade to restore America to its own people.” When Hitler had his foot on the neck of Britain, when he was about to snuff out the last breath out of that body, Winston Churchill made his now famous Blood, toil tears and sweat speech of May 13, when he said: “We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, and we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, and we shall fight in the hills: we shall never surrender.”
On Saturday, the 15th of February, on the Mayor Show on KOOL FM103, Kennedy Hodge likened our struggle to save our banks to that of Mr. Churchill’s rallying cry to his fellowmen to fight for their homeland. Both Mr. Roosevelt and Mr. Churchill saw the need for their constituents to fight for what they both believed in. Our fight is one of a different nature, but a fight nonetheless. Let us join Mr. Kennedy Hodge in his crusade to save our local banks without which Anguilla would be nothing. We’re fighting for generations to come and this is something we can’t take lightly. We know from whence we came. We definitely know where we are, but we have to chart a course for where we want to go.
Anguilla has paid its fair share into the ECCB system and consequently should be dealt with in a fair and equitable manner. The failure to establish a debt resolution trust to deal with the toxic assets continues to hound the banks. Our CM has to protect our banks at all cost. He has always advocated that he has Anguilla’s best interests at heart. Well, now is the time to step up. Reject amalgamation and return both banks to the people. You have always worried about posterity, well, here’s the chance of a lifetime. What will history have to say about you? That you stood up to the Governing Board of the ECCB and blocked their hostile seizure of the banks, or that Hubert Hughes, Anguilla’s Chief Minister and Minister of Finance, who when given the opportunity to save the indigenous banks, sided with the ECCB and allowed the banks to cease and desist? Chief Minister, this is your moment in time, one that will have long lasting effects one way or the other. Either way, history will judge you. What do you want it to say? The choice is yours.
Until then, may God guide those who lead us to make the right choices. May God bless and keep us, and may God bless Anguilla.
