Archive for December, 2012
China Harbour faces union dispute in Jamaica
(Jamaican Observer): A dispute is brewing between China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) and the two major trade unions — the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union (BITU), and the National Workers Union (NWU) — which could create industrial relations problems when construction on the North-South link of Highway 2000 starts next year. On Friday, the two unions wrote to the Ministry of Labour and Social Security seeking its intervention to resolve the main issue of whether CHEC will observe the provisions of the labour agreement adopted by the Joint Industrial Council (JIC) for the building and construction industry. Specifically, they need to know if the Chinese firm will agree to pay workers a 16 per cent end-ofproject bonus.
Their concerns emergedafter CHEC refused to pay the bonus to unionised workers who were employed in the construction of the Rio Grande Bridge in St Margaret’s Bay, Portland, which was opened in October.
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Cop denies taking bribe in corruption case
(CNS): A 28-year-old police officer from George Town pleaded not guilty to four counts relating to bribery when he appeared in Grand Court Friday. Elvis Ebanks has denied taking more than CI$500 from a Filipino national in order not to pursue a possible theft charge and will now face a jury trial next year. Ebanks is the first serving police officer charged under the relatively new anti-corruption law after he was arrested in Savannah as a result of information given to the police by Ebanks’ alleged victim last month. Ebanks, who is suspended from duty, was bailed by the court to return in January for a trial date to be fixed.
The officeris charged with two counts of bribery, obtaining CI$115 and US$31 to interfere with administrative justice, and a further CI$560 on a second occasion, as well as two counts of breach of trust relating to the same two incidents.
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UDP move against Bush
(CNS): The loyalty of the UDP parliamentary members to the premier reportedly cracked this weekend and it is understood that the caucus has ousted McKeeva Bush from office. Having been silent for five days on the issue and with Bush’s continued refusal to resign in the wake of his arrest, party members began moves to push Bush from the party leadership. Although no official announcement has yet been made, it appears that the UDP has finally agreed to replace him with Juliana O’Connor, while back-bencher Cline Glidden is tipped to take on Bush’s portfolio. Rolston Anglin, who is facing his own legal troubles with a DUI charge, will take on the post of deputy premier .
The UDP members are expected to be meeting with the governor this morning however, It is not clear if Bush has accepted the party’s decision and whether he will be taking a back-bench government seat. Nor is it certain that the UDP will continue to stay united in the decision to force the premier out of office. If not, any division will see the UDP administration fall as it will not be able to command a majority and therefore force early elections.
The opposition leader wrote to the speaker on Friday asking her to call a special meeting of the Legislative Assembly to debate the situation with a no confidence motion. There is still no word on whether or not Mary Lawrence will take the step of calling the emergency meeting of the country’s parliament in face of the national political crisis without direction from the government .
With the eyes of the world on Cayman and the premier’s arrest, along with his subsequent defiance and protestations of innocence that the arrest is fuelled by a vindictive governor and political enemies, there has been increasing pressure on the UDP to remove him.
Check back to CNS for more on this story.
Man shot dead in GT
(CNS): A 23-year-old Jamaican national was shot dead Sunday night in George Town and a 21-year-old has been arrested on suspicion of murder. Police say that they received a report of gunshots being fired at about 10:30pm in the Shedden Road vicinity of Printers Way. While Uniform Support Group officers wereen route to the scene, they came across avehicle at the junction of Shedden Road and Thomas Russell Way, George Town, with one male passenger inside, who had been shot. Officers took the victim out of the car and tried to resuscitate him without success. He was later pronounced dead at the scene by ambulance personnel.
The police arrested a 21-year-old male at 1:15am on Monday morning in connection with the killing. However, the investigation into the first murder of the year is ongoing and police are asking for anyone who may have witnessed this incident or have any information to call any of the local police stations or Crime-Stoppers at 1 800 (Tips) 8477.
Shedden Road remains closed from the traffic lights at Thomas Russell Way near Jacques Scott's to the junction with Dorcy Drive at NAPA as well as Printer Way running off Thomas Russell Way to Shedden Road while police process what appears to be two crime scenes.
Check back to CNS later for more on the fatal shooting
Clean hands & pure heart
If the allegations against Premier McKeeva Bush are proven correct, he will go down in this country’s history as a liar and a crook. But if they are not proven correct, what happens then? He and his party carry on the same? I don’t think so. Relying on the legal axiom of “innocent unless proven guilty” isn’t good enough when you are in high public office.
