This article questions the motives and sincerity of the Hon. Hubert Hughes who, in recent years, ever so often, has been calling for political independence forAnguilla. I have become greatly concerned as I have observed him kicking around the issue of independence like a political football. One moment he wants independence now, the next he embraces full internal self-government. In the last three years, he has been yanking our chains as he pleases on the issue.
Independencecame up during the lead up to the 2010 elections. It was greatly overshadowed by the economic crisis and the pressing economic challenges. These included unemployment and loss of income, financial hardship, as well as the large deficit in the Government’s budget. What did the Chief Minister, Hon. Hubert Hughes, and his AUM offer us to deal with these issues?
Hubert told us he “would spin straw into gold”, and he got our votes. We swallowed his now infamous line, as they say, “hook, line and sinker”. Many of us really believed that he would make a huge difference and bring back the good old days of prosperity in a jiffy, like magic. Just imagine, many of us really believed him! Imagine we desperately snatched at the straws Hubert dangled before our minds’ eyes? Hubert whispering “straw into gold”, straw into gold”.
We also believed Hubert, at the time, when he stated that the AUF intended to impose taxes but he would not. He promised us that he and the AUM would never impose taxes on us because “you cannot tax a dead economy”. He represented to us that he and the AUM were the anti-tax party, while the AUF would tax us to death. He would fight the British on taxes, the AUF would not. He claimed the British, like a bogeyman, was bent on imposing taxes. He, Hubert, would have none of that. So he promised. No new taxes! No tax increases! And we believed.
We are all painfully aware of what Hubert has actually done – greatly increased our tax burdens, in the two years, since assuming office as the Chief Minister and Minister of Finance of Anguilla. So welcome to Hubert’s world of pure lies and propaganda.
Hubert painted the AUF as solely responsible for the economic hardships we suffered in 2008 and 2009. We swallowed these lies and propaganda too. I bet he will also tell us that the AUF is responsible for the taxes he, Hubert, has imposed since February 2010. Will we believe him?
Will we continue to believe Hubert’s bluff and bluster, pretending to be the champion of the working people? Hubert who, as Chief Minister, did not lift a finger to help the powerless workers whom Cable and Wireless, in the mid-1990s unceremoniously terminated with only a pittance? Hubert, who was too busy abusing the telephone privileges, afforded him, and looked the other way while Cable and Wireless sent their faithful and loyal workers home with very little? Not Chief Minister Hubert Hughes who, fifteen years later, just the other day, appears to have allegedlyexploited his position as Chief Minister and Minister of Finance to secure Executive Council’s approval for the payment of $40,000.00 to him, allegedly for telephone calls he made as Chief Minister. Not Hubert who wasted US$10,000 on a legal consultancy to try and find a way to avoid paying Civil Servants the back pay that is their hard earned property. Is this Hubert the working people’s champion? If only we would see him for whom he really is.
We failed to think carefully about the issues in 2008 and 2009. We ignored the news coming at us about the near economic collapse in theUSAand the rest of the developed world. Many of us today, two years later, continue to blindly accept Hubert’s and the AUM’s false allegations. We need to make greater use of the thinking skills that God has given us all to “pick sense out of nonsense”. Our habit of blindly believing the lies Hubert tells is a recipe for him to establish a dictatorship now and, worse still, if he were to leadAnguillainto independence. It is a cause for much concern with a Chief Minister, in the person of the Hon. Hubert Hughes, who has allegedly bragged that whatever he tells his supporters, true or false, they will believe it because he says so.
Blind trust placed in leaders has led to many a country – many a people – suffering greatly. Why? Because power corrupts and love of power, in particular, corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely, and most of all love of absolute power corrupts absolutely. We as citizens have a huge responsibility to think critically and to question our leaders, their actions, intentions and motivations. This is especially necessary when it comes to a politician, in Hubert, who has stated that dictatorship can be a good thing, if it is benevolent dictatorship, or words to that effect. Arrrgh! Very suspect! Very dangerous!
We need to be extremely watchful, lest our Chief Minister, ever so slowly, steadily and persistently, seeks to establish himself as an autocrat directly through the abuse of personal power, and/or indirectly through the delegation of power to his cronies who will do his bidding. For example, it is a reasonable interpretation that the Executive Council merely rubber stamped Hubert’s decision, as Finance Minister, to pay him the $40,000.00 in his capacity as Chief Minister, regardless of the weakness of his case for reimbursement of the telephone calls. Here is a foretaste of the dictator subverting and corrupting the system. Here is Hubert in all his autocratic glory – the Minister of Finance, Hubert Hughes, advising the Chief Minister, Hubert Hughes, on the matter; and the Chief Minister sitting in the Executive Council meeting, taking part in the discussion, overseeing and observing the decision by his ministerial colleagues even if, technically, not fully participating in the decision. Making sure that he gets “his” $40,000.00 while trying to deny Civil Servants what is theirs.
I sometimes wonder if Hubert was brainwashed, when he went to grammar school in St. Kitts, into believing that we Anguillians are really Bobo Johnnies, the only exception being Hubert himself. For that is how he treats us, like Bobo Johnny, that despicable caricature of our ancestors who was presented as lacking in “smarts” and very trusting of others.
