Dear Chief Minister
It is with a heavy heart and a great deal of regret that I tender my resignation with immediate effect from the role as the UK representative to the Government of Anguilla.
It has been an honour and a privilege to serve the people of Anguilla, first in a voluntary capacity, and then officially in what has been some of the most turbulent years in Anguilla’s history.
I have spent the last twenty-five years of my life fighting for justice and promoting participatory democracy. I was privileged to serve as the only black Special Adviser in the UK government. Together with my boss, Valerie Amos – the former UN Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator – I have been honoured to serve incredible global leaders including Kofi Annan and Bill Clinton. I’ve specialised in working in, and with, post-conflict states such as Serbia, Sierra Leone, Afghanistan, and Myanmar.
Throughout my career, I have strived to promote the importance of citizens being fully engaged in the democratic process. Open government, freedom of information, and public consultation are fundamental to democracy. Democracy should be delivered in partnership with citizens – it must not be dictated to them. This principle – I had assumed – was a principle shared by every Anguillan post-revolution.
It is with horror and disbelief, that I have watched police in riot gear lined up outside the Anguillan House of Assembly to prevent ordinary Anguillans entering and exercising their right to protest. Their right to protest a bill, which has had little to no public debate, a bill that will change our island forever, and a bill that will seriously impact the life of every single resident citizen, was withheld from them. Politicians, despite the protests and very real concerns of the Anguillan people, have pushed through this bill at the expense of the democratic principles that saw them elected.
This bill will mean that some of Anguilla’s greatest assets may be sold off to the highest bidder, yet the Anguillan people have had little input into the process and have not had the opportunity to voice their opinion. If this had happened in any other Western democracy – France, Canada or the UK – there would have been uproar, just because it is happening in Anguilla – a small state – does not make it acceptable.
My 94 year old staunch Anguillan father, Johnny Hodge – server and scoutmaster – and my mother, teacher Hestel, raised me to understand that “if a thing is wrong, it can never be right.” I know at my core that the path of ‘governance at gunpoint’ is a road that I cannot follow this government down.
I have stood up for democracy in Myanmar, I have stood up for democracy in Sierra Leone, and I have stood up for democracy with leaders from South Sudan, Somalia, and the DRC. I must stand up for democracy in the place that I call home even more.
This bill will change the island and the lives of Anguillans forever. Should we really defer our prime non-performing assets to a regional asset company, only for them to sell the land to the highest international bidder? Perhaps, the fight that our parents, and our elders fought to keep Anguilla out of the clutches of St Kitts is now all but wasted.
More importantly, what impact will this have on the lives of ordinary Anguillans – none of whom caused this banking crisis? How can we justify forcing ordinary Anguillans to pay for the banking crisis – an annual $70 Million bill that is almost a third of the annual government budget in taxes per year – when the government has not shared the truth about how the banking crisis came about with the people?
The impact of this bill on the lives of resident Anguillans is unknown because the time to scrutinize, consult, and debate has been stolen from the people. This is a dangerous precedent to set. Will it be from henceforth that when this government wishes to pass a bill that faces opposition from the people, it will simply surround parliament with armed police in riot gear? In a small island, we all face conflicts of interests, but this should never cloud our judgment and prevent us from doing what is right. For me, there is never a reason for a government to insist on “governance at gunpoint” as I have witnessed this week in Anguilla.
My belief has always been that it is my duty in London to not only to represent the Government of Anguilla, but also the people of Anguilla. I have the utmost confidence that I have done this to the best of my ability, working with the FCO to garner £3million in additional funds from the UK Government – the first development funds in over twelve years for Anguilla; garnering the right of free movement across all of Europe for all Overseas Territory citizens; garnering funds for fisheries; securing the independent report on the airport; securing funds for the environment; robustly defending the position of the Overseas Territories globally; and with colleagues, securing access to all EU horizontal funding for a range of issues.
On the banking crisis – the most serious issue facing our island for a generation – I have been resolute on finding a solution. I spent several years working with colleagues at the FCO, colleagues from other Overseas Territories, and global experts who handled the banking crisis in Europe. I brought a range of experts to the table to work through options that would have prevented the people of Anguilla from bearing the economic brunt of the crisis. This included an extensive development strategy for developing Anguilla’s fisheries and using our unique heritage to develop a sustainable and diverse economy. I am therefore heartened to see that two of those ideas appear in your letter to the Overseas Territories Minister. I am also very confident that after 5 years of building our reputation in the UK and the EU for the first time in Anguilla’s history – both institutions on my request, should be generous in supporting a sustainable development jobs and growth programme for the island in 2016, which I hope will ameliorate the potential impact on the people of Anguilla.
Chief Minister, when you came to government you made it clear that you felt that the banking issue was sensitive and should only be dealt with by you and your ministerial team. And I would no longer be part of that team I am surprised and disappointed to see that you still have no economic plan for the island – a request that all of the international agencies and institutions have been asking for a long time to help them formulate plans to enable them to help the people of Anguilla
I am further shocked to see that there is an expectation / proposal that the Anguillan people will be likely bear an additional tax burden of up to a third of the national budget, on an annual basis, to pay for the banking problems that they had nothing to do with. This is unrealistic, unfair, and unnecessary, as I know other extraordinary financial solutions are possible.
With this in mind and with my hands sadly tied, I must tender my resignation. This is with great regret as the people of Anguilla have always been my passion. However, I can assure the people of Anguilla that I will never stop working for them and the island I love.
The plan for your visit to London next week is in place and we will assist as much as we can. However, for now, I can only wish you well and God’s blessing on your Government and the people of Anguilla.
Dorothea Hodge
