Thomas Paine writing in his famous pamphlet “Common Sense” makes an assertion which states that: “Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one; for when we suffer or are exposed to the same miseries by a government which we might expect in a country without a government, our calamity is heightened by the reflection that we’ve provided the means by which we suffer.”
Those words spoken by Paine, a very long time ago, are as true today as they were back when he first uttered them. It is often said, be careful what you wish for. Winston Churchill said that, “Those who fail to learn from past mistakes are doomed to repeat them again. An article written in the online newspaper Caribbean 360 news, so adeptly points this out that we’re forced to ask the question: why is it that our own people when given the opportunity to uplift us all in our respective countries, wind up falling woefully short of expectations?
Mr. Arley Gill in his article made reference to the parliamentary situation that occurred in the island nation of St. Kitts and Nevis just recently. Without rehashing the use, misuse and abuse of power by Prime Minister Dr. Denzil Douglas, Mr. Gill brought to bear the fact that we, as a people in the Caribbean Diaspora, should demand and expect better than what we settle for. Mr. Gill praises Dr. Timothy Harris, the Prime Minister of St. Kitts and Nevis, for standing up in the face of a man who used and abused his political power. Mr. Gill also contends that what happened in St. Kitts not be allowed to happen anywhere in this part of the world.
Another writer for the same online paper, Mr. Peter Binose, said that, as a people, we should make sure that these old Marxists once they have either retired or have been voted out of office should never be allowed in government ever again. Mr. Gill, a lawyer and former politician, contends that Dr. Douglas was an embarrassment to all sitting Prime Ministers and should not have been afforded the opportunity to be in their company. Maybe this was just a glimpse of how an independent Prime Minister would have behaved. To those of you drum beaters for independence, what do you think would have happened? Even with the British looking over his shoulders, our CM behaved abominably as though he was a Prime Minister, a foreshadowing of what was to come? Perish the thought! Let me remind you that Dr. Douglas was one of those on the Monetary Council of ECCB, the very same body that determines whether or not we get both banks back, if and when they actually get around to resolving this matter. It is obviously not something on the front burners – at least it doesn’t appear to be.
Mr. Gill was very critical of Dr. Douglas and pulled no punches. He said: “We’re considered as the third world and is not reflective in our economic conditions, but rather in our attitude to governance and the rule of law.” The fact that a no confidence vote was lodged against Dr. Douglas over two years ago, and was never allowed to come to the floor, basically said that parliamentary procedures were suspended, an item that drew quite a reaction from other prominent Caribbean leaders, yet they did nothing about it. Mr. Gill further contends that: “It is morally inexcusable to hold on to power when you clearly don’t have a majority and as such, a mandate from the people to govern. Let the people make their decision on the due and scheduled date for elections.”
It appears that some Caribbean leaders somehow feel anointed to rule as they see fit, never mind the rule of law, or what the constitution says. We saw the same thing many years ago in Grenada with Eric Gairy. It becomes dangerous when leaders skirt the rule of law to benefit their own selfish needs.
One may refer to the situation in St. Kitts as an isolated incident, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. In Anguilla, our election anniversary should have been the same time as St. Kitts’, and whether by coincidence or not, the fact remains that our Chief Minister, Mr. Hubert Hughes, whom his minions are now calling Anguilla’s greatest Chief Minister, has seen it fit to extend the government for an additional 60 days, which I might add is his prerogative. Ken Hodge pointed out that the AUM government has been governing with 25.84% of the votes, hardly a mandate, and given the fact that Mr. Walcott has been out for almost three years, a period of which left the constituents of West End without proper representation, further makes it harder to fathom how this government continued to function.
While this government has been in power for a little more than five years, it can be argued that the last two were at best nothing but a sham, for without the member from district two, the Hughes government would have probably collapsed.
Now that the election has finally been called, it again shows that we lack the necessary forward thinking skills. What we now have is an election that falls in the middle of the week and there are several things wrong with this. For starters, who schedules an election on a Wednesday? Maybe this was the plan all along, to allow the CM’s party’s candidates to get their affairs in order. Not only does this present a hardship for those people who are coming from abroad, it also disrupts the school week. At best it’s going to take at least two days, and possibly a third out of the children’s schedule. I’m surprised that those in charge did not take this into consideration.
Not only were we held hostage to the whims of the CM, but this is downright ridiculous. First we had to wait several weeks to find out when the election would be called – now we find out that it is going to be difficult for some people to get away in the middle of the week. Talk about disenfranchisement. Here we are again with a government which shows total disregard for its people.
