Editorial

On the front page of this edition of The Anguillian, are the photographs of a number of local students who have excelled in the recent CSEC Examinations. Elsewhere in the newspaper are two lists of other examination results, some of them good and the rest not so good. Congratulations are however in order to all students who worked hard to gain success. Their teachers are also to be commended for their dedication and for unselfishly imparting their knowledge and skills to those they taught over the years.

It is now almost six months after the 2010 general election, and the establishment of the new Government, yet Anguilla is being torn to pieces as if the heated electioneering campaign is still on.

One of the things that the newly-elected Anguilla United Movement Government can boast about, with much legitimacy, is that it was swept into office by the popular vote of the electorate. Another feather in its cap is that it was later joined by Jerome Roberts of the Anguilla Progressive Party, when he crossed the floor from the Opposition side of the House of Assembly however that action was regarded on the island and elsewhere.

There is a saying, which is really true, that first impressions count particularly in a case of visiting a country or meeting a person initially. If those impressions are good, one never knows what opportunities for further engagement or benefits may eventually crop up. This holds true for visitors arriving on our shores at the ports. Their first encounter with Immigration and Customs officers may either make them feel welcome or unwelcome by the treatment they receive.

These days it is heart-warming to observe that there is a most welcomed lull in the commission of serious crimes in Anguilla. This is certainly a relief from past incidents when there was much worry among law enforcement agencies, government, the people and even perhaps investors. And yet, on a scale with other places elsewhere, criminality in Anguilla has never really reached a level where we found ourselves twiddling our fingers in despair, but we must not be complacent.

Notwithstanding the impending cuts and taxes to help offset the 2010 public service expenditure, and the difficult financial situation facing Anguilla, it was a relief that, after a second attempt, a budget was presented in the Anguilla House of Assembly this week which the British Government can sanction. Congratulations are in order to the Government and the technocrats who hammered out the budget, though carrying a fairly large deficit.

The use of the above phrase in this commentary is deliberate. It is a commonly-used expression in times of adversity, when the going is tough and when an alert needs to be sounded to avoid sinking in the depths of any given situation. And what do we need to be more attentive to, or cautious about, than the present financial and economic troubled waters in which we have entered and must stay afloat?

One of the election campaign highlights, which has come back to haunt us, with a new Government in place, is the matter of the Memorandums of Agreement which the previous Administration signed with the developers of the Flag/Temenos, Viceroy and Cap Juluca properties.

Anguilla Day 2010 has swiftly passed with its pomp and ceremony and this year it was pleasing to see our Revolutionary Leader, and revered Father of the Nation, James Ronald Webster, in a front-row seat at the Official Parade, his first appearance there in many years.

To come to think about it, it might have been a good and workable proposition if the arrangement whereby the Government of Anguilla extended the time to operate without a formal 2010 budget could have gone down to the end of the year rather than for just two months. The question is: what is likely to happen after June 30 with the expiration of that period? Will there be a further amendment to the Financial Administration and Audit Act to authorise additional public expenditure? It will be half of the year by then and it just does not look right or possible to pass a budget so late and to succeed in generating the revenue to support it.

At last the efforts of the new Government of Anguilla and its technical team in the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development have successfully resulted in the hammering out of the 2010 budget before the end of April as required by law. Given the overwhelming fiscal difficulties, the uncertainties of a quick and sustainable recovery and the obvious need for new taxes in the absence of a good flow of revenue, the coming presentation of a budget, on Friday, is certainty good and welcome news.

Everybody is talking about the need for the people of Anguilla to hear what the latest information is regarding the working of the newly-elected Government, and the formula, or general plans, they may have to catapult the island out of its current economic and financial woes.

The appointment of retiring Anguillian Commissioner of Police, Keithly Benjamin, as Junior Magistrate, has attracted much attention in particular from the Bar Association which is questioning his experience in legal practice, matters of independence and impartiality, and has undertaken to express its concerns in radio talk shows and other forums. One has to be careful not to bring the Magistracy into public ridicule and contempt in that process.

There is bound to be some good lesson one can deduce or learn from the epic journey of the Queen’s Baton now in Anguilla this week, as it makes its way through 70 nations and at the end of its tour, in October, will have travelled for 340 days and covered 190,000 kilometres. Interesting, it is travelling across land, air, sea and via many different modes of transport, encountering a multiplicity of people of every race, language, culture and socio-economic background and way of life. That Anguilla tops the list of countries included in the tour, is perhaps an honour to us as a budding island nation and a developing people, with many of our young nationals, of the likes of Shara Proctor, excelling in the athletic world.

There is no gainsaying that Anguilla is caught in the grip of a financial and economic crisis that defies the wits of our leaders and people to set ourselves free.

The appointment of two Magistrates in Anguilla is a positive development in the maintenance of law and order on the island and it obviously takes into account the fact that nowadays the Court is crowded with defendants. Unfortunately, the majority of them are youngsters who, with a bit of parental and community upbringing and guidance, would not be on the wrong side of the law. Taking into consideration the growth of crime on the island, the nature of the offences and all the other negative and perhaps complex issues involved, all and sundry should salute former Magistrate Birnie Stevenson-Brooks and part-time Magistrates John Benjamin and Courtney Abel for the strenuous tasks they have had to endure in dispensing justice and punishment.

One of the hallmarks of a good leader is humility and despite the strength of his character and unflinching resolve which Mr. Ronald Webster has demonstrated during Anguilla’s revolutionary period, he has remained a very humble man. Even his reported wealth has not stood in the way of his simplicity of life and association with the downtrodden. In fact, it was the destitute and forgotten people of Anguilla, an island once regarded as “a backwater of the Caribbean”, that he was prepared to give his life for in their liberation from the feared Bradshaw regime in St. Kitts.

Any of the political parties or other groupings which were able to form the new Government of Anguilla, would have found it compelling to celebrate with their supporters, and this is understandable. In the case of the Anguilla United Movement, which has experienced a notable resurgence of support from the electorate after ten years in the political wilderness, so to speak, and has now become the island’s new Administration, the burst of excitement and even revelry must be greater.

There is no doubt about it. This was the most antagonistic and brutally tarnished election campaign ever experienced in Anguilla and it has not only left the candidates battered and bruised, but a number of other persons as well. As human beings, the hurt tends to linger on for some time, but with the right kind of attitude, maturity and forbearance, it can disappear within a reasonably quick time.

As seen, the front page of this week’s edition of The Anguillian is littered with the faces of all twenty candidates contesting the General Election on Monday, February 15. It is really nothing new on paper, since they all appear across the island in one form or the other. The only exception is that, when they are grouped together, they form an archival cluster for a chapter on politics in Anguilla.