“QUIET RETREAT”

Anyone, with even little intuitive state of mind and has been observing events on Anguilla since February 2010 even from a distance, would conclude that we have instinctively missed the opportunity to lead an economic resurgence for the future. We know that things will not remain as is, and at some point the economic situation of the country would change and would take a positive turn. This is why I said in an earlier article that in spite of the challenges we face today, we must look ahead. In spite of the unprecedented measures taken which have introduce a income tax on the island, and a series of new tax measures to improve present budgetary shortfalls; we have done nothing to inspire the future. We obviously have a fight on our hands just to bring the island into perspective, but we must look ahead.

After what was clearly a downward spiral from a definite period of expansion of our economy during the years 2000 through 2008, a period in our history that gave us hope, when we felt that finally Anguilla had emerged from the depth of hardship and joined a progressive trend in the region. It was short lived, and the blame for the fall was placed squarely on the AUF Government, who maneuvered the success in the first place. Some loyalists to our current Honorable Chief Minister Mr. Hughes claim that it was him who actually engineered the imminent rise in economic success, leading up to the first decade of the 2000’s. Stemming from the fact, that if we claim that a major aspect of our achievement during that period is the modern road system we enjoy today, certainly the first few miles of high quality asphalt roads were done by the AUM government during the period 1995 / 2000. But Mr. Hughes failed to contain a rivalry in his Government and lost a pivotal asset, that’s when the former Honorable Finance Minister Mr. Victor Banks stood against his collision Government with Hughes and break away.

No doubt, this administration, a second Hughes Government thought they would just continue where they left off in 2000, but this team appears to lack a real sense of mobility and is more of an imaginary outfit, not showing a strong sense of direction, nor showing the kind of capability the country needs right now and is therefore unable to trigger the desirable action the people of Anguilla anticipated when they were elected. Reading the blogs sometime ago one user posted a provocative line which obviously got some attention, quote; “Hubert said “Evan and Jerome are useless.” One can perhaps imagine such a statement, even if not in plain public hearing. One may recall that while the former Honorable Chief Minister Mr. Osborne Fleming upon retiring his political career during the 2010 campaign challenged Mr. Hughes to join him in retirement, Mr. Hughes saw a very clear chance of becoming the next Chief Minister of Anguilla; heading towards two years in, Mr. Hughes has not shown the enthusiasm or the energy he is known for. The question is asked if this term around, the challenges are proving to be just too much, considering that his last tour of duty as Chief Minister was some fifteen years ago.

Going back to that line extracted from the blog, a simply cry for help! The Honorable Edison Baird made this cry even more compelling when he identified a faction in AUM as an influential arm wielding significant power in government as “Unelected and Unelectable. Without doubt this has affected the internal framework of AUM and caused a drawback creating an obvious void for all to see. We have a government now mostly muted and appears lacking in influence at a time when we need a most effective administration. The honorable Parliamentary Secretary Mr. Hadyn Hughes himself who had been absorbing a good portion of executive authority willingly abdicated by the Honorable Chief Minister, who perhaps felt it was in good hands; but after hearing directly from the Health Minister, it appears that he has retreated somewhat and made himself less visible, causing some to believe that Baird’s deep expression of discontent has indeed caused him to reconsider his active engagement. This perhaps has also caused him to consider a real run to succeed his father and become the next influential Political leader of the island. It now appears that even the honorable Chief Minister, and those singled out by the Heath Minister’s have ambiguously gone into “Quiet Retreat!”

By Elliot J. Harrigan