Archive for February, 2012

Mac: ‘I’m not prepared to go’

(CNS): McKeeva Bush has dismissed any ideas that his recent comments were indications that he was stepping away from the political fray and said the remarks made about him “looking pity” had fuelled him on. Speaking for an hour and a half to a crowd of over one hundred people on Tuesday night, the premier launched a full scale attack on his critics and the opposition, accusing them of inciting people on a path to violence and destabilizing the country with their calls for demonstrations and campaigns against his government’s proposals. He told the audience that he was “not prepared to go" and that he was still the premier and he intended to “stand fast”.

“I said I was tired, I was tired of finger pointing and the accusations and after I lost my daughter I had lost the fight,” he told the audience gathered behind the court house in George Town. Bush said he wanted to see young people getting involved in the process and, “I said I couldn’t be here for ever, but I didn’t say I was not going to run.”

Speaking about the grief he had suffered over the death of his daughter last year, the premier said that perhaps he needed sympathy but when Arden McLean went to East End and told the people he was “looking pity … and said that the Foreign Office was forcing me to retire there could never be a bigger lie … It stirred the old fire in me!” he exclaimed to the cheering crowd.

Bush said he did not say he was going. “And I am not prepared to go now,” he added. “And if Alden McLaughlin is right and I am out, then so be it, but in the meantime I am the premier; in the meantime I am the leader here.”

The premeir condemned the recent agitation against the ForCayman Investment Alliance, a proposed agreement with the Dart Group, and said that in order for Cayman to make an economic recovery the country had to be stable. But he said the opposition, the independent member and what he described as their  “cohorts and wanna be politicians” were endangering the country with their action. He said that when they “smeared the mud”, they damaged the image of Cayman. He said their reckless speech was damaging the country and the “cave” people were obstructing everything because they knew they would all be lost if his government was successful in its economic policies.

Bush told his supporters that he was concerned about the “self-seeking” action of the opposition and said they had to be more responsible because of the impact this had on the international stage and Cayman’s global image.

Despite being under police investigation himself while remaining head of the government, which many critics say is having a genuine destabilizing and damaging impact on the country’s international image, Bush said it was the opposition, the call for demonstrations and the media such as CNS and the local talk shows which were the problem as he accused them all of not caring how their actions appeared and how it could hurt everyone.

The premier said he was not afraid of anyone, “even if they were in the governor’s office”, as he had done nothing wrong and the “truth would come out”, in an oblique reference to the investigation into financial irregularities associated with the premier and the developer Stan Thomas, a former investor and land owner in the Cayman Islands, over a 2004 transaction.

“I am not worried about any accusation against myself. I know myself and where I have come from and where I have been,” he said. “They tried that before, but if your hands are clean the truth will come out at some point. So I am not scared of them. What I am scared of is the height of irresponsibility they arepromoting and calling it love of Cayman.”

In his fiery presentation, which looked much more like an election campaign speech than an update on the current projects as billed, Bush listed what he claimed as his many political achievements, adding that he had 27 years of results in politics and described himself as a worker. From the introduction of benefits to veterans to labour rights for workers, the premier spoke about what he had done in comparison to the activists and opposition politicians, who he said had done nothing for the people of the Cayman Islands and were promising a “path to violence” and the destruction of property.

He said destabilization came from “desperate, power-hungry empty vessels with nothing to lose”, who were leading innocent people on a Kamikaze mission.

Bush also took aim at the bureaucratic harassment that he said he was facing from inside government as well as outside. In a familiar criticism of whathe described as "stumbling blocks”, he said that the plan to divest the Water Authority’s sewerage system had stalled and he was determined to find out what had happened. He said the UK had supported efforts to sell assets and the WA board had agreed to put it out to tender.

“I am committed to ascertain where the hold-up is and why it is held up at all,” he said, adding had the project got off the ground more than a 1,000 people would now be employed in that venture. Bush said the auditor general had “audited this” and the CTC had made comments, but “who’s stopping it?” he asked rhetorically. “There is much more to it.”

He said it was part of the whole bureaucratic harassment and believed someone had complained to the auditor general so he would investigate. “But it can’t be held hostage because the people can’t get the business themselves,” he stated.

Bush spoke about the promise of many of the forthcoming projects and other issues that he said his government had achieved. He described the launch of Cayman Enterprise City as a “master stroke” and that the Dr Devi Shetty hospital project was about to go through the planning process. He said his government had attracted interest from investors worth "billions and billions of dollars". Bush also claimed that his government had managed to get the public accounts up to date, despite the fact that the accounts from most of the ministries and portfolios after 2007/2008 have not yet been made public.

Although the premier’s office circulated a flyer about a number of issues, including the port negotiations, there were few new details on the current state of that particular development project. He said government was still negotiating to allow local people to have shares in the upland project and that government had just signed a contract with Luis Ajamil of Bermello & Partners, one of the world’s leading marine architecture and engineering firms, as a consultant on the project.

Check back to CNS later this week for more from the public meeting.

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CS gets petition rights

(CNS): After many years of ambiguity about whether civil servants can or cannot sign petitions, the deputy governor’s office has released new policy guidelines that allow regular civil servants the right to put their names to petitions of most kinds. The new groundbreaking policy also provides a way for key civil servants and sensitive or senior post holders to sign petitions designed to trigger people-initiated referendums. The policy decision means that registered voters who work for the government and support the principle of one man, one vote will be able to sign the latest petition aimed at triggering a people’s referendum.

