There have been some heated exchanges between the Opposition Anguilla United Front and the Anguilla United Movement Government with respect to joint meetings called by Chief Minister, Hubert Hughes, to discuss matters relating to the sale of Viceroy and the employment of staff.
Matters about the sale of the hotel surfaced on Thursday, January 8, when there were meetings of Executive Council and Government meetings with representatives of Starwood Capital, owners of Viceroy. A press conference, called separately by Chief Minister Hughes to discuss the Viceroy matter, was abruptly cancelled after his Adviser, Mr Patrick Hanley, pleaded with him to abandon speaking to the press as the issue was too sensitive, and there were other arranged official meetings for him to attend.
Among the series of meetings scheduled for Thursday, January 8, were two called by Chief Minister Hughes – one between members of his Government and Opposition Members at the Secretariat; and the other one later, involving the Government and all candidates contesting the upcoming general election, representatives of Starwood Capital and employees held at the Viceroy property. Only one candidate, an independent, attended.
It is understood that some candidates were of the view that the notice was too short and that they were not privy to pertinent information; and, in one case, one of the independent candidates said he was invited.
The Anguilla United Front went public with the matter on radio, and at a public meeting. Speaking at his party’s meeting at Blowing Point on Saturday, January 10, the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Evans McNiel Rogers, said in part:
“My fellow Anguillians, why did this Government, in the last three or four days, invited and included members of the Opposition, and potential candidates in the 2015 general election, to a meeting to discuss the sale of Viceroy? You got to ask yourself that, my fellow Anguillians, because we were not involved in the initial negotiations. We do not know what sorts of agreements were made. So how all of a sudden you are going to call members of the Opposition to be part of such a meeting?
“When I got the call, my fellow Anguillians, I said to the Secretary from the Chief Minister’s Office, ‘I am not coming to any meeting unless I have the information with regards to the proposals to and fro, between Government, the buyers and the sellers and any agreements that Government would have made with the prospective buyers.’
“I wasn’t going to sit in a meeting to be a spectator. I needed the information to deal with, if I were to take part in such a meeting. I needed to be equipped, my fellow Anguillians. I must be equipped. You must ask yourself, fellow Anguillians , is this the same Viceroy that this Government boasted about [that] when they came to office they rescued Viceroy? The situation at Viceroy today is far from being rescued, and why is our Government asking not only the Opposition, but reaching out to candidates – candidates who had never been elected or sit in Government for that matter?
“Why? We have to be very careful with regards to what this Government’s ulterior motive is. The only thing I can come up with, my fellow Anguillians, is that they are looking for cover. They do not understand what they are doing and they are looking for cover. We were not involved in the initial negotiations, but now when things are falling apart, or when things have fallen apart, they are looking for someone else to put the blame on.
“Can you imagine Hubert Hughes inviting Victor Banks to a meeting about the sale of Viceroy? That is a sure sign of desperation, a sure sign of desperation. After, or during the last almost five years, as Mr Banks said, his name was called in the House of Assembly more than anything else – maligned, defamed; and here it is: the same Chief Minister, and his cronies, calling on Mr Banks to come to a meeting about the sale of Viceroy …
“And what was even more disgusting, was to hear the Parliamentary Secretary talk about the respect that he has for Palmavon Webster for coming to a meeting after [lambasting] her in the House of Assembly – and for Palmavon to show up at a meeting like that? Come on, something is wrong…a classic example of a confused, disoriented administration that lacks the knowledge and skill and understanding to negotiate successfully on behalf of the workers at Viceroy. That is what is happening. And, my fellow Anguillians, under the Fair Labour Standards [Act] if you were changing ownership … you must protect the interest of the workers – the employees.
“This administration does not seem to know what it is doing…You are going to tell me that for the last ten days, … since this year began, that the present administration did not know what was coming down the pipeline, with regards to the sale of Viceroy? I am saying this because in the next 106 days you will have a chance to choose a Government who will look out for the interest of the people of this country. They are running, hiding and looking for cover…”
Meanwhile, Chief Minister, Hubert Hughes, speaking at a public meeting of his Anguilla United Movement at The Farrington the same night, Saturday, January 10, had this to say:
“Viceroy was bought by Starwood Capital nearly five years ago, and Viceroy is now being sold by Starwood apparently to another company. And they reported to us something which we said we cannot accept: that they are going to make a certain number of people redundant; and we said we will not tolerate that.
“But you know what? We invited the Opposition… because I believe that everybody should be involved when we have to deal with foreign elements. And the people who invest in Anguilla are not fundamentally a majority of locals. So here is it: you come to Anguilla, you invest, you make big profits and you go; but our people are supposed to be the prime beneficiaries or have no fear.
“And when I heard what I heard from Starwood Capital, I decided that all the people running for election should take part in this discussion. I invited them. I told Capital that we will have another meeting tomorrow, and we will invite everybody who is running for elections, because no matter how strong we have been, and all the good things we have done, a lot of people still don’t vote right and you can end up like every other gamble or horse race. The wrong people could be elected; so therefore it is good for everybody to come together and that’s how I tried it when I came to office in February 2010; and so I invited everybody and only one member of those people who are running for election, other than the Government team, was there. And the press was there – we invited the press because we have nothing to hide.” (The Anguillian was not invited)
Chief Minister Hughes continued: “This is Anguilla so we have nothing to hide. We don’t take bribes from anybody. We are not tied by being committed to the investor, so we can afford to open up to everybody to listen. We invited the Opposition to come to let the developer know that we are united in defending our workers at Viceroy. The Opposition refused to come so that they could have something politically negative to say; and while we were down at Viceroy yesterday, telling the Viceroy management that we will not support what they intend to do with our workers, the members of the United Front were on radio misleading the people because this is election time.”
Further information relating to the sale of Viceroy Anguilla, will be given when available.
