Please allow the Anguilla Democratic Party some space in your paper to express some concerns about land ownership, its use and planning.

From our forefathers we learned that the strength of a country lies in the control of its land. If the land is not owned by the people, then the people cannot control what is happening on the land.

For inhabitants of a small island such as Anguilla, the land is not real estate, but it is the culture, the life and country that they are nationals of. For the foreigner, it is real estate and nothing more. During the Reagan Administration some of his senior staff discussed in the presence of Grenadians that “these countries have lovely real estate, but the people do not have the financial ability to develop the real estate. It would be easier to give them green cards or citizenship and buy the islands from them and properly develop them”. As far as those officials were concerned, the islands were real estate and not home to the inhabitants.

The sad thing is that our citizens and leaders have fallen in the trap of believing that if you sell what your forefathers left for you for millions, or so, you are rich. Later on when it is too late you can make a fuss with the new landowners when beaches are blocked and private homes built on traditional fishing spots.

Our deepest disappointment is that after seeing how much of our land has been alienated our government appears not to understand the seriousness of this because recently they reduced the alien land holding licence fee so that non-Anguillians could purchase more land and, to use their words, “stimulate the economy”. The new policy by the Government is pure folly. It is designed to encourage Anguillians to get rid of property that their forefathers refused to sell because they considered the land sacred. Yes, the land belong to its Anguillian owners and they can sell it to whoever they please, but at times they need guidance on matters such as leasing or on heritage and historical sites.

We need to take a second look at our land use and planning. One look at the Viceroy project reveals its construction on the shoreline (where traditional fishing areas have disappeared) - its construction is right at the edge of the sea rock - and planning has done nothing about it. We have seen stakes and lines drawn at Flat Cap Point so that particular traditional fishing spots that hadbeen used for hundreds of years (see Annals of Anguilla) will soon be a thing of the past. We need to preserve these heritage, cultural and historical areas even if we have to end up purchasing these areas from the new landowners.

As General Secretary of the Anguilla Democratic Party, and candidate for Valley South, I was asked the question “ When you were a civil servant did you ever complain publicly about this?” The answer is simple. Civil servants cannot go on political platforms and voice their opinions. However, whenever the opportunity presented itself, I commented on issues of concern to Anguillians especially the sale of our heritage.

In 1987, I presented a paper to the National Youth Council on the topic: “Youth in Nation Building”. In that paper I spoke about land use. I will quote from the paper:

“If we are going to build a nation, we must have control of the said nation. At the present time this is barely so. If we examine the land registry we will see that large tracts of land are owned by non-Anguillians and this does not take into consideration those who have out smarted the system and own land through locally registered companies. If this trend continues, Anguilla will have locally elected politicians, but they will be forced to reckon with the large expatriate businesses and landowners. This situation