The “rude boy” era will soon be at an end.
It was unfortunate that Monday’s debate on the budget deteriorated to a case of “men behaving badly.” But while it was unfortunate, it was not surprising.
Since April 2015 we have had to defend our right to be in the House of Assembly even; to endure the insults and derision of the Boys and of the woman who chooses to emulate their bad practices. We can well remember the Speaker’s lack of impartiality; his slavish regard for the Chief Minister’s preferences; his trenchant disregard of the rights of the people, reminding them that they were “strangers in the house”.
I suggest that this behaviour stems in part from their own inclinations but also from a slavish desire by members to indulge the bully-boy aspirations of their acolytes amongst an otherwise courteous people. From such beginnings have many democracies gone down the slippery slope to self-destruction.
What we are proposing is a different politics. We are proposing a politics of respect and inclusion; and a politics where corruption and nepotism are not the norm.
During my budget presentation on Monday, we sought to lay out a positive agenda for change and development. For as many years as most of them can remember, such debates were reduced to boyish insults and a grandstand of histrionics, where truth is compromised. Our presentation on Monday proved that there is an alternative way; and there are different ideas that should be brought to the table.
The old boys club even refused to listen. There was an obvious plan to denigrate. The emotional abuse and violence were rife; the attacks included “you do not believe in God”; no desire to share common ground; every desire to be God-like and to Lord over All. The worship and praise team was not focused on God the Almighty but on the leader of the group, with almost Jim Jones fanaticism being evident. No desire to consider the circumstances or even to own up to the mismanagement of Anguilla’s economy. Oh No! It was about the team and their alleged entitlement to exclude others.
When all of us get elected, our mandate is to go there and serve the best interests of the people. We are expected to listen to ideas from all spectrums of the society, and to take on board what is practical and reasonable and feasible, without ridiculing people or their ideas.
But our solid ideas in the House were met, in response, with a level of arrogance, contempt and disregard that was off the charts, even by the previous low standards which the old boys club had set.
One member evoked God, as if he had a divine right to be rude, crass and misleading. He views those with different ideas as “enemies” and related his presentation to a series of veiled threats that he was forced to apologize for.
We have shown, and will continue to show that there is a high road to high office – and we believe that the decent people of Anguilla will support civility over crassness; respect over rudeness.
We were pleased to have brought the contrast to the fore on the floor of Anguilla’s parliament on Monday. It was like a television split screen – one picture showing what is possible in the future; and the other showing the kind of culture that has held us back.
The politics we want to promote is the politics of ideas and civility. Our representatives must not be allowed to throw up tantrums and smokescreens when they are challenged about what they are doing for ordinary people.
If the Chief Minister had been listening with a view to understanding my constituent who claimed that civil servants in 2017 had been owed significant amounts of money, instead of threatening that he needed copies of the letter and to know who the writer was, he would have met his obligations by accepting that the source of the figure was the “off balance sheet” figure referred to in Lord Ahmad’s letter of 25th April 2018. Instead he arrogantly required my constituent to attend the Ministry of Finance to verify his figures instead of conceding that he, as the Minister of Finance, needed to clarify instead of further blur the issue.
We are confident that we have sown a seed among the people of Anguilla, whose nature is not one of meanness. The people yearn for governance and policies that will (a) improve their lives and (b) make them proud to call this rock “home”. By bringing alternative ideas to the table; by showing that we are building a team capable of national management, we sent the senior members of the old boys club into an emotion “tissick”.
They see the alternative as “the enemy.”
A march to history began in the House on Monday. We held our head high, and refused to be ganged on and intimidated. In the coming weeks and months, we will take the message directly to the people. Anguillans are genuinely ready for change.
Our duty is to get our fellow nationals to see and understand what change looks like. No wonder the poster boys of the men’s club had to put their full anger on display. Panic has set in among this group, because they know that, in short order, the people’s time will come.
