The Editor
The Anguillian
“POLITICS MAKES STRANGE BEDFELLOWS”
Dear Editor:
It is often said that politics makes strange bedfellows. This was never more evident than Thursday March 14th when our CM, the esteemed Mr. Hubert Hughes, did an end run around the clergy of Anguilla when he brought in a Kenyan Pastor, Reverend John David Matengo, and an American, Pastor Deborah Williams, to perform what he referred to as a “spiritual intervention” at Coronation Park. The fact that the CM went abroad to seek help for our lost souls, basically casts a no confidence vote against our very own clergy.
At first when I heard this I thought it to be a joke, so much so that I darned near choked on my coca cola. I said to myself, we’re close enough to April first so this has got to be an April fool’s prank. However, as I continued to read, it was clearly no joke at all. The CM had indeed invited the two pastors to perform this ritual. I can’t think of anything else to call it. CM really? A “spiritual intervention?” Sir, I think you really lost all credibility if you are going to resort to this sort of thing. I mean this is straight out of Grahame Greene’s “The Comedians,” a political thriller, replete with subplots of every kind, ranging from voodoo, political blackmail to murder, set in 1960s Haiti. What was he thinking that he needs to send halfway around the world for someone to pray for us? What’s going on here? Are we not qualified and capable enough to pray for our own? One has to then ask the question, what is the Chief Minister really up to that he has to seek outside intervention?
On the surface this may seem like an exercise in futility. A closer look, however, reveals the true intention of the CM’s actions. Anyone who has closely followed the CM’s career, knows his modus operandi is one intended to yield maximum political mileage. This was a calculated ploy to get optimum results – a sowing of the seeds of his agenda – nothing short of independence for Anguilla.
The symbolism here should not be lost on anyone. Why not a Reverend from Jamaica, or Trinidad or even Barbados for that matter? Why Kenya? Again, while we look at what the CM has done, let us not for one moment sell him short. We know he’s an astute politician – we underestimate him at our peril. Every move he makes is calculated for maximum political effect. With this “spiritual intervention,” it is all about Hubert Hughes. When he was a member of the opposition, he regularly sought out the clergy. He was a regular in their offices and congregations, but since becoming CM, he no longer has need or time for them. He now seeks out the service of a “higher calling.” This “intervention” serves two purposes. The first of which is to self-aggrandize the CM’s grip on power. It hasn’t a darn thing to do with Anguilla or its problems. Secondly, this is a desperate move of a drowning man grasping at straws. He has stealthily inserted Mother Africa into the equation by bringing in a Kenyan Pastor, Reverend Matengo, to tug at our heart strings – to make the connection between us and Kenya’s well known struggle for political independence from the British.
In the coming days and weeks, you’ll see the CM taking credit for just about everything. He will have said that he’s done everything in his power to right the ship. Once again he showed that he’s not ready for Prime Time, or the Big Leagues as we say. Whenever things go terribly wrong, it’s always somebody else’s fault. First it was the AUF. Then it was the Governor. Soon it will be the technocrats. I will point out that the CM was once in the opposition and, if my knowledge serves me correctly, the role of the opposition in a democracy is to keep the government honest, a word that I took some heat for last year when I made that assertion on the Mayor Show on Kool FM. One caller thought that by my using the word “honest” I was implying wrongdoing, but I digress. My point was that the CM was a member of the opposition, and the time to oppose was then. Now it’s time to govern.
I’m sure that there are many unanswered questions about this “spiritual intervention.” Was this really necessary? Who pays for this? I understand that the Reverend Williams was quick to point out that they paid their own way. No one had asked at the time. What’s next? Snake charmers. Will the CM bring in a rainmaker from one of the tribes to help with the drought? How can our esteemed Chief Minister expect to be taken seriously when he pulls a stunt like this? I can just hear the members of the other Caribbean nations, at the next CARICOM meeting, asking how’s that “spiritual intervention” working for you? All this stunt did was momentarily take the spotlight off of the CM’s failing report card. The novelty will soon wear off and it will be back to business as usual. The problems that he brought his team to exorcise will still be there. Nothing will have changed, and what will this stunt have accomplished? Will it put food on the table? Will it stop the bad behavior, fill up the gas tank or turn on the disconnected electric lights? I think not.
The fact that we just stand idly by and allow the CM and his administration to operate in a shroud of secrecy, without so much as a word in opposition, says an awful lot about who we are as a people. Last year when we were trying to resolve the Cap Juluca situation, the CM’s party flatly refused any input from the opposition saying, “You guys are the one’s who made this mess in the first place.” So there you have it. They don’t tell the people what’s going on. It has become increasingly clear what the CM’s “spiritual intervention” was all about. It was all about the CM. He was given a staff with a hook and was anointed with oil. How does that help Anguilla? I’m going to quote something that someone said, thanks to Victor in his piece: “One observer was heard to say: ‘Boy de anointed the chief wid oil and gave him a stick to beat down his enemies and hook back he supporters.”’ Folks, you can’t make this stuff up. You know we take our prayer seriously, and when the CM goes about it in the way that he did, well, the ulterior motives jump out at you right away. You have to admit that the whole thing smacks of something from “Brother Loves Travellin’ Show.” Not once did I hear about those people who are suffering, those people whose children go to bed hungry, those people who – through no fault of their own – have fallen off the electrical grid, and about a company (ANGLEC) that the government is a majority stakeholder in, by the way, that does nothing to alleviate the hardships that the less fortunate are having to endure.
What this shameless display of self-aggrandizement was, was an attempt to save the CM’s hide. It had nothing to do with the wellbeing of Anguilla. When did Hubert ever give a darn about Anguilla? This from a man who claimed publicly that Robert Bradshaw was a great man; this from a man who every time it gets tough, he gets going. When the Governor reshuffled his permanent secretaries, he got going to CARICOM, a body to which we don’t even belong, to get them to mediate. What he expected them to do was anyone’s guess. When they sent a low level delegation that consisted of several women, he became perturbed. The second time he called on CARICOM, to fight the same battle, he decided to leave the island when they were supposed to have arrived. And most recently, after a killing in the Farrington, and a brazen robbery of Blanchard’s by perpetrators armed with machetes and guns, the CM flies halfway around the world, to the Falklands, to talk about self-determination. Does that sound like someone who gives a damn about his country?
Our CM fails to take responsibility for the job that he has been elected to do. A perfect example of what I’m talking about is the FFR – a document that has been, for sometime now, a bone of contention with regard to the assent of our budget. Badly needed infrastructure money is being held back until such time as this document is signed. The CM refuses to sign it and now has said he will only do so if his technocrats advise him that to do so would be in the best interest of the country. A real leader meets with his advisors to get their input and, based on what they’ve said, he makes the call, good or bad. Our esteemed CM is putting the onus on his people which gives him the coward’s way out. If it’s a bad deal, for whatever reason, he can say I just did what my people told me. He’s exonerated from any blame. At least, that’s the way he sees it. It’s his job to make the call. He has spent his whole political career globetrotting at Anguilla’s expense. What do we have to show for it? Not a hell of a lot.
The Chief Minister, if he has not already done so, will have become the laughingstock of the region. That he could pull off such a bonehead move such as this is one for all times but, as I said earlier, don’t sell him short. He has a plan and, as sure as there are stars in the heavens above, you can bet he’s up to something and he’s not even covert about it anymore. This was none other than a pre-emptive strike for independence. You folks who have already picked out your titles, you are going to have one hell of a time cashing in. Let me ask you this? Where were you when we manned the frontlines, when we patrolled the beaches in the cold with grandfather’s old shotgun? Where were you when we were being asked to show papers to the invading Red Devils? You have to have had some skin in the game before you can just walk in and assume your place.
One has to step back and take a long look at what has been happening. A lot of blame has been heaped on the former administration and some of it may have been well deserved. I’m not here to try and litigate what they did. They’re long gone and, at some point, the party in power has got to stop whining and lead. They’ve had three years and all they’ve done was whine. Someone give them some cheese! Instead of blaming them for this and that, do what the devil you were elected to do: fix the country. The government of Grenada was just booted from office because of some of the same things that this one is doing. They’re in dire straits and so are we. Instead of coming up with a plan to get the island going, we’re talking nonsense – talking about “spiritual intervention and independence.” We can’t even figure out this system of ministerial government by which we’re governed – and we’re gonna go independent with Captain Bligh at the helm. Ladies and gentlemen, fellow Anguillians all, it’s time to get off the fence and let your voices be heard. They say that knowledge is power. Never has a truer statement been uttered. If we’re in possession of the knowledge, then we will know when our leaders are not leading – when they’re full of hot air. Say what you want about Victor, but for the last three years he has been the lone voice out there keeping the pressure on, something the opposition should be doing, until the rest of us found our cojones and joined him in the fight to educate our people. Remember, in a democracy the government is of the people, by the people and, most importantly, for the people. We are giving these guys in power a free pass. When was the last time any of them came to your district and asked how things were and what needed to be done? Ask yourselves these questions. Use the questionnaire that we sent out last week and answer the questions to the best of your ability and see what kind of job they are doing.
Before I go, let me say this: Last week the Mayor Show sent out a questionnaire with 10 questions on it. The purpose of which was to evaluate the seven members of the Assembly. What a ruckus that caused. We all showed our true colors in that not one caller called in to evaluate his or her representative. Instead, people called to admonish us on the show for having the temerity to do such a thing. Was it that they really didn’t want to participate simply because they couldn’t answer the questions, or the fact that they’re out of the loop? Several callers tried to shift the onus off the Assembly members and on to the Governor. Maybe this was an exercise whose time had not yet come. We have to start some place. We can’t continue to wait around and let someone else do the heavy lifting.
Will we will sit idly by and watch the CM make a laughingstock of the rest of us? We are a God-fearing and very religious people who are more than capable of conducting our own “spiritual intervention.” As a matter of fact, on any given day a “spiritual intervention” is being administered all over the island and I for one, who was brought up in the church, who was an acolyte, whose father built St. Andrew’s Anglican Church in Island Harbour, am insulted by what the CM has done. He did not do this to save Anguilla, but to save his own butt. Independence be damned, I say. Politics indeed, makes strange bedfellows, none stranger than the two guests that the CM brought to Anguilla this past week that will be remembered for a bizarre event. The CM may have been given a reprieve, but once the novelty wears off we’ll be back trying to pay the bills with very little money. Hopefully, this will have been seen for what it really was. A brazen attempt to save the CM’s job.
Easter is just around the corner. Let us remember what happened two thousand years ago and why it happened. Let us use this time to reach out to our fellowman and make Anguilla a better place in which to live. Until next time, may God bless us all and may God bless Anguilla.
Tyrone Hodge
