Mac ‘shocked’ by U-turn
(CNS): The opposition leader said that in more than 20 years in politics he had never seen such a turnaround as he saw on Thursday when the premier stood up and said what he did. McKeeva Bush said he was “shocked” when he heard the premier talk about 'at large' candidates and changing the number of constituencies. Bush went on the attack, saying that government was full of excusesand speaking about loyalty and a man’s word, implying the government had neither, as he described a man who can’t keep his word as a ‘pheeyong–pheeyong’ person. Bush warned the government that it would be held accountable for “this broken promise”.
Taking part in the debate on the private member's OMOV motion brought by the member for East End, Arden McLean, Thursday, which has dominated the LA proceedings this week, Bush said everyone knew where he stood on this. However, the opposition and now CDP (formerly UDP) leader told his colleagues to vote their conscience, as he challenged the premier to do the same with his members, many of whom are understood to be toeing the party line on this issue very reluctantly.
Describing government as "iffing and butting" over the backbone of the country’s democracy, Bush took aim at the premier as the cause of the turnaround. “What a difference a day, what a difference power and position makes,” he said.
“The premier is weak, weak, weak,” Bush exclaimed, saying that he could not get elected on his own and he had run on the coattails of the first elected member for George Town, Kurt Tibbetts.
He said that Alden McLaughlin had travelled far on the issue when he made his announcement Wednesday, as Bush took full advantage of the government’s change of heart less than a year after it was elected. Criticising the 'at large' idea, he said that it was adopted by BVI because they had no choice and at the behest of the UK, who, he said would do anything to confuse things, and as a way to add the members they needed.
The opposition leader said he heard no clear solutions coming from government but he had heard “we want it but we don’t want it” and he accused government of wasting time. He said if it wasn’t broken then they should not fix it and warned, “When you start experimenting, you don’t know what you will end up with.”
He accused the government members of campaigning on the OMOV and SMCs to “break Fortress McKeeva”, and berated them for the distraction the referendum campaign had caused him when he was premier.
“It’s not the system of voting that’s keeping people unemployed or making the dump worse or why people are losing their homes,” he said, claiming that government was hypocritical as he questioned where all the work was that had previously justified the referendum.
He said the government had “worn their shoes out” campaigning for 'one man, one vote' in 18 SMCs, saying how much better it would be and it “would get rid of me … but I am still here,” he said, laughing hard, adding, “a hard man f'dead.”
Revisiting the issue of former governor Duncan Taylor and Bush’s own ongoing legal challenges, he said that what it took to break 'Fortress McKeeva' was not a change in the voting system but one governor to paint him black, as he laughed even harder.
“I never heard more about how we need it but we don’t need it, you want it but you don’t want it,” Bush said, taking the government benches to task as each member had backtracked on their original position.
However, he pointed to the premier as the main cause of the turnaround, saying it was him who was not willing to support any system where Tibbetts would not carry him because he could not win on his own in his district. Describing government’s position as 180 degree turn, he said that, given the back and forth, they may still do a 360 degree turn back to the start as they had not offered any solution yet.
Category: Politics
For crying out loud, Mr.Bush, why don't you do us all a huge favour and move to Vegas. I for one would gladly contribute to a fund to finance your activities playing at the crap tables.
I know that this won't be popular with some, but setting up the constituencies for one-person-one-vote needs a bit of thought, as yiu doun't want to go messing around with it time and time again.
One of the primary concerns is that every vote is as near to equal as possible. For instance, if there are 300 voters in one constituency and 3000 in another and both constituencies send 1 representative to the Local Assembly, it is patently unfair that one group of voters effectively have 10 votes compared to the others. In order to do this, constituencies need to be comprised of roughly equal numbers of voters. They also need to be of a minimum size to be practical. Some of the traditional constituencies on these islands are close to "rotten boroughs" in that they have so few voters, they could all be bought off by an unscrupulous politician.
The idea that there be two classes of representatives is often used where thare are small electorates – one group is elected by each constituency to represent a smaller number of larger constituencies and others are elected via a vote of the entire electorate on a party platform – usually by a system of proportional representation. If this route is chosen, then there will need to be an evaluation of which of the many possible forms of proportional representation is most suited to the Cayman Islands and it's electorate
I believe that the purpose of this motion was more an attempt to cement into place one particular rotten borough that will more than likely end up being combined with parts of other constituencies in which the present incumbent can no longer rely on automatically being voted in.
Let's be clear:
(1) there is no constituency in which there are only 300 voters;
(2) one is proposing that any single member constituency have 3,000 voters.
Under the 2010 Boundary Commission report for single-member constituencies, the largest number of voters in one district on Grand Cayman was 969 people versus 571 for the smallest. So much for your straw man.
Let me get this right – you are objecting to single member constituencies because they may be unequal in size but your remedy is to have some at-large constituencies which are very much larger than any single member constituency?
震惊！大声笑。现在，现在布什先生。有没有办法在地狱你都惊呆了。所以，不要试图愚弄我们以为你不知道奥尔登怎么回事，现在和将来都是。坦白说，我不相信有什么能震撼你。嗯，除了pheeyong的举动。 HIH-yaaaa
Lol you wanted ppm Alden is una match lol get them bobo fool fool caymanians
Hey Alden, can you tell us some more about those scholarships? At least we got some of the two million back from his church. Sorry about the done Dart deal folks, looks like we'll just have to live with that. Too bad Cayman. But don't worry my people, it's not all bad, thanks to the UK at least we won't be owned by CHEC forever. Oh, I almost forgot, we lost another two mil there too, didn't we? Oh well, there's always the CUC bill to bail us out…
I voted for ppm based on their efforts prior to the elections and I also voted for OMV. Now to hear this is a surprised to me and a big disappointment considering how much ppm was an advocate for OMV and the lost revenue sustained to small businesses for the one day holiday to vote for OMV.
I ask the honorable Premier if you are not for me, who is against me? A lot of broken promises made today and I do hope you are aware 2017 is not so far away.
i really hate to say this but Mac hit the nail on its head dead smack on.
this is it for me, I am done voting for this party politics fiasco.
Have I mis-read the reports of what happened in the LA. Did the PPM say they were against OMOV or SMC's or that they wanted to vary the present way the LA is constituted?
Mac is playing us. The PPM voted against the motion in the way it was presented, but not against the principle of OMOV or SMC.
Use your ears and be discerning with your heads.
I don't at all recall mac being shocked at his own u-turn when he got outwoted on the subject before the last elections.
It's too bad that Minister Archer mixed himself up with this sorry lot in the PPM Party.We all remember Marco Archer's involvement while working to get the OMOV in place by Referendum.
Let's hope this does not cme back to haunt him at the next election!!
Oh it will. He won't dance out of taking responsibility for his action.
Mac, the man.
Mac, the legend!
:o)
Can’t you at least wait until April?
Mac Shocked???
Blessed Redeemer….
Mac, the greatest devils advocate of them all!
This man of pure heart and cleans hand will also soon be held accountable for his past actions, and hopefully pay the price.
When Bush talks only fools still listen. If the new "Premier" is doing something to piss him off then he must be doing the right thing.
mac is right but i can't believe he has got the gall to open his mouth after his last abysmal administration…….
who cares?….they are all as bad as eachother…..
they have proven caymanians cannot run their own affairs…..time for direct rule…..
UK is in worst shape, they are begging china for money.
Goodness, I had no idea "great minds thinking alike" extended to punctuation.
Uk is in worse shape. They are trying borrow money from China
Yeah!! Just like Ireland and Scotland…
Right?
Alden need to take time and think, look into himself, and listen to expert advisors before he make political decisions or statements. It is giving him the reputation of a flip-flopper, someone who changes his mind too often.
Alden will never do those first three things for sure.
OK I'll bite. What is a "pheeyong-pheeyong person" and how did CNS figure out how to spell it?
Is it Tagalog?
CNS: Research so far has revealed that the definition is a 'person of no substance or of no importance', however we readily accept that the spelling is the subject of some debate and our research has not yet arrived at a conclusive arrangement of letters.
This is one of my favourite posts of all time on CNS! LMAO. I think though the word has to start with an "f" because I believe it comes from the Chinese Jamaican culture and "ph" isn't part of that culture.
That makes sense! I have tried Allsopps "Dictionary of Caribbean English" with many permutations on that spelling with no results. 'Hoping Mr. Bush will explain to us…
CNS, when Mac is making the "noise" he is referring to the sound of a donkey. Heehooonning or whatever. A donkey is a stupid and stubborn animal. It is our caymanian slang to express this and show that a person is making stupid commnets or behaving stupidly similiar to that of a donkey. Hope that helps.
‘pheeyong–pheeyong’ is not Chinese or anything of C In fact it a form of Caymanese al a West Bay.
No, it originated in Jamaica, like some many other cultural aspects of Cayman that Caymanians want to claim. I heard a Caymanian waitress tell a visitor recently that Ackee & Saltfish is a native Caymanian dish!
Trus mi as much as you may like to claim this darling set of words as J'can, I'm a Baya, born and bred and I can tell you that it is 100% West Bay Caymanian dialect. In so far as the woman claiming the ackee dinner as being Caymanian is concerned, that is no more rediculous than J'can bus drivers telling tourists that they are Caymanian wid a raw J'can accent. All around the nonsense plays out so try stop making a mountain out of a mole hill.
You know that there is only one or two non-Caymanian bus/taxi drivers, don't you? T
They made sure to get that into mac's wocabilary (not necessarily how to spell it) before he finished 5th grade.
OMG!! This is definately the best post ever here on CNS. LMAO.. This is now the new addition to my vocab. Anybody messing with me is going to be called a pheeyong-pheeyong person". LMAO
Piiang piiang is the correct enunciation and spelling gosh!
CNS, please persist with your research, the nation awaits the outcome with bated breath.
I hate to say this but "Bush warned the government that it would be held accountable for “this broken promise". Is so very true.
Those whosupported the PPm based on their promise of OMOV, I sugest you let the PPM know that you would like to be taken of their membership list beecause of this.
The reason the people have be quiet on this is that we believed they would do as they promised. Now it is a whole new story. Shame on you Alden.
For those who are "reluctantly" going along with Alden on this you are betraying the people who put you in office. Pure and simple. Political double talk is not going to get you out of this one. There is only one way to prove your word is worth damn: OMOV now.
PPM are now the regressives in name and as government
ROFLOL McKeeva is talking truth and showing the world that the new premier is a hopeless he is the ultimate coattail riding one because with out KT there is no Alden Mc so take your licks now and expect more next election bobo.
I may not like Big Mac but he's absolutely correct about the ppm and Alden who is acting like Little Mac more with each day what a shocking about face by those who promised the most. In fact ppm are behaving just like udp with the arrogant ways and dishonorable manner they have dealt with OMOV minimum and immigration. How many more promises will they break before 2017? I will never vote for those who lied to me ever again. I thought ppm was better they showed me otherwise.
This attitude will get McKeeva re-elected.
Mac 'shocked' by U-turn. Everyone else 'shocked' Mac isn't in jail.
That because they obviously have nothing on him, the truth will come to light just like tempura..
Keep telling yourselves that "darlin".
So what you're saying is that they do have something on him, but they just don't want to use it? They've been "investigating" the Stan Thomas thing for four years now. Do you think new evidence is going to fall from the sky, more than a decade after the supposed crime occurred? Keep telling yourself that darlin' indeed!
Don't be stupid. Everyone knows that Stan Thomas won't testify without immunity from prosecution.
Exactly. And what, praytell, is going to make him change his mind this far along? That's what I thought.
CNS, can you please stop reporting on Mr. Bush's comments. They are completely irrelevant and quite frankly add nothing to my day.
Idiot, do you have to read what CNS publishes?
This is not about McKeeva
Mac-Demagogy at its best..he and Putin need to have a conference to see who is the best. I am not putting money on Putin, he does not know he has met his match
But for sheer style, Rob Ford, Mayor of Toronto is a better match. Rob can chat patois and has some rhatid moves. They both have weird addictions and weirder ideas. They're both under police surveillance and don't give a rat's ass what people think about them. Many folk would pay good $ to see the epic clash and ultimate smackdown.
LOL … I laugh too because I recall Alden at one time agreeing with Rollover policy, then changes his mind and said it wasn't working, then he is for it again. That man can flip-flop!
Remember Alden saying " my thoughts are still evolving on this matter" sounds like it's become Znorthsounds ever lasting mantra.
Here Here McKeeva, Truth well Spoken..
Mckeeva bush has the idea that we the people share.
I love you Mac. Your comeback is more than welcomed back.
youre the only person on earth i know who loves paying exorbitant utility bills so your hard earned money can be frittered away on idiocy.
What's it like knowing anonymous persons? Is it like having imaginary friends?
Since you'reanonymous you should know.