Fellow Anguillians. This is the second year that I have had the enormous privilege, as Leader of the Opposition, to to address you at this very special time of year. As I said last year, the Christmas season is a time of hope and renewal, when we pray that there will be better times to come and that we will have peace and good will among men.
While this Christmas is equally a time for hope and renewal, it will have been rendered a unique Christmas for Anguillians by the sad passing of our beloved Father of the Nation, the Honourable James Ronald Webster, to whose devoted wife and family I again extend my heartfelt condolences.
In celebrating his life, however, we can draw hope from his example; the example of a great leader who trusted his own judgment in the face of great dangers but who listened to those around him and learned from them and who, in doing so, commanded the support and unflinching loyalty of so many brave Anguillians.
These, my friends are the characteristics we need in our leaders now. We need leaders with integrity, vision and compassion in a way that awakens and inspires others. We need leaders with self-knowledge who can see how our development goals can coincide with and be transformed by the needs of the people. We need leaders with the ability to collaborate. It is a recognised characteristic of transformational leaders that they regularly enlist the engagement of those they lead. They consult genuinely and not just symbolically with diverse stakeholders and deploy the fruits of those discussions to address complex problems that they cannot solve on their own.
Transformational leaders develop, empower, and mobilize others, who then provide the collective engine for social, cultural, and systemic change. Transformational leaders are humble. They are constantly learning and listening to others. They are not complacent. They acknowledge that they do not have all the answers and this enables them to be more flexible and to adapt to the needs for change.
Who are these leaders amongst us? They exist, I have no doubt, and I urge you all to have hope that they will come forward. But are we ready to embrace their leadership and empower them rather than continuing to allow ourselves to be bullied? I have faith that we are. And in expressing that faith, I call upon all the movements who are ready to build a New Anguilla to join with me in purposeful efforts to develop a mutually supportive and collaborative movement for change, which can influence our existing government for the rest of its term to 2020 and which can transform our style of government and our country for all time.
The 22nd of April 2017 will mark the end of this government’s second year in office. I advocate that before you succumb to the siren calls of rebellion, you allow the government until that time to demonstrate that they understand what good government “for the people” means. During that period I urge all leaders and potential leaders to look into their hearts and recognise that your country and your people need you, and to come together with all who are like minded to forge a movement that will truly bring forth a New Anguilla.
And while this process of consolidating our leadership talent progresses, let us all remember that the Father of the Nation took great pride, as we should now take great pride, in achieving his objectives without bloodshed. Reject violence, I beseech you, and let the hallmark of the struggle to achieve our national objectives be peace – the “peace of God that passes all understanding”.
To those people who are far too many, who are suffering hardship or fear for their future I counsel hope. There are those of us who hear you and who will do everything within our power to influence the righting of the wrongs and a more compassionate and constructive approach to the creation of jobs and the relief of hardship. We are a resilient people, and we are not only resilient, we are caring. I know that there are many good people out there who will do everything within their power to help those amongst us who are less well off this Christmas.
The true meaning of Christmas is about faith and hope. Anguillians are people of faith, and the passing of our beloved Father of the Nation, who stands as an example to all of us, reminds us vividly that challenges in whatever shape or form have never been able to break our fortitude. Our past has taught us how to meet these challenges together. With our collective will, and with God within our midst, we shall overcome and experience true peace.
So let us look out for each other, let us provide comfort for those that are suffering, and food for those who are less fortunate. Let us commit this Christmas to welcome the stranger, the lonely and those in mourning and offer hope to the most vulnerable among us.
As I said this time last year and as I repeat now “It is my firm belief that there are many enterprising people who will provide the spark that will generate new jobs and new prosperity in Anguilla”. The fact that it has most regrettably not happened yet does not dim my hope, for it is a trite reality that things often have to reach rock bottom before they improve. So to you today I say: have hope but above all let us come together and bring all our talents to the table. Anguilla needs you.
May God Bless you and keep you all this Christmas season and in the New Year ahead, and may God Bless Anguilla always.
(Published without editing by The Anguillian newspaper.)
