UDP and PPM clash over LA
(CNS): The government and opposition members have clashed once again over the procedures governing the Legislative Assembly. As a result of the way government has opted to introduce the referendum bill, which the opposition says is unconstitutional, as well as government’s unwillingness to record the opposition’s objections, PPM Leader Alden McLaughlin and his team walked out of the Business Committee meeting this morning. Speaking on behalf of the government, Education Minister Rolston Anglin described McLaughlin as “immature” after he said the UDP had gone to “extra-ordinary lengths" to share their legislative strategy with the opposition.
Monday morning’s bust up came after the government had decided to get around the constitutional difficulties over the 21 days’ notice on the bill by bringing the government motion to introduce the one man, one vote to the House on Wednesday for debate, then adjourning the current meeting and calling a special meeting the next day in order to actually debate and pass the referendum law.
The opposition leader said as this was not new or unexpected business, which is what the special meeting provision is for, and the government’s move was a misuse ofthe provision.
McLaughlin told CNS he believed that as a result there would still be a constitutional problem. Added to that, he said, he had raised the point that the government ought not to deal with any legislative business until the opposition’s no confidence motion had been addressed. The opposition leader said he wanted the Business Committee minutes to record his objections but he was told by the premier that the minutes belonged to government and he would not be recording McLaughlin’s complaints.
“There seemed then no point in remaining,” McLaughlin said. “Not only did the premier and other government members not want to listen to the points we were raising, they did not even want to record our concerns in the official minutes.”
In a statement released on Monday afternoon, Anglin said government was being open and transparent and the premier, who is chairman of the Business Committee, had advised all members that the government intended to adjourn the House on Wednesday once the debate on Government Motion No.8/2012 had been completed.
“We would subsequently call a Special Meeting of the Legislative Assembly pursuant to Standing Order Number 9 in order to deal with the Referendum (Single Member Constituencies) Bill, 2012,” Anglin stated. “This will avoid any doubt as to whether the Bill is compliant with Section 77 of the Constitution, which requires bills to be published 21 days before the commencement of the meeting of the Legislative Assembly at which it is intended to be introduced.”
He claimed government went to “great lengths to communicate this” so everyone would be clear in advance of the debate. “Despite this the opposition still found room to complain and walked out of the Business Committee abruptly and went straight to the media with their one sided version of events,” Anglin said.
“We cannot believe how immature the leader of the opposition and his colleagues behave! When we go to extra-ordinary lengths to share our legislative strategy with them they still try to cause strife and division in our country,” the education minister stated on behalf of his colleagues.
Accusing the opposition of opposing for opposition’s sake as government had agreed to the referendum in an effort to end “the political rancour and division”, Anglin said the opposition members were doing everything they could to stop the bill.
The opposition have raised a number of concerns about the referendum bill and believe government has hi-jacked the process in an effort to stack the deck against a ‘yes’ vote despite initiating the national ballot. The PPM also stated recently that they intend to withdraw from the proceedings of the parliament on Wednesday unless the no confidence motion was placed at the top of the agenda.
McLaughlin revealed that Premier McKeeva Bush has refused to place the motion on the order paper and said government was not ready to debate the issues raised by the lack of confidence motion relating to the three police probes currently surrounding the premier.
The PPM will be holding a public rally starting at 8pm in Savannah Monday evening to discuss the referendum and the need for Bush to step aside until the police have concluded the investigations into financial irregularities and a shipment of unlicensed dynamite.
See Anglin's full statement below.
Category: Politics
unna try behave unna selves nah..Geesh….my six year old behaves better than all of you.
The PPM reminds me of the USA GOP! Totally, opposed to everything and without solutions for anything!
These guys are like spoiled school children..they wanted the refrendum first, know the want no confidence first…make up your minds and stop the one upmanship.
UDP got a little smarter last night in that they decided to use thier most intelligent member to be their mouthpiece instead of their least which is why we heard from Rolly. He disappoints me more every day.
Party members, Gang members, what's the difference? same mentality.
This is what happens when a 5th grade class is left alone too long by the teacher.
After all they(UDP PPM) have done in the past why is it so hard to except what they are doing now. They have all proven themselves fools a long time ago. Its just taken so long for the Caymanian people to catch up because they have a hard time accepting the fact that those whothey have choosen to lead do not have the ability. They never had, and they never will. Get some new blood in there or watch as it all self destructs even further.
Grow up you immature bunch of so called Politicians for once in your lives.
Is there any reason why Anglin delivered this message instead of the Premier or Deputy Premier? or even the next in the line of power …… Ellio?
Here we go again! Close the house down and lets call for an early election. Get em all out and let’s start fresh. They getting fresh change all over the world in the last couple of days, so we might as well get wid the program. UDP are like a bunch of bullies standing by the art block waiting for the under dogs to walk down the corridor to get to the lunch room!! This too high school and childish now! Grow the frig up and use what lil time unna got left in there, doing something instead of rowing!! Try talk about real shit going on, like these like gun shots and cuc!!! Screw Dart, cuz when the shit hit the fan, he got fuel in his jet!
