All done?
It's a mere 10 months before the 2013 elections and you would be forgiven for thinking that the UDP was elected to office just last month and the PPM opposition party has gone away to restructure. An effective opposition is not just about politicking; it's a key aspect of having a good democracy in any country because at any point in time the incumbents know that if they fail to perform, the people will grant the privilege of leading the country to the opposition.
But the PPM has done little to instill faith among the people that they are a viable alternative and its leader, Mr Alden McLaughlin, needs to address that.
Worse yet, they have had no less than three years to establish themselves as the only viable way forward and instead they seem to have collapsed slowly but surely. This back of the envelope assessment goes far beyond the recent announcement that Mr Arden McLean has resigned. Rather it speaks directly to the way this party has been led and its activities (or rather inactivity) since 2009.
The general strategy of the PPM seems to be to leave the UDP alone because, as the saying goes, if you give them enough rope we know what to expect. To a certain extent this has occurred in the sense that the UDP have failed so miserably that all that's left is for the ministers to put all their personal belongings in a small box in one corner of their respective ministries.
But a successful strategy for the PPM is about much more than letting the UDP self-destruct; it must be about demonstrating to the people that a new vision and leadership is a must for the good ship Cayman to steer away from the rocks.
The PPM's appearance on the radio to criticise the premier's most recent blunder without offering solutions, a failed attempt at a no confidence vote and the staging of its own parliamentary session under a tree outside the LA are not sufficient to demonstrate an effective opposition.
What is required is a clear articulation of the alternative approach, the solutions, and the vision for the country that the PPM brings to the table. Instead there is over reliance on highlighting the tendency of the UDP to attract allegations on corruption, and just pointing fingers at incidences of incompetence that we are already aware of.
Alden, we get it. The PPM are not susceptible to allegations of corruption. You are far more statesmanlike. You have more integrity, etc. But your political strategy must ride on much more than that. The country is facing difficult economic times and needs real solutions. We need a proper assessment and, just as important, an articulation of it from you as the country's alternative political leader, that you understand the causes of our problems and know how to start addressing them.
The PPM won convincingly on the basis of integrity in 2005. But the country has now had a chance to see its record on economic and fiscal management and, as most are aware by now, that performance was far from great. That is all the more reason for the opposition leader to speak to those issues, not avoid them for fear of facing criticism.
If the party is still, or intends to continue, taking political advice from "H squared", it must at least consider the following in these discussions:
A) You cannot win with fresh faces if they cannot demonstrate leadership experience. Whatever opinion one has about Arden McLean, he is a strong leader and that loss needs to be made up with serious candidates.
B) You need candidates who can show economic leadership, not just a concern for social issues. You can sing "pro Cayman" and "anti Dart" until the cows come home, but if people don't see how food will make it to the table or jobs created, that singing will be for nought.
C) Alden must work harder to remove the perceptions of being arrogant, disconnected and unapproachable to too many, aside from the PPM hard liners.
D) Alden must relax a little (a lot?) and be open to speaking with independents as wellas those persons whom he may even consider as UDP supporters. In short, the man must be open and connect, because the cocoon that is the PPM is a lonely and ineffective shell from which to launch a successful political campaign.
The leader of the PPM must now rise to the challenge with far more conviction and direction or step aside. The country's democracy deserves better.
Category: Viewpoint
As an expat I am so glad that there are several flights leaving daily.
They are all professional politicians, who have spent many years learning their trade, and fear is lacking on their part to do a better job. Because of the present system… join a party kiss enough a$$ and you will be rewarded. With a comfy leather chair in the legislature in which to snooze and wile away your days. Does it matter if you do your job? Or… any job? Not really. It is the public who have allowed this to happen or rather the public who have been convinced to follow a set of rules not made by them but by those who stand to benefit by perpetrating this system. The only real solution is not to appeal to those within this system…why should they want to listen it's their chosen career! And one they have perfected with ease. Too much ease. But the solution is to…wipe the slate clean…. and start over.
Get rid of all the deadwood. Career politicians included.
Failure to the left of me, failure to the right of me… nothing in front of me, nothing but wreckage behind me. The future of Cayman is written (titled "Ode to Chaos"), and it's not pretty. Time to find another island.
agreed its is bad but i dont have anywhere else to go so we have to stay here and try to fix this.
