Anguilla’s performing artiste, Bankie Banx, called a press conference on Wednesday, May 14, to explain two radio statements he made recently. One was in response to scathing remarks about him and members of his family by Hugh Lake at an AUM public meeting at Island Harbour. The second was in response to Upbeat Radio’s description that the statement he broadcast there was a paid political statement.
“People have been asking questions [such as] Bankie, why so graphic? Are you in politics?” he told reporters. “I am not in politics. I just had to respond to an issue… My mission as an activist is not to put governments together. It is to create a level playing field…” He said that in the past three years, he had been outside of the political picture, and no one could say he was politically motivated.
He stressed that he had to respond to what Hugh Lake said because “it was coming across all the political lines… and, as a writer, I had to touch on all aspects of what made that happened.” He went on: “Some people who called me said, ‘Bankie you were very graphic’, but Christ was very graphic when he said ‘casting pearls among swine’ and he said ‘a gang of thieves in the temple.’ I am an activist and my mission is that. I continue to do that – and that is the statement I came here to present because I have been misrepresented.” He said that he was very graphic and had given his statement to all radio stations. “On Kool FM it was called a statement; some called poetry, some called it a hit…I took my statement to Upbeat Radio and I was surprised to find that it was announced as a political statement. I thought I was misrepresented and that it was a twist and a spin, and I responded with a statement – and that’s it,” he stated, with his stage-like gestures.
Bankie Banx further said: “There is nothing that I say isn’t true. It may be said in a very graphic way, but someone has to say it…I am not politically motivated. I haven’t voted for three consecutive elections in this country. I see no reason to vote. Anguilla has to be independent for my vote to make sense. I don’t dabble into these kinds of things.”
Bankie stressed that he had no interest in politics and that there was a need to let the people decide matters on their own. “My mission is to live clear and clean; not by slander and lies,” he stated.
When contacted, Ras B said he had no comment to make.
