Elections

The Coming General Elections May Make this Blog Redundant. Elections are coming by spring of 2010. That date is just around the corner. Seasoned politicians and members of the opposition in the House of Assembly, the Hon Eddie Baird and the Hon Hubert Hughes, are coming out of the darkness of the past four years into the light. They have announced their press briefings on Wednesdays. They too are just in time for the Thursday editions. They wasted the last four years. Not a peep out of them during all that time. Not a single meeting of the Public Accounts Committee since the Constitution of 1982. Not a single public official dragged in front of the press to answer questions on the mis-spending of public funds. But, now that elections are around the corner, we are beginning to hear from them. Now, they begin to raise issues and to demand answers from government. A bit late, I would have thought.

Aspiring parliamentarian and experienced politician, Haydn Hughes, is an exception. He has always been good for expressing his views and asking the odd pointed question on his radio programme and on the gossip columns on the internet. He does not, in my opinion, attack the really important issues. But, then, we all have our own peculiar bees in our bonnets. I should know. I have been the one running around in circles these past three years wearing my bonnet, and lashing out at bees.

And, now Brent Davis and his young politicians have begun to publish their APP website. They are holding town hall meetings around the island. They are making their presence known. The criticism that they are all too young and inexperienced is, in my opinion, pure stupidness. Civil servants do all the hard work of government anyway. Political leadership is supposed to lay down national policy, not be experts in administration. Youth and inexperience is no disadvantage. In a parliamentary democracy the politicians do not do the day-to-day work of government. Public service experts do that for them. That is why they are employed. Inexperience is no reason why a bright young leader with vision should not be elected in every constituency in Anguilla come March-April 2010. President Obama never ran a company or government department before he was elected. Prior to becoming a Senator, he was a community worker. What experience did he have to become President, I ask myself. And, did it matter that he had none?

Time for spring cleaning is coming. Anguillians will soon have a chance to sweep out the dust. We will take this opportunity to go for change. Nothing could be worse than what we have had for the past four years. The smell of old age has been overpowering. It is time for the broom to be put to work. Sweep them out. Sweep them out.