More MLAs need to follow the brave example of the honourable (earned not awarded in my opinion) member for East End and split from their pseudo-parties. I truely believe this country would be better served by a coalition of indpendents. At least the playground punch-ups and name calling might settle down a little. The party system has been extremely devisive for Cayman. The UDP may be accused of treating therules and regulations of the House with utter contempt, and I feel it's the power that comes from a large majority in the house — where damaging policies (and laws) may be passed with impunity and ultimately unchallenged — that had been the genesis of the negative shift in political ethics in Cayman. The UDP appears to be the epitome of the old adage that "power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely".
How interesting that both parties do not have a list of the principles they stand up for. They expect the public to vote them in because of personality. And foolishly many of the public ignore the issues and vote who they like as a person.
Mac does have a list of princxxxxs (I can't type that out completely with a straight font…) – it's this:
1. What's good for Mac is good for Mac;
2. Nothing else matters; and
3. It's OK to just keep making up preposterous fables and blaming others to stay in power as long as possibly, because; finally
4. Being in power is good for Mac.
Having Mac in power is the death of Cayman (the generator keeping its life support on is sputtering out of gas as you read this), but that doesn't matter to Mac because of Rule 2 above.
See?? It's a list…
Very well stated viewpoint!
As another poster said: "can you imagine the past three years without Ezzard"? His persistent energy with researching the issues and presenting them has been the main avenue for us the public to be informed.
Don't get me wrong…i have no hesitation in concluding that the PPM is much more ethical than the UDP. And i'll give credit that Alden has researched and made presentations to question the destructive track that the current Govt. is on at times also….it's just that they (PPM) are not as persistent as need be…and have difficulty articulating their points/solutions.
This does not bode well for the many of us who are not UDP supporters…as it is likely that a lot of non-UDP supporters will have their votes split between PPM and Independents. And that may very well result in UDP in power again 🙁
Tings nah look well!
The members of the PPM will have a greater chance of getting a majority in the next election if they amended their entity from being a party, to being an association, or as in the days gone by – a team.
The worst element of a party is 'collective responsibility to the party'. If they have similar goals but members are free to choose their position on specific issues, that will certainly be a lot better than the situation that we now where the present government have collective responsibility to their party, rather than collective responsibility to the people who elected them…
PPM team – individuals working together for the betterment of the people.
That is a better way forward!
Okay, people need to understand two things:
1) The opposition is not going to start its election campaign 10 months early in a place as small as this. The three police investigations period proves that once Caymanians hear about something enough, they accept it as part of the fabric of life here and lash out against the people who insist on bringing up the same topics over and over. The PPM will mount a focused campaign with their new candidates as we get closer to the election. One assumes and hopes they are working on their platform now.
2) Many of the decisions impeding economic progress have been made for illegitimate reasons. Cayman has had opportunities that have been poorly handled by the UDP. The UDP have also inflicted a lot of own-goals on us with their lack of media savvy, tone-deafness, poor timing, ineloquent presentation and lack of creativity. There are also strong suggestions of rampant corruption. As just one example of these general issues, we would all have the shining beacon of hope in our new port well underway by now were it not for Mac's unilateral decision to breach his own contract with GLF. Just having an administration that acts in accordance with logic, reasonableness, and utilitarian values (i.e., let's maximise pleasure and success for everyone, and not just for me and my supporters), will improve our fortunes tremendously.
Have patience, remember the damage the UDP have gone, and for God's sake make the right decision next year.
ok keep that up and see where it takes the PPM. the party system needs to wake up as cayman is feeling different about it and i dont the people trust it as much as they use to. ppm needs to start doing some early campaigning to at least reach out to people.
I now expect a very articulate ramble from the PPM Chairman in response to this, which will say pretty much nothing other than probably all is well and we will see you loyal subjects next year.
what a shambles.
i have listed to the opposition for 3 years and i still have not heard of one concrete alternative policy they would implement…..
While I certainly agree that they have not done nearly enough, they have to be given credit for their well thought through position on the proposed changes to the roll-over/immigration changes. I just wish that they would get their act together in other areas.
I can think of just one – OMOV – I believe they have committed to that at least!
I cannot think of any case in the political history of any country when the people have continually asked for the opposition leader to lead over a period of years and yet so little was done in a situation where so much could be easily done at such a low cost and with so little effort.
Alden,
The UDP goal is wide open in several areas. Show us you have what it takes. Do something. Seize the initiative.