What does this say about us as a people and as a government? Are we that unsophisticated in the art of good governance, or are we just going along to get along? We live and let live. Well how much longer are we content to maintain the status quo? How much longer are we going to tolerate this backwater way of thinking? The Chief Minister says Election Day is my secret and we’re fine with that? Let me ask you my fellow countrymen, the House has been dissolved and there is so much unfinished business out there, and we’re OK with that?
Folks let us make this the last time that we have this type of nonsense cross our paths. It is time to rebuild a new Anguilla. Oh, I know, there are detractors out there who would like to see things revert to the way they used to be, but the world in which we live has changed – and if we fail to change with it, we will go the way of the pterodactyl. We need an infusion of new energy – those who can think outside of the box. What we don’t need right now, is all the negativity that’s out there. Those who crowd the airwaves spouting nonsense. Anguilla has been very good to the lot of you even though most of you did not lift a finger to help with the fight, but you were quick to jump on the bandwagon and you know who you are. A lot of us put our lives on the line and until recently, thanks to Pam Webster and a committee of the folks in Island Harbour, were never given the full recognition that they deserved. Some of you are quick to criticize, but the bible says in Mathew 7:5 – “you hypocrite, first take the plank from your own eye and you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”
So as we look at the 50th anniversary of the civil rights march on Selma, a march that became known as Bloody Sunday in which hundreds of people of all walks of life put their lives on the line, many of whom lost their lives in the struggle standing up for what they believed in, we in Anguilla will shortly celebrate our 50th anniversary of being a new nation, one that we too believe in. We too must remember those on whose shoulders we now stand and wonder out loud, did we make them proud, and have their efforts been in vain, for as poet and author Langston Hughes recounts in his poem ”A Dream Deferred,” did we defer our dream? Or did we just dry up like a raisin in the sun? Did we, or did we not? My fellow Anguillians, you decide.
My brothers and sisters, I’ve had an opportunity to look at my beloved homeland from both near and far and I don’t like what I see. I see a lot of unrealized potential and for whatever reason that is at this point in time is irrelevant, but there is really no reason for that. I see a lot of our hard work going for naught. I see politicians more interested in what they can get out of Anguilla. They’re more concerned with their pension than they are with seeing to it that our kids are properly fed and educated, that our police get the cooperation that, as a community, they deserve. We see government officials referring to their constituents as jackasses, the same jackasses on whose vote they depend to stay in office. Good luck dude! Folks, I say again, we have met the enemy and it is us. I keep going back to James Baldwin’s quote which says: “Know from whence you came. If you know from whence you came, the possibilities for going forward are endless.” We seem to not know from whence we came for, if we did, our behavior would be quite different.
There is an old saying that says when you find yourself in a hole, stop digging. I say again, stop digging! Our leaders have dug such a deep hole that’s it’s going to take a miracle to get us out of there, and given this crab barrel mentality that we practice, makes it that much harder to pull off. We need to do some serious soul searching and decide that what we want for Anguilla is a progressive program. This is not the time for novice politicians, who have been led by those with an axe to grind, to enter the race at the finish line hoping to win. A plant does not grow without the tender loving care of its planter. It has to be nurtured in order to produce positive results. We have an awful lot of talented people in our homeland, but we seem to misuse the talent for purely selfish reasons. It also says quite a bit about us, when we allow ourselves to be misled. That is the person that I would least likely vote for, for they’re being led by someone else.
We have learned of other Caribbean leaders who have gone rogue so to speak and basically did whatever they wanted. In Anguilla we have a Chief Minister, a man who really had no business being in government, at least not in Anguilla, for he seemed more suited to be in the cabinet of Robert Bradshaw, since he claimed on more than one occasion that it was at the feet of this man that he learned his politics – so one has to ask the question, why Anguilla? A closer look and one might actually come to the conclusion that though Bradshaw couldn’t get his hands on Anguilla, one of his minions tried to make good on his promise of trying to turn the place into a desert.
While the Chief Minister played what’s my secret with the people of Anguilla, everyone basically played along with him. Now we’re faced with an election that has been hastily called, and one can only speculate as to why this debacle has happened. One only can surmise that this was the plan all along and it is sad that we, as a people, have gone along with it. In Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense” he posits that absolute governments have this advantage with them, that they are simple; if the people suffer, they know the head from which the suffering springs, they know likewise the remedy, and are not bewildered by a variety of causes and cures.
We know from whence our suffering springs and, likewise, we know the remedy. So despite the hoops that we’ve had to jump through, let us remedy this situation. This election day vote your conscience. If we’re out to build a new Anguilla, the time is now. Until then may God continue to bless us and may God bless Anguilla.
