“If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything.” Alexander Hamilton).
No truer words were ever spoken. Though there are several variations on the initial saying, they still come out meaning the same. In Anguilla, we’ve seen that time and time again – we don’t know what we want till we get what we don’t want.
The election of Victor Banks and his party was supposed to be our panacea, our cure all, our resurrection. Can anyone say, with any degree of certainty, that we’re headed in the right direction? Mr. Banks’ election was to be our great hope for returning to respectability, in our region but, alas, the results are in and we’re no closer to respectability now than we were when the AUF took office – quite the contrary.
A series of events, the most egregious of which occurred some two weeks ago when the CM tried, without much success, to ram the Banking Bill down our throats without proper deliberation. The next occurred some days later, when the Royal Police Force complete with riot gear, kept Anguillians at bay from entering the House of Assembly, to exercise their constitutional right in objection to a Bill that the more we learn about it, the less we like it.
What happened after that was reminiscent of Robert Bradshaw in the days when he tried to keep us in our place. Our Chief Minister, or should I say, our commandant, got on his high horse and admonished us, like we were a bunch of morons, about being undemocratic. True, the crowd in the gallery of the House did get a bit loud, but all of that could have been prevented had the Chief Minister gone about this whole Bill in the right way. The people simply reacted to what they were hearing, in some cases, for the first time.
What we have learned in the last few days, because of thing Concerned Citizens who, in all honesty, can no longer remain silent, is very frightening. If what they say is true, those of us who were the children of ’67 really will not feel the effect of the draconian measures that are headed our way, for we are approaching our twilight years. We’ve lived to see the Anguilla that we wanted. Unfortunately, there are those who would rather see us go under, and go back to a class system which will be the haves and the have nots.
We continue to be disregarded by this government that can’t seem to understand that they were elected by us to do our work – to look out for our best interests. When I listen to the CM and his condescending manner of talking to the people, I’m peeved that he could be so arrogant. If we think that we had it rough when we fought famine, the plague and an uncaring British Government, what the Minister of Finance wants to do will pale by comparison. ‘67 will look like a walk in the park compared to what will happen.
We have had governments in power who were, more often than not, more concerned with their own agenda than they were with the people’s agenda. How is that possible? We elect you to do a job and if you don’t do that job you’ve failed. Yet, term after term, we return the same ne’er do well group to power. Are we that lame brained? No. We have some of the most brilliant people on the face of the earth – in all walks of life. So why then do we continue to do the same thing, term after term, expecting different results? Folks, again I say, that’s Einstein’s theory of ‘insanity.’ We must all be insane to keep banging our heads against the wall and not expect any pain.
Our Chief Minister shows no evidence of relenting in his drive to taking Anguilla over a cliff. There has to be someone in his party who is the voice of reason. We know who you are, and we’re hoping that you will break with the code of all for one, and one for all, and speak out. All of you are complicit in what is about to happen, if in fact it does happen. It’s so self-serving to hear almost all the members of the government get up in support of the Minister and of the resolution. What about the Bill? Tell us what is good and bad about it – after all, isn’t that why you are there? Do you folks have a clue of what you are doing?
Marcus Garvey said: “A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture, is like a tree without roots.” We tend to keep on forgetting who we are and from whence we came, and until we reconcile all aspects of our existence, we’ll continue to be at the mercy of others whose only goals are their own self-preservation. Winston Churchill once said that: “Those who fail to learn from history, are doomed to repeat it.”
“Either grant it…or we will take it.” That in a nutshell was the ultimatum that a delegation of Anguillians took to Robert Bradshaw on the 31st of May 1967. The memorandum warned that if legal separation was not granted, “the Anguillian people would take it even if they had to fight for it” (Petty/Hodge). And so it seems that history is about to repeat itself, for we have a government that’s behaving in a similar manner. When a people become convinced that they no longer matter, and they have nothing left to lose, what then? When you back an animal into a corner, it has no choice but to fight for survival. The parallels here are uncanny.
So here we are after almost fifty years, and a lot of false starts, all of which now seem irrelevant to what our Chief Minister says is our defining moment. A defining moment when we are about to lose that which we fought for – that we the children of 67 will not enjoy and neither will our offspring. That our government can nonchalantly proceed without any input from it’s people, is an act of brinkmanship. Where is the voice of reason? This action will result in the loss of our wealth, our pride, our self-esteem – you name it. This government will have permanently ingrained the title of “Bobo Johnny” on all of our foreheads. I hope that you guys who claim to have been given a mandate will remember what you did too, for we sure as hell will.
We are the offshoot of the United Kingdom which gave the world the Magna Carta and so many other things, and isn’t ironic that we’d be kept out of the House of Assembly because the Speaker and the CM can’t stand to deal with us. Now why do you think that is? The police with riot gear and no doubt tear gas ready? Tell me, is that democracy in action? He’s telling us that we have no rights. What ever happened to government of the people, by the people and for the people?
The Eastern Caribbean Central Bank which is supposed to be the regulator for 8 Caribbean countries is, at best, its own worst enemy. If our government chooses to go with it rather than have the Brits come in and takeover, we haven’t a clue what will happen. All we can speculate is that it’s better the devil that you know than the one you don’t know, for while it’s better to deal with an undesirable but familiar one, the alternative is to risk dealing with the devil that might lead to a worse situation. So what will it be? The Brits and their way of doing things, or the ECCB and its way of doing things? Not a pretty picture is it? Let’s play devils advocate here for a minute. We know that the Brits want to bring in their own people which would render Victor’s Ministry of Finance impotent. We’ve known all along what the ECCB wants. It is all for amalgamation of the two indigenous banks. So what’s a country to do? Do we go with the devil we know, or the one we don’t know. It’s a toss up and the coin has two heads.
As our semi- centennial draws closer and closer, we will have to reflect on where we’ve been, how we got to this place and where it is that we want to go. Unfortunately, upon deep reflection, one can conclude that we’ve not been very good stewards of that which we’ve fought for. We seem to have very little regard for what we’ve inherited. Thomas Paine said: “What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly.”
We keep hearing about defining moments, but yet what’s being done is contrary to any such moment. This cannot be our defining moment when we are about to pass legislation that will change the social and economic fabric of Anguilla. We know what’s wrong, and yet we are satisfied to let this government ignore our concerns and go forward. What does that tell us? We need to be proactive. Government is a complex piece of machinery and as such should have politicians schooled in the art of governing. Outside of the box thinkers and not political pygmies not having a clue of what to do next.
We are a fragmented people who can’t seem to understand that if we don’t come together as one we lose, for in the absence of true leadership we will listen to anyone with a mike. We stand for nothing and we fall for anything. The actions of our government will have repercussions long after those of us who fought the 67 battle are long gone, and the sad part is that our kids won’t have a clue because we don’t teach them. So we’ll wait with bated breath for the other nail to be driven into our coffin. Till next time may God continue to bless and keep us, and may He continue to bless Anguilla.
