THE ISSUE OF CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM has taken centre stage in recent days – especially given the news that the government seems bent on watering down proposals for overhaul that have come from the people and have been endorsed by the people.
The tragedy of all this, which will be the final undoing of any reasonable future for Anguilla and Anguillians unless those involved come to their senses, is that the British Government clearly doesn’t appear to recognise the subterfuge that the Anguilla Government is engaged in. Or if it does, then it is acting in extraordinarily bad faith in going along with it, which I find hard to believe.
The Report on constitutional reform that was sent to the government was compiled by a broad-based and well-respected Committee. The Report had the approval of the overwhelming majority of Anguillians who had participated in the exercise by correspondence, attending meetings, and by posts in social media. But from all reports it appears that this current administration, with the unconscionable acquiescence of the British Government, is preparing to shelve substantive recommendations that are part of the proposals.
The government, in its duplicitous recommendations to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, is proposing to implement the reforms to the Constitution in two phases – the first, which is highly selective, and is clearly calculated to provide the government party with electoral advantage, deals with a cherry picking approach to electoral reform.
“I have therefore attached the report of the Constitutional and Electoral Reform Committee for your perusal of the recommendations, most (but not all) of which have been accepted by our Government.,” Chief Minister Banks recently wrote in a letter to Lord Ahmad, the minister responsible for the Overseas Territories at the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
And that position is what causes us pause. Chief Minister Banks states that his government has not accepted all of the recommendations of the Committee, but he nowhere reveals or even hints at which of the recommendations his government has not accepted. He also does not acknowledge that he must take any proposal to vary the Report and Recommendations of the Committee to the people, whose views are reflected in the Committee’s Report.
If the government is unable to accept any part of the Committee’s recommendations, it is incumbent on them to go back to the people and explain their rationale for omitting or altering any of the proposals, particularly if they affect the institutions protecting good governance (Chapter 9) or the provisions for securing the public finances of Anguilla (Chapter 10).
Whatever Constitution emerges from the current process must be “the people’s document”, and not another one handed down from somewhere. But it is not only the Anguilla government that is at fault. The British government has responsibilities that it either does not understand or that it is failing dismally to fulfil. I say that because when the Chief Minister wrote to Lord Ahmad, that the Anguilla Government did not accept all the Committee’s recommendations, he significantly did not explain, and has not disclosed to the people of Anguilla, whose future is at stake, which recommendations of the Committee the Government does not accept. And Lord Ahmad has apparently acquiesced in that omission by failing to seek clarification.
Lo and behold Lord Ahmad replied, as if he was not paying attention and was not interested in which proposed changes were not accepted by the Anguilla government, that he was happy with CM Banks making changes so long as he spoke to the Committee about it. The Committee has finished its work. Its work had the approval of the overwhelming majority of Anguillians. It is the people who Victor has to talk to about any changes, not the Committee. So I put the question fairly and squarely to Lord Ahmad: “Why should we agree to government and the British adopting this Order in Council when we don’t know what the next Order in Council will look like, nor do we have any assurance that it will come any time soon?”
I have a lot of sympathy for the position British ministers find themselves in. They are solicited by the likes of Victor Banks and his personal advisors and must find it difficult to say “no” to them. But democracy must not be sacrificed on the altar of expediency and they must learn to say “no” to opportunistic politicians and their advisors – and governments prepared to put party before people.
The idea of constitutional reform is at the core of putting more power into the hands of the people of Anguilla, to ensure that they have a better say in their destiny; and to guarantee open and transparent government that genuinely works for and on behalf of the people. The Committee produced a comprehensive document that reflected the aspirations of our people. From what we are hearing, the changes the government are proposing to go forward with do not guarantee comprehensive electoral reform; do not guarantee accountability and transparency; and do not, as is claimed, strengthen our democracy. It seems that this government is only interested in reducing the process to window dressing and to doing so in a way that will not jeopardise their electoral prospects.
This government’s slogan “It’s all about you” now truly rings hollower than ever. What they are saying to us is that it’s all about them. It is all about their maintaining their grip on power at the expense of participatory democracy in a most deceptive and disrespectful way. We, the patriots of this land, must not tolerate this. Indeed we must take action against this reprehensible move to make a mockery of the people’s right to free and fair elections.
The government must come clean in this matter and tell us clearly what their intentions are; and why in their self-attributed but false wisdom – and against the wishes of the people – they are planning to omit major elements of the recommendations. The fact that it is too late to include the full proposals in time for the next election is no excuse. It was entirely their choice to leave it until the eleventh hour to focus on the issue. Furthermore, they are also planning a change that was not part of the Committee’s recommendations and is self-evidently extraneous – mechanised vote counting – that will cost an arm and a leg to introduce and which Anguilla cannot afford and does not need, at any rate not at this time.
The Chief Minister cannot sit and make a private agreement with the FCO to omit segments of the recommendations, that the people say are important to them, without further consulting the people. Or should I say that he cannot do so if he is in good faith. If he pursues this pernicious course, I can only hope and expect that he will reap the whirlwind as a consequence because, if this stands, it will be an utter betrayal of the people. I put the government on notice that we will do all that is necessary to ensure that the people’s voices are indeed heard.