Public office is a position of trust and power and we expect those in positions of trust and power to be held to a higher standard of conduct than the rest of us. They have to be accountable and transparent in their private dealings and it goes without saying that we expect them to avoid any conflicts between their public duties and their private interests. If such a conflict does arise we rightly expect that they will proactively declare their interest, remove themselves from any decision making role in which their impartiality might be compromised, and make sure there is a paper trail to provethe true nature of any payments. If their integrity is questioned we expect them to come forward and explain themselves or step aside until the issues are resolved.
We don’t know much about the allegations McKeeva Bush is facing. We do know that he received a payment from Stan Thomas at a time when Thomas wanted the Cayman government to rezone some of his land and that the explanations and documents McKeeva has produced have not convinced everyone. We know that he used his position to try and have some improperly imported dynamite released to a business owner and again the explanations have not answered all the questions.
And we have heard rumors of other murky dealings, the Cohen & Cohen loan, CHEC, the dump contract to name a few. It may well be that none of these involved any illegal activity or that nothing will be proved but in the court of public opinion “no smoke without fire” is just as firmly entrenched as “innocent unless proven guilty” and, as the country’s leader, avoiding criminal conviction alone is not enough to clear his name and restore confidence.
McKeeva has failed in his duty to remain above suspicion and that failure has brought the office of premier, his party and the entire country into disrepute. Of that, at least, we know he is guilty and in most other democratic countries that would be enough to disqualify him from office.
Declaring that he has clean hands is not enough. If he can’t prove to the public's satisfaction that they are clean then he has failed to hold himself to the required standard and he should resign or be removed before any more damage is done.
Car flips in George Town road smash
(CNS): A woman was recovering in hospital Saturday after a road smash this morning near Lantern Point Condos on Shamrock Road, George Town. Police said that at around 7:15am officers attended the single vehicle crash in which a female driver heading west towards George Town had lost control of her car as she reached the roundabout. The vehicle flipped on the side and an ambulance transported the woman, who was the only person in the vehicle at the time, to the Cayman Islands Hospital. Her injuries are not life threatening and an investigation into the cause of the accident is on-going, police said.
Anyone who may have witnessed this accident or have information relative to it is asked to call George Town Police Station at 9494222.
Meanwhile, the RCIPS also said that two people were arrested over Friday night and Saturday morning for driving under the influence of alcohol and 15 other people were prosecuted for various traffic offences.
A police spokesperson said those who decide to ignore the many warnings being issued by the RCIPS relative to traffic violations must prepare themselves for theconsequences of being prosecuted and taken before the court.
Friends, family greet Mac but no sign of UDP caucus
(CNS): There were no members of the UDP parliamentary group to greet the premier on Friday night when around 100 friends and family members turned up at Owen Roberts International Airport on his return from Jamaica. Cayman 27 reports that Bush told the small crowd that he has no intention of stepping down and the allegations against him are politically motivated. In his first public appearance in Cayman following his arrest Tuesday morning at his home in West Bay, the premier made it clear he was not going voluntarily. Meanwhile, it is understood that a number of the UDP government and backbenchers have asked Bush to resign.
Bush was returning home after flying out very early Thursday morning to Jamaica, where he gave the commencement address on integrity at the University College of the Caribbean on Thursday night. He was scheduled to receive an honorary doctorate from the college but the UCC had postponed that award. Bush told the group at the airport that it was decided he will receive the doctorate here in Cayman, the local news channel reported.
Mac remains defiant
(CNS): The Cayman Islands premier returned home from Jamaica late Friday night insisting that he would remain in office regardless of his arrest this week. McKeeva Bush, who is now on police bail until February, once again accused the governor of being “vindictive and petty” as he insisted his arrest and the police investigations were a political witch hunt as a result of his standing up to the UK. Despite his determination not to step down, Bush may be forced out of office as speculation mounted Friday that cracks were appearing in the caucus loyalty. It is understood that some of the UDP parliamentary group are preparing to ask him to resign from both the party leadership and Cabinet.
Since the revelations last year that the premier was the subject of three police probes, his party colleagues had thrown their support behind their leader. However, the rest of the UDP’s elected officials have remained silent since the short statement from the deputy premier’s office Tuesday morning, a few hours after Bush's arrest at his home in West Bay. The UDP members of the Legislative Assembly said they recognised the gravity of the situation and they were in discussions and that a statement would be released in due course.
That due course has stretched across four days, and after another closed door meeting all day Friday the party has still not made any public comment about the situation the party now finds itself in.
There are a number of scenarios that could now unfold but it will be a matter for the eight UDP parliamentarians to make decisions on who will replace Bush as premier and who will take up his ministry if he returns to the back bench. However, if the party is not in agreement in its opposition to Bush remaining in office or in supporting him in the top job, the UDP benches will split, leaving government in disarray.
If the UDP cannot maintain a majority then it could seek to form a coalition with the independent or opposition members, which is an unlikely outcome. The most likely scenario if the eight members of the UDP cannot stay united either in support of or against Bush will be the dissolution of parliament by the governor and early elections.
The opposition leader filed his no confidence motion with the speaker of the LA, Mary Lawrence, Friday, along with a letter requesting that she call an emergency meeting of the House in order to force the UDP to take a position one way or the other.
PPM leader calls for LA meet
(CNS): The opposition leader has written to the speaker of the Legislative Assembly, Mary Lawrence, asking her to summon an urgent meeting of the country’s parliament next week to debate a no confidence motion on McKeeva Bush’s government following his arrest by the police on suspicion of theft and offences under the anti-corruption law. Alden McLaughlin said that the arrest of the premier was hugely damaging to Cayman. However, with Bush denying he has done anything wrong and insisting he will remain in office, the opposition leader pressed the speaker to convene the LA to allow the UDP members who have been silent so far to demonstrate either their support or their lack of confidence.
The speaker has the power, should she choose to use it, under Standing Orders to convene a meeting and allow the debate, which could conclude with a secret ballot, to take place in the Legislative Assembly, which this time could lead to the downfall of government.
While Deputy Premier Juliana O'Connor-Connolly issued a short statement Tuesday, saying the government understood the gravity of the situation, the opposition leader pointed out in his letter to Lawrence that none of the UDP government members have made any public statements over the last four days to say whether they continue to have confidence in Bush as the premier or not.
“The current state of affairs presents a matter of the gravest national importance and hence my request to you to exercise the discretion given you as Presiding Officer,” he wrote.
Although Bush was still in office Saturday morning, it is understood that the UDP were still hoping that the premier would voluntarily step aside. But with the eight other members of the UDP government said to be split, with at least two members standing by the premier, those not in support of his remaining in office will not be able to form a government as they will not command a majority. If they then choose to vote in favour of the lack of confidence, the UDP could be forced to go to the polls early with a divided leadership team.
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Rare chance for Mr Taylor
We should probably not be too surprised to see that the recent arrest of the premier has not resulted in a quick resolution either by way of formal charges being brought or the premier doing the honourable thing and stepping down fully from his position until things have been settled. There are those who say that we should continue to pretend that its business as usual until justice takes its course.
The problem is that there is a real possibility, based on previous investigations, that so-called justice will take either a very long time or not materialise at all.
From what we have seen so far, we can either give credit to the RCIP and assume that they are up to something a bit more advanced than we normal people can understand, or that their "case" was not as strong (as frankly it should have been) before arresting someone in high office.
At this stage, with the prospect of this situation limping on right through to election day, the best action to get to at least a political solution which may minimize further harm to the country's reputation is for the governor, Mr Duncan Taylor, to force early elections or for the UDP members of government to replace Mr Bush, as has been called for by political opponents.
Either action would provide us with at least one desirable result, which is to remove what many view as an incompetent leader from the country's top position. And very few would disagree that this one result alone would provide a nice feel good factor for the country.
We are seeing early evidence that the UDP elected members and the party executive will do in this situation what they tend to do best: nothing. But while we may havelow expectations for the UDP, we should and must put more scrutiny on the actions of Mr Taylor in how he handles this situation from a political perspective (because we should not kid ourselves by denying he plays a highly important political role).
The country cannot sit by while due process takes its course, especially when it is becoming clear that the course could be several miles long, while the running of government and country, which is already in a fiscal and economic crisis, suffers from this major distraction.
His Excellency must act now to restore order because it is highly unlikely that this will be achieved by the elected members of the Legislative Assembly, despite the opposition leader's 11th hour threat to bring yet another no confidence motion.
None of us may be quite ready for early elections but maybe that gives the country the best chance to lift itself out of this mess.
Traditionally, Cayman's governors tend to be more hands off on domestic matters, but this is one of those real opportunities to use his powers in the public interest. Will he?