Found at: http://www.anguillaguide.com/article/articleprint/6191/-1/140/
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MINISTER: "ANTI-SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR NOT ABOUT POLITICS" 'Come Let's Talk,' Tells Opposition
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Minister of Social Development, Evans Rogers, says there is a need for a united Anguilla and has appealed to his fellow parliamentarians to avoid causing divisions of any kind among the people.
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Hon Evans Rogers
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He was at the time speaking in the Anguilla House of Assembly on Tuesday this week on a Motion by Opposition Member, Hubert Hughes, suggesting that Government was paying more attention to the development of roads in the eastern sections of the island than in the western areas.
“Let me take this opportunity to say, Mr. Speaker, that I am disappointed in the discussion and the debate thus far on this particular Motion,” Mr. Rogers said. “I am disappointed in light of the recent incidents during the carnival summer festivities. We are Elected Members of this Honourable House and folks are watching and listening and I think that… dividing Anguilla at this particular point in time serves none of us any good.”
He was of the view that claims by the Opposition that infrastructure development was taking place in some areas more than in others can fuel the rivalry currently taking place between a number of youth on the island. He described such gang behaviour “as this east and west foreign culture from television sets, and activities on the North American continent and throughout the world, which we are trying to eliminate.” He thought it was more prudent for Opposition and Government Members to meet to discuss “what we need to do to save this generation and generations to come.”
The Minister said that the development of the island’s infrastructure was not only related to roads but other projects as well. He stated that the Ministry of Sports, for which he was responsible, had taken on a project to develop a sporting facility in the Blowing Point area. “We need the help of the Members for Road North and Road South, West End and all over, to come together to sit and negotiate with the landowners so that we would be able to put that facility in place to be a benefit to the young people in that particular area; and to me, I think the discussion about roads in east, west, north and south is trivial,” he said. He observed that there was much road work in various parts of the island yet to be done but that was not the point of his concern.
“What I am trying to say, Mr. Speaker, is that the environment we are in, east versus west, red shirt versus blue shirt, is something we need to address or else we will not be able to use the paved roads that we have in Anguilla at the moment,” Mr. Rogers advised. “This is my appeal. We are Elected Members of Anguilla. We need to come together and find out what the problems are with regards to our young people and see if we can find solutions collectively to deal with what is happening.
“At the end of the day, the individuals who are involved in this anti-social behavior are the electorate. We represent them and if their behaviour is a reflection of their representation, then we all need to go out of this House and allow somebody else to come in. I say this with all honesty. We need to come together and address some of the anti-social behaviour that we are having here in this country and not politicizing a constituency in the eastern or western end of the island.”
The Minister went on: “These young folks are looking and listening at us and our behaviour in this Honourable House today leaves a lot to be desired…The social problems we are having are not about politics and we don’t need to politicize them. We need to come together and have a common cause and focus on dealing with what is happening today.
“Mr. Speaker, I mentioned that because the Motion before us talks about the three constituencies, 5, 6 and 7 as opposed to 1, 2 and 3. In other words it is again east versus west and we are accommodating it here as Elected Representatives. I am very disheartened. Please, let us put away this and get together to address what is happening.”