Mr Arden i expect better from you.Are you guys so power hungry that u cannot wait until the next election 2013.Major power struggle going on right now in our PPM headquarters.Mr Arden leaving the PPM and forming a new party with Mr Miller in the Summer after the One man one vote referendum.Let me give you some advise Alden watch your back.I don't like the new relationship with the independent member.
PPM Supporter
I doubt that you are a PPM supporter or at least not a sensible one. Your post does nothing to help the PPM. Reads like a ploy from a McKeeva operative.
keep digging rolstin…… soon your political grave will be as deep as mckeeva's
Get along children!!!
Its as simple as this::
If the PPM sincerely values the ultimate interest and good will of the Caymanian people; If the PPM truly believes that they are a peolple of integrity; and If the PPM strongly believes that McKeeva is NOT a leader they are willing to follow THEN RESIGN!!!!!
If the PPM fails to resign, I for one, will indeed see them as just another bunch of men who are afraid of not being re-elected,
If the PPM resigns, the Governor will be forced to step in and call a general election,
What exactly are we waiting on people??????????
There are two options at hand !!!!!!
Resign from what?
Clearly you do not understand the DUTY of an Elected Reprasentative to the people who Voted for him / her.
The PPM representatives ( Arden, Alden, Kurt, etc) were Elected to the LA to represent the people who Voted for them.
Because the PPM did not win the majority of the seats, the UDP formed the Govt., and therefore the PPM are in Opposition, and as such have no power in Govt.
As such, the job of the PPM is to voice concerns & highlight the Negative aspects of Govt policies & actions so that WE, the people, are fully aware & informed.
That is exactly what the PPM are doing. Unfortunately, it is about all that they CAN do.
That's ridiculous. The Governor could just call by-elections for each of their respective seats.
Why don't you call on McKeeva to resign?
The Governor will NOT be forced to do any such thing. The Government can operate without the opposition. With it being so close to the next General Election, the Governor might choose to have no bi-election at all to fill the empty seats.
At last someone with a degree in common sense.
Enough already, they ask for the referendum and got it so what else so they want. Miller has stated several times that he thought the premier should just give the them the referendum instead having to do a peoples initiated referendum . Now when they agree to do they claim it’s been high jacked. These people just like to stir up trouble, like to get their faces on the news and seem to love the people being at each other throats.
What Mr. Miller has actually been stating is that the UDP should save the country the cost of a referendum by simply changing the election law to Single Member Costituences, bringing it in line with the constitutiion.
I really think we should disolve the L.A and call for Election right now,this week,this month,this year now,now now. I have had enough of this BS.
From this report it appears that the Premier is not willing to be transparent about the allegations that he claims are false. If that is indeed so, why not embrace this opportunity to make his case?
The important issues regarding the well being of the average Caymanian are the health of the tourism and financial industries; and possibly the tourism health care industry.
These industries do not care a tinker's damn about the local politics. They only care about profit. If these industires can pay kickbacks to the local politicians and still get a reasonable rate of return on their capital, they will continue to do business here.
If they cannot get a reasonable rate of return on their capital (kickbacks included), they will move their capital to other investments.
The bottom line here is the per centage that the local corrupt politician charge; if the corruption in reasonable, then the capital will come to Cayman with the appropriate trickle-down effect to the average Caymanian. If the per centage that local corrupt politicians charge is too high, the capital and benefits will go to other counties. Caymanians, please elect the appropriate politicians for the long term good of these very small islands.
ignoring most of the politics here, the most worrying thing is the Premiers refusal to note objections in the minutes.
One wonders if has been doing this in all his meetings over the years to make it appear all members of the meeting agree with him.
The Turtle farm minutes spring to mind when he blamed all the bad desicions leading to overcharges on the other commitee members, where now it seems obvious that the Premiers to ride roughshod over all meetings.
Dictionary Entry for "Inmature"
1) copy of Mac's Press Release re Governor from May, 4, 1012
2) Image of Mac
Now that is INNNNNNMATURE
I wholeheartedly agree with your definition of immature. That letter was disgraceful to say the least and appears to be written by a five year old rather tha the premier of a country. Mr McLaughlin is a well educated, well bred person and knows how to be diplomatic. His main fault as I see it is, that being a person of propriety, he may at times seem to be too easy on opposing McKeeva and his gang of puppets.
I wholeheartedly agree with your statement however don't you mean 'immature'?
Once again there is yet another issue about the interpretation of the constitution. I would suggest that the Leader of the Opposition asks for clarification from the AG, and let us hope that the AG will on this round, take his responsibilities seriously, show that he has a backbone, and provide an opinion on this matter.
A little research of how who got where due to someone else's influence/recommendations may show why this is an unrealistic expectation.
The AG advises the sitting Government – it would be a conflict for him to advise the Leader of the Opposition.
Now really! How can the Education Minister describe Alden McLaughlin as "immature" when all Alden was doing was following the right and TRANSPARENT procedure have having his "voice" and concerns recorded in the minutes for all to see. What is it that Mac and his followers want hidden, the truth?
If this not proof that the bunch of UDP are happy with the Dictatorship that is being forced upon us by their leaders. They want the Media stiffled and now they dont want the records recorded for all to see.
What a bunch of losers but I wonder if they dont know that their children and grandchildren will have to live in Cayman after they finish destroy it, but then again, maybe they have plans away from Cayman!