As a start, put forward a specific proposal for legislation to make it far more difficult for corruption and conflicts of interest in public office to occur undetected and significantly increase the criminal penalties and civil forfeiture applicable when it does occur. Then give a clear undertaking that if you are put in power you will immediately enact it to make sure the cr#$ that has been happening stops. How difficult is that? Get off your a$$.
the country going down the tubes. udp on one side ppm on the other. and country still going down thetubes. end of story.
there is nothing wrong with ppm leadership or the party. you people are just bad minded lookin for something negative to say. the ppm has been criticising the udp for 3 years so i dont where you have been. they are very effective and will be the next government in 2013. you cna try to make alden look bad all you want but it wont work. i always hear alden on rooster saying stuff so how can you say he is not doing anything. im sure he has to leave his work and family to do stuff like that. you people are just ungrateful.
I would take Alden over Kee Kee any day but criticizing is not enough. With a few months to go before the election he needs to put forward specific policies that he intends to implement.
ok dokey then. i' m guessing you are one of those hardliner ppm supporters? good luck with that. and thanks for a rather intelligent and articulate response in support of your KING.
101, just spit it out! If it was not for Ezzard Miller, the inquirer and only Independent member of the Legislative Assembly, the revelations of corruption would not have been made to the public! God help us if next general election the people vote in party members with Independent thinkers in the house! Imagined if Ezzard was never elected. Imagined if Cayman never had Ezzard in the legislative processes of government. I hope people realize that this two party system in Cayman is doing us a disservice.
not "with" – "without"
A) Fresh and logical ideas matter, irrelevant of your background. Vain associations that age, nationality, having the best friends or position somehow entitles you to the best ideas is what gets organizations into quagmires.
b) Economic leadership? Is that codeword for making sure your buddies get all the good contracts and they can dip into an untrackable sluch fund at thier leisure.
c) Who cares about initial perceptions, this isn't a fashion show, if you dont have the solutions and detailed plans to openly give to the public to prove thier success, you might as well be selling snake oil on the cat walk.
d) Focused way too much on the science of hand-shaking, good ideas speak for themselves. Putting the cart before the horse.
I noticed no pressure to provide detailed plans for the future of Cayman. Just motherly advice that he needs to sit up strait in class and play nice in the playground.
err…9:31. what exactly are you rambling on about? doesnt make sense. i think the article was trying to HELP alden to snap out of his current struggle. if you don't care about perceptions the i hope to god that you are not on his campaign commitee. if he cannot get elected he has no chance of helping the country.
and ecoomic leadershp must mean getting candidates in place with good business sense and who can demonstarte they have a clue on the economy. but I guess you don't think thats important either..rambling on about contracts and buddies misses the point of the article.
At this point, you can focus all you want on image, but if you don't have the gumption to create a detailed plan to prove how "good" you want people to percieve you are, then as your over-extended ego starts to crack people will know your all flash and wasted thier time. You will be thought of as somebody who was no more than a pathetic criminal gaining our trust just long enough so you can steal from the public purse. Abstract nouns like :leadership", "good business sense", mean less and less with no solid outlook.
actually the advice in the article is not to sit up straight and play nice. it says to get off his #$@$$^%^% and do something. and it says that very clearly.
great article 101!
I was having the same discussion with some friends who were wondering if PPM would have persons run in WB!!!
It bothers me that the PPM believe they can have members in WB succeed (and I consider myself an independent) based on the same old formula to run. In my opinion I mean no disrespect but our politicians seem to have a checklist that includes the following:
1. get new people, especially young & educated writing 'nice' essays, on talk shows, discussion panels….yes they are educated but that alone does not mean those persons are not merely opportunists who believe the next election is UDP vs PPM, don't forget the Independents next time my friends, we didn't make it last election but people are becoming more aware of the strengths of independents
2. XXXXX
3. then forget sensible economic and social policy just remind others time to get what UDP members have in terms of homes, cars etc
SO agree with comments regarding Alden, respect what he has achieved but I can't even listen to him on the radio, sometimes trying to be so careful about what is said comes across as boring and lacking passion & conviction, as a group they're simply unapproachable (Romney effect) even if they have friendly/popular supporters; plus they could have done much more. Look at how active Ezzard has been and there were at least 3 PPM members.
the ppm are as much a shambles of an opposition as the udp are as a government…..
The only way Alden is going to regain credibility is if he develops and puts forward fully thought through clearly articulated solutions for the country's problems. It is not sufficient to try to look less incompetent than W. McK. Bush. If that is all that Alden can come up with then I am going to support that Box of Squid party.
