With our election season now open and in full force, the stakes of this particular election, it appears, are higher and more important than ever. This became evident when the rhetoric in the past week became more vitriolic. It seems that the rules of good sportsmanship have jumped ship and in their place a ‘do to your opponents before they do unto you’ has come on board. Now it is no secret that this upcoming election is a bellwether – one that takes the lead with regard to the direction in which we need and want to go. However, we can’t be complacent and allow ourselves to be fooled – by those contesting this election – into thinking that they have our best interests at heart. On the contrary. If they did, they would offer more than the same old tepid rhetoric, and offer some concrete plans on how they intend to get us back on track.
While it is true that this election is one that will make or break Anguilla, it is therefore imperative that we get it right this time. We can in no way conduct business as usual, and expect different results. That is Einstein’s definition of insanity. This time around we have to take a long hard look at those who would lead us into the future. We have to be educated as a people to know exactly what’s at stake and what it is that we need to do. More specifically, what is our role in this still struggling democracy? We just can’t sit around waiting to learn what our fate will be. We have to be proactive. When most of us were out there fighting for our cause, those who now run the government opposed us in every possible manner. Isn’t it ironic that these are the very same ones who now hold our fate in their hands? Just recently we marked the 150th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address in which this phrase will be forever embedded in our psyche. He listed the government “as of the people, by the people and for the people.” We have to emulate that concept.
As I’ve often said, we tend to take at face value that which is fed to us. We sit back and wait for our leaders to tell us what is going on, and when they’re not forthcoming we give them a free pass. Does that sound like a government of the people, by the people and for the people? Are we the same adults who, in some cases, put our lives on the line so that we can have a better life? Are we not, as a common courtesy, entitled to know what the hell is happening with our country? Do we not pay these leaders’ exorbitant salaries? We are entitled to know. What happened to the sunshine that everyone talked about? Come on guys, chase the clouds away and level with us. We’re big boys and girls. We stood up to Mr. Bradshaw and, having done that, can withstand anything.
As a nation, we’ve had some hits and misses. Unfortunately, for us, less hits, more misses – but I think we can actually learn from our mistakes. With that being said, it doesn’t mean that we should continue on the same path. We have some of the most appetizing resources anywhere in the world and, for some reason, we can’t seem to utilize them to our benefit. We have gone away from that which made us great. I don’t need to enumerate the things that made us great. We have, instead, become a nation that’s suffering from a bad case of crab in the barrel syndrome. We’ve neglected to pass on to our young that which was taught to us and, as a consequence, we’re faced with a generation that will either leave Anguilla and not come back, or get caught up in a life that has no rhyme or reason. I do believe that point was eloquently driven home on the Mayor Show on Kool FM 103.3, a few Saturdays ago, by Lowell Hodge.
It is hard to contemplate one’s next move when the lights have been turned off because of non-payment, when water is being rationed, when the cost of food is so high, when the kids have to go to bed on an empty stomach, and so on. How did we come to this? In the old days that would never have happened for we always had something to fall back on. You could get a pole and go fishing, or you usually had your ground provisions to tide you over. Anybody remembers guinea corn porridge and sweet potatoes? What has happened to us: a once proud people who were as entrepreneurial as anyone out there, a people who built and sailed their own ships, who flew their own airplanes, who used that old Anguillian ingenuity to get things done? For too long we have left well enough alone. Not only have we settled for well enough, it appears that we’re afraid to step out on our own. We have neglected our most precious resource: our children. President John F. Kennedy, in one of his speeches, had this to say: “Children are the world’s most valuable resource and it’s our hope for the future.” Despite JFK’s admonition, we have left the children to fend for themselves. Shame on us.
We know what needs to be done. The sixty-four thousand dollar question is whether or not we will get it done. So far, we’ve seen nothing that would indicate that those who would lead us are up to the challenge. We need a new breed of politician: one who will possess those rare qualities of courage and commitment, someone who will champion the rights of all, someone who has the tenacity and the resilience, the intelligence and the ability to address the tough issues, someone who is a part of the fabric of the country –and not someone who thinks that this might be a good gig, at the last minute, or is more concerned about what the history books will have to say.
For too long now we’ve been stuck in a quagmire – party politics – and as I’ve said, in the last two weeks, political parties are a means to an end. They are concerned with their own agenda: what it is that they can accomplish for themselves, and how to achieve and maintain power. I’m reminded about an incident that occurred early in our new nation’s history when one candidate told the then leader of the nation that if he was going to introduce party politics to Anguilla, he was bowing out. That particular candidate walked off the platform and went home never to be heard from again. Did we listen? Obviously not. Have we benefitted from having political parties in Anguilla? Look around and you be the judge.
Whether it’s a woman or a man, this time, who leads us – whoever it is – will have to possess that je ne sais quoi, those special qualities that I alluded to earlier, not the same blow-hards that run year after year. This time it has to be much different. A change has got to come. In his address to an Assembly in Frankfurt, Germany, in June 1963, President John F. Kennedy, on the topic of change, had this to say: “Goethe tells us that in his greatest poem that Faust lost the liberty of his soul when he said to the passing moment “Stay, thou art so fair.” And our liberty, too, is endangered if we pause for the passing moments, if we rest on our achievements, if we reset the pace of progress. For time and the world will not stand still. Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.” So I say to you, my fellow Anguillians, still in the words of the 35th President of the United States: “Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.”
The world has changed and, if we’re to survive, we too must change. We cannot continue to do the same things time and time again and expect different results. Pretty soon we’ll be suffering a collective concussion from banging our heads against the wall. The time has come for a few good people to step forward not because it sounds like a good gig, but because of a calling. That special person will have to be thick-skinned to withstand the barrage of slings and arrows. That person will have to be able to stay above the fray, but at the same time not let the detractors read levelheadedness as weakness. That person must have the vision unlike any we’ve seen from anyone thus far: one that will have the electorate stand up and take notice. We can’t let badminded people with an axe to grind determine our fate. That would be selfish and detrimental to our cause. We cannot maintain the status quo. There are too many of us hurting, too many of us who can’t pay our bills, too many of us who are fed up and frustrated to the point of just packing up and leaving. What’s to become of us?
We are currently facing a myriad of serious situations for which we see no relief in sight. This is not the time to retain a government which doesn’t seem to have a clue about what to do. This is not the time to let petty politics rule the day. If ever there was a time that we need strong competent and knowledgeable people looking out for us, it is now. Let us give those in power the collective boot right where it hurts. Let’s show them the door once and for all. We don’t have room for nepotism and cronyism and all of the other isms. I don’t have to enumerate them. You know what they are. There is no light at the end of the tunnel – only darkness. We need to have a government that truly understands the needs of its people: a government that will have the ability to think outside of the box – one that will have the ability and the wherewithal to get the job done. We need a government that will level with us – one that will tell us what’s happening with our banks.
We’re now faced with the distinct possibility of the devaluation of the EC dollar, according to an opinion piece, by Peter Binose, in the online newspaper Caribbean360. Binose contends that because of the overspending and the inability to pay back, by borrowers, the EC dollar might not be worth the paper it’s printed on. He goes on to really lambaste the region’s leaders who he calls “ignorant men who could not run a household budget far less manage the finances of a country.” The leaders are not the only ones that he blames. He says: “We must also blame lenders who are driven beyond the realms of ‘for profit’ to that ‘for greed’. Greedy lenders to incompetent and fiscally ignorant and stupid borrowers.”
The fact that this is happening, or likely to happen, would tend to complicate matters with regard to our situation with our indigenous banks. Where does this leave us? What happens now? Where is our Minister of Finance? Sooner or later he will have to address this situation if for no other reason than to allay people’s fears. Hopefully, we will soon get an update on the situation, though I wouldn’t hold my breath. These are trying times and it’s not time to elect the feint of heart. We in the Caribbean region should take a long hard look at the way we do things and determine if our leaders are looking out for us or for their friends. Mr. Binose contends, in closing, that: “It’s really time to rid the Caribbean of all these old Marxists, and when they are gone be sure that nothing like we have experienced during the last ten years, is ever allowed to happen again.” These are the same gentlemen who will determine the fate of our indigenous banks. Seriously?
We have a long and arduous journey ahead of us – one that will need energetic and competent leaders to illuminate the way. Not a bunch of the same old men who have run things for the last twenty-five years. It is high time they leave. Until then, may God bless and keep us all and may God bless Anguilla.