I know and experienced it as a young man, that we Anguillians were mocked and laughed at by some of our fellowCaribbeanpeople in the neighbouring countries. Yes, we were called “Bobo Johnnies”. A “Bobo Johnny” was seen as someone who was very easily fooled. Some would say a “Bobo Johnny” was a simple minded Anguillian lacking the basic social skills to hold his own in competition with others. I really wonder if deep in his heart Hubert thinks of us in that light. I am really concerned that he may truly think that he can tell us anything and we will believe him. It sometimes looks that way to neutral observers. Hubert has fooled us once. Hubert has fooled us twice. Hubert has fooled us three times, four times and counting. It goes beyond “fool me once shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me”. It goes beyond “three times an Englishman”.
I do indeed sometimes wonder if our Chief Minister really thinks that way about us – that we are all “Bobo Johnnies” whom he can fool all the time, whom he can fool anytime, who believe whatever he says and everything he says, without question. If he sees us in that light, should we be surprised? Think about it. After all, he is the greatest defender and disciple inAnguillaof the late Robert L. Bradshaw a renowned leader of the people of St. Kitts, and a national hero of St. Kitts-Nevis. Bradshaw has earned, and well deserves, that status for his great contribution to the uplifting of the people of St. Kitts in particular. But his success in St. Kitts was accompanied by failure inAnguilla. He had a hard time understanding us, Anguillians. In his frustration he made statements that further alienated Anguillians and helped to solidify the process that led to the Anguilla Revolution of 1967.
What was the role of our present Chief Minister Hubert Hughes in 1967? Hubert was a strong opponent of our Anguilla Revolution for self determination. What has Hubert’s position been in relation to the Anguilla Revolution over the past 45 years? His position, in his own words, is that there has been no Anguilla Revolution. It did not happen! Call it something else. It was not a revolution. There was no Anguilla Revolution! The gospel according to Hon. Hubert Hughes.
Here is Hubert at his autocratic and arrogant best with an insult, to all Anguillians, that crowns all his other insults to us over the years, in relation to the Anguilla Revolution. The Hon. Hubert Hughes, in his role as Chief Minister, inflicted a gross insult on the “Father of the Nation”, the Hon. James Ronald Webster, at the first Anguilla Day Celebrations since the AUM assuming office in February 2010. Hubert, in his 2010 Anguilla Address, praised the late Robert Bradshaw to Mr. Webster’s face – with Mr. Webster sitting in the audience. This was also a great insult inflicted on all of us Anguillians. Hubert should be held accountable for this and should apologize to Mr. Webster and to all of us. Yes, we need to hold him accountable. The least we should demand is an apology to the Hon. James Ronald Webster and to us the people ofAnguillaas a whole. Talk about disdain for the Anguilla Revolution, for its leaders and for us as a people!
What I have discussed so far provides an insight into the political character and the personality of the Hon. Hubert Hughes. It gives an insight into the true nature of the man and the politician. It reveals to me that Hubert at heart really does not care one bit about the interest of us, the people ofAnguilla. He cares a lot about exploiting our dissatisfactions for his own benefit, using us to advance his lust for power. That is his underlying interest. That interest of his is political and economic power for himself and his sons. He does not care about telling the truth and respecting the true facts about a situation, an event or a highly significant historic national movement, such as the Anguilla Revolution. Anything that Hubert did not bring about is of no value – did not happen. That is how he behaves. So he uses propaganda as the chief tool in his arsenal.
What is propaganda you ask? According to Webster’s dictionary “propaganda” is “the spreading of ideas, information, or rumour for the purpose of helping or injuring an institution, a cause or a person”. Propaganda at its worst is associated with dictators, and with pain and suffering and death caused by dictators using propaganda to stir up the masses into frenzies and direct them to harm others in a bid to secure power, absolute power, on the backs of the people. Is this the underlying personality of our Chief Minister who loves power, personal power in particular? Far too many countries have suffered because the leader, who at first pretended to be working in the people’s interest, declines into a despot. He looks out only for himself, immediate family and cronies. The people end up exploited and oppressed by one of their own, and eventually are forced to free themselves from despot’s grip. (The Grenada Revolution is a salutary lesson.)
So what is the real interest of the Hon. Hubert Hughes in pursuing independence for Anguilla? It can be summed up in two words: absolute power. Power to do as he pleases? Power to behave like a so called benevolent dictator? Power to behave like Robert Mugabe inZimbabwe and ruin the country’s economic and social fabric. (While a student in the UK in 1977, I supported Mugabe’s leadership of the Zimbabwean independence struggle, through participation in a student support group.)
What is Hubert’s real interest in independence forAnguilla? Power to attack and lock up his opposition, especially the Hon. Victor Banks. Yes, lock up Victor Banks who, not so long ago according to Hubert, was such a great man, the best thing since “sliced bread”, when he worked with Hubert in the AUM-ADP coalition Government of 1994 – 1999. Now Hubert paints Victor as the worst devil on the face ofAnguilla. Why? Because he acted in accordance with his conscience and left the second Hubert Hughes Government in 1999 – a few months after the 1999 elections returned Hubert to office as Chief Minister.
What is Hubert after? I suggest he is after unfettered power to use his control ofAnguilla’s Government to enrich himself and his sons. Even now, well ahead ofAnguillagaining independence – even now, under our dependent territory constitution Hubert is seeking and succeeding in subverting state power to win unfair advantages for him and his family. How best to ensure that he gains absolute power than through takingAnguillainto independence.
With Hubert only one person must have absolute power and control, so that he can exploit the system to his own advantage and at the expense of the rest of us. And guess who that person is? If Hubert is going to captainAnguillainto independence, stop the boat! Stop the good vesselAnguilla, Captain Hubert. Let me get off! I do not want to end up horribly shipwrecked. I do not want to end up hopelessly marooned in Anguilla – in yourlandofHubertiandictatorship.