In what is fast becoming a new era of transparency at the deputy governor’s office, the policy document was released not just to civil servants on Tuesday afternoon but the press as well, outlining the arrival of democratic rights for the civil service. (See document below.)

In his memo to all government’s workers setting out the new policy, Deputy Governor Franz Manderson said that when it came to people-initiated referendums, under the constitution the “preferred policy would be that public servants should enjoy the same freedoms of expression, including the freedom to sign petitions as persons outside the public service.”

There are certain caveats, especially for those working in the top echelons of government with ministers, and all public sector workers will be expected to maintain their positions of neutrality, but the vast majority of public employees will finally be able to partake in the right to support causes and issues they believe in without fear of losing their jobs. Those in senior or more sensitive positions will need to notify their ministers and chief officers of their intention so sign up to a petition, but once they do so they too will be protected from unfair action against them.

Any civil servant who believes action has been taken against them because they have legitimately signed a petition will be able to take the matter to the deputy governor. Any action taken or harassment against a public sector worker who signs a petition legitimately is now liable to disciplinary action, turning the tables on the current state of affairs where civil servants fear for their positions when they sign petitions.

The policy, which breaks up petitions into different categories of civil servant, seeks to strike a balance between everyone’s democratic rights, which is enshrined in the 2009 constitution, and the need for neutrality and objectivity in the civil service. The new policy holds that public employees follow established codes of conduct and values and keep their political opinions separate from their work.

This means it will not be possible for some top government employees to sign a petition which conflicts directly with the view held by their political bosses, and as a result Manderson said in his policy guidelines that there had to be some restrictions.

The guidelines ask all civil servants to consider when signing a particular petition whether doing so would impact their ability to discharge their normal duties and whether it would affect any of their direct dealings in the course of their work.

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Alden calls for solidarity

(CNS): The opposition leader has pledged the support of the PPM to the various groups opposing the West Bay Road closure and the proposal to move the dump, warning that the deal was only a symptom of a more frightening problem. Alden McLaughlin called for solidarity and the need to stick together, despite the disappointment over the rejected petition last week. He pointed to the success of the protests and demonstrations which had stopped the “crazy idea” of the East End port and the dredging of the North Sound. The PPM leader said the efforts to fight what was happening were part of a bigger fight for a better kind of governance. (Photo Dennie Warren Jr)

Speaking at a public meeting in George Town last week, the opposition leader described the current administration as “completely clueless” and “flailing about” for the last three years “trying to find some magic or a miracle” to fix the economic problems of the country. He said government was just coming up with one “idiotic proposal” after another, but the real problem was that government didn’t have a plan, despite the manifesto produced during the 2009 election campaign which promised wonderful things once elected.

“They are operating without a flight plan; the captain has lost contact with air traffic control; he is flying blind and the plane is running out of fuel and there is not a runway in sight,” McLaughlin told the audience of some 250 people that had come out in opposition to elements of the Dart plan. The proposal, he said, was the only thing the UDP could come up with to try and fix the economic woes of Cayman.

“The reality is their only economic policy has ever been to sell the country’s assets and use the money to buy votes,” McLaughlin stated. “That has been their economic policy ever since they took office.”

He said this was clear to see by the various policy proposals the government has come up with since the election, including the proposal to sell the Government Office Accommodation Building, the plan to sell the Water Authority and this plan to gift land to Dart.

The opposition leader pointed to the more than $4 milllion given to churches under the nation building plan and, more critically, to the $5 million they had taken from the Dart Group even before the main agreement regarding the ForCayman Alliance has been signed. He said it came down to government selling assets and buying votes in order to do the same thing all over again.

McLaughlin said that once the previous UDP Cabinet had granted status to the owner of the Dart Group, the country was no longer able to control what he did because he was now as Caymanian as anyone else. Power and influence was now concentrated in the hands of one very powerful family, the PPM leader told the crowd, which was not just buying property and businesses but dictating policy, as illustrated by the ForCayman Alliance deal.

However, it was not the Dart Group that people should be blaming, which, after all, was merely seeking a commercial advantage, and it was obvious that Dart would want to move the dump from its own backyard, McLaughlin said. If it could find a government “absolutely stupid enough" to move it to the people of Bodden Town’s backyard, why wouldn’t they go along with it, he asked rhetorically, as he laid the blame at the hands of the current UDP administration.

“I don’t beat up too much on the Dart Group for what they are doing. The people we need to beat up on are those that you elected to the Legislative Assembly who are betraying you,” the opposition leader said, adding that this was where the pressure should be applied.

Despite the disappointment of the petition, which had more than 4,000 signatures but was cast aside by government because a dozen or so of those signatures were from visitors or children, the people should not give up, he said.

“We have to continue to do what we are doing,” he said, as he called for solidarity in the protests despite the disappointment. “We must not lose heart. We must build this momentum. We must stop this craziness.”

McLaughlin added that the country needed a government that would listen to what the people said and pay attention to the rules and follow the law. Cayman needed a government with integrity and “a premier who is not under criminal investigation”, he said to wide applause. Cayman’s reputation was already at stake and the people had to send the message that they would no longer stand for it, the PPM leader urged.

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