When we talk about “government of the people, by the people, for the people” we assume that it entails a connection between the government and the governed – all the people of Anguilla, including you and me.
But that is not, apparently, the understanding of our current government, or, in particular, of our current Chief Minister, the Honourable Victor Franklin Banks , who is apparently above such inclusive practices. I can only assume he regards them as threatening to his perception of the advantages of dictatorship.
It’s a bit different in the White House because there, as any of you who listened to Tuesday night’s broadcast from the President and his acolytes, they actually admitted what they were up to, which was at least more than the “Honourable” Victor Franklin Banks and his ministers have done.
The Chief Minister went to the UK recently for the Joint Ministerial Council meetings for the Overseas Territories. He did so, together with his Minister of Infrastructure, flying first class at the expense and on behalf of all the people of Anguilla. We would therefore be justified in expecting a comprehensive report from him, and the Minister, on matters affecting the people of Anguilla and our future. I am not aware that he has given us such a report. When I asked him for a report in the Assembly, recently, he refused to provide one, suggesting that he might do so in his own time.
But what is perhaps more disturbing is that it appears that he is colluding with Blondel Cluff, the distinguished Anguilla United Kingdom/European Union Representative based in London, to further his politically motivated ambitions for constitutional reform on his terms, rather than respecting the Report of the Constitutional and Electoral Reform Committee which had achieved broad acceptance. In doing so, he undermines her professionalism and her legitimacy at a stroke, as an impartial and apolitical representative of ALL the people of Anguilla, and he gives new meaning to the fact that she is officially “Special Adviser to the Chief Minister”. We would all do well to take note that contrary to what one might expect – that such a role would be for the benefit of the people of Anguilla – that it is interpreted by the Chief Minister as a role designed to further his political maneuverings.
These posts were found on a Twitter thread by diligent individuals exploring the politics of Anguilla during the past week:
Professor Vernon Bogdanor CBE is Professor of Government at Oxford University and a Visiting Professor of Law at King’s College, London. While we have no reason to doubt that Professor Bogdanor and Mrs Cluff will do a technically competent job, it can only be described as “sinister” that the Chief Minister is engaged in such surreptitious and clandestine plotting behind the backs of you, the people of Anguilla, showing little or no respect for the diligent and comprehensive work of the Constitutional and Electoral Reform Committee, nor for our existing institutions or standards of government.
And what kind of an exploratory visit to Anguilla did the Chief Minister arrange for Professor Bogdanor that did not even entail the Professor meeting the Chairman and/or all other members of the Constitutional and Electoral Reform Committee, nor did it entail his meeting with the opposition? The answer, of course, is that the Chief Minister’s plan is to take us all by surprise by producing constitutional proposals that are, on their face, expertly crafted, but which have no general acceptance whatsoever. His autocratic actions and decisions will continue to frustrate our yearning for democratically originated constitutional reform and good governance.
Is this the kind of “open” government for which we voted? Is this government even modelling the behaviours that would help to distinguish us in any positive way? I think not, and I hope and pray that it will be soundly rejected when the next opportunity arises.