Let’s try some different people. How about Bo miller, Wally, Jude Scott, don Seymour, burn Connolly? There are others but they too busy making money to run. But that’s why we need them . Don’t like career politicians who desperate for the cash.
not sure don seymour would be a good one. not sure yet about wally but i think the other 3 are ok.
it's tough trying to find a 'good' candidate, one who can/will
-remember it's okay to protect honest & hardworking Caymanians
-ensure the Labour Law is applied to all, by immediately taking the Employment Law 2004 to the Governor for his assent
-set firm policies in place that will provide for natural growth of population versus increasing those eligible to stay here yet are not counted in forecasts for future infrastructure and other social obligations
-moratorium on work permits in unskiled category (be honest many of us know too many of these work permits are taken out by friends who do not employ these persons)
-not be so influenced by businesses/lobbyists that they continue to create divisive, unfair employment practices
-not seek to change or not to change when necessary laws that may impact their bottom line, the underlying greedy nature of many of us may actually cause us to look at financial security as the main reason to elect a person but we also have to consider backgrounds of people and many times in order to have reached a certain level decisions may have been made that were not in the best interest of these islands
-be willing to accept that by controlling development and yes, many work permit holders may have to leave, there are enough unemployed to absorb the jobs and many young Caymanians are also renting so rentals can not be strictly based on foreign workers
-try to separate policy from church for eg, no more nation building funds or similar unnecessary spending, (ps Jesus didnt have a palaces like I see being build here and he didnt need religious leaders to fund his mission)
maybe I'll run…. 🙂
Ok too many ppm supporters here. I am not a ppm supporter. There. now it’s more balanced.
The opposition needs to step up on government spending, crime and corruption. It's an open goal at the moment, all we need is a reasonble policy approach to these issues to contrast with McKeeva's paranoid ranting and slush funds.
Alden looks like 101 made some coffee for you. Wake up and smell it Bo Bo.
When Mac tries to sell the crazy budget Alden has his chance. I hope he takes it.
No he wont. thats the point of the article. alden needs go change soemthing asap. he needs to get together with his group of thinkers whoever they are and come up with proper solutions and speak to people issues instead of ranting at mckeeva. he seems to lack any form of strategy whatssoever.
” all done” McLaughlin . That should be the heading!
I think what the question mark in the heading means is where are you all done? Because he needs to step it up in a major way. It’s like he doesn’t exist and I agree with another poster that it’s an open goal right now
With the open goal they now need a striker. Unfortunately they lost one a few days ago with action man.
The reference to h squared shows that this person knows a lot on what goes on on both sides of the aisle and I see they have good grip on policy issues also. Curiosity is killing the cat. But keep the decent viewpoints coming!
Those in top echelon of ppm know what is meant by h squared….
H squared hasn’t done a damn thing for ppm in my opinion. That’s one of the things we need to change. Just look at our track record. We didn’t win in 2005. The author is right because Udp gave us the win because of their under table dealings.
Why do we continue to take political advice from someone overseas? Tell me that mr leader….
Everybody knows who "h squared" is, nobody cares, the british government is about to start handing out pink slips to those who are detached from the reality of the situtation and think they are in livig in a james bond soap opera.
Sorry but I don’t think anybody more ppm than me and I say the author is right. Right right. No one in our executive can argue with any of the above. Let’s put a strategy together and put Mac back in the bush!
He already in the bush. That’s why we in this crap right now.
101. come out from hiding and run for office please? Good observation on the local politics.
I am ppm supporter right through and proud of it. Because we don’t do deals under the table like others. But I am also concerned about what’s going on since Arden left. And. Don’t want to be hard on the party leader because trust me w need to support him. But he needs to do better. Don’t agree with everything this article says but I need to be honest because I agree with most of it. Let’s go forward ppm!
What are you saying…??? I read your 5 lines and I need to be honest – I still dont know what you are trying to say
A whe u a seh? Dis a de trute bossman! Udp must go but ppm must come good for that to happen. I also think independents have a good chance this time.
Somebody needs to fix this finance mess we in right now.
If I were Alden ( or is it all done?) I would reshape the party now and take this thing from big Mac. You can do it Alden but you need the help.
101 you did it again good article. I been watching how things are being played out and the ppm seems to be weakening and that can’t be good for cayman at least we need a choice please don’t leave us with Udp only as a option
Whoop whoop!
Wow. This is so spot on. The country does need a change and the ppm needs to get it together to have any chance. There is a lot of squabbling between the politicians but that’s about all we get, no true ideas.
For real. Alden I suggest you hire 101 to help you. You need it!