I attended a meeting at CapJuluca on Tuesday 27th March between the staff and elected members of Government concerning the situation at CapJuluca. I could say that I was embarrassed, but in truth, I left the meeting feeling very sad for my people, sad for my leaders and very sad for the future of my little island home.

I believe it was Thomas Jefferson who once said “the people get the Government they deserve!” that statement is not just an indictment against elected representation in a democracy who at some point or another show cowardice, corruption or a general failure of effective leadership, but it is also an indictment against the people who elected them. The people carry the ultimate blame for bad Government decisions.

It was sad to listen to persons I thought would have known better, some of them young politicians vying for political office, express such ignorance over the legal issues surrounding the CapJuluca matter especially the option of compulsory acquisition. One individual expressed the view that if Government took Cap Juluca back it would be no better than Cuba’s Castro or Venezuela’s Chavez. How sad. I would have thought that an aspiring leader would have familiarized himself with what the Courts have ruled time and time again across the OECS in this matter in favour of the Government’s right to exercise such an option. I would have thought that he would have read the judgement of the appeals Court over the Government’s public acquisition of the Lake’s land around the airport which again ruled in favour of the Government. I would have thought that he should have known that the reason we have a CapJuluca in the first place is because an Anguillian Government in 1978 compulsorily acquired a major portion of land on which the hotel now rests.

But I was also saddened by the Government’s apparent lack of leadership on this issue. When Ronald Webster set up Social Security in 1980 the vast majority of people were against it. He made an unpopular decision which was opposed by a vast number of people some of whom later became highly respected leaders in Anguilla. Yet all of them today admit freely, that Webster was right and they were wrong.

CapJuluca has been exploited and abused for the past 17 plus years. It has been like a beautiful woman slapped around by abusive suitors who have drained her of most of her charm. If the real truth of this abuse was catalogued and expressed; if the real truth of how much of the hard earned capital of that hotel has ended up paying legal fees to lawyers hired to fight an unending battle; if the real truth is told about the war that has been going on for years between these modern day buccaneers, then the Government would have to stand in the dock and be declared guilty for pussyfooting around these so called investors who continue their greedy war without rest. It is sad to see that Government seems prepared from fear or laziness to just roll over and allow these people to sell to the highest bidder. It is sad to see ordinary staff members whose labour over the years has made the hotel the success it has been roll over and urge the Government to sell the property to the highest bidder likewise through fear. Bradshaw must be shaking apart in his grave with laughter.

I don’t know much about Antil, but I do support the idea of Anguillians becoming involved in a real way in the best of our tourism industry. If the Government does not want Antil, then it must step in and own a good portion of the Hotel on behalf of all the people, after all, every square inch of the land on which the hotel stands belongs to the people of Anguilla. Government can set up a statutory body like Social Security to run its investment in the hotel if it so desires or create some form of company to do so. But if what I hear is true and the Government does sell this property to the highest bidder Gencom, then the staff will have to make up it’s mind that their jobs will have to be shared with another couple hundred Philippinos, because Gencom intends to build a project nearly four times as large as the CapJuluca that stands there today.

At a time when all Anguillians and their Government should be facing the harsh reality that we must contain and restrain the present growth of the economy drastically if we do not wish to be strangers in our own land, our Government and our people seem hell bent in swamping this island with yet another humongous project.

The buccaneers are laughing at us, I just feel very sad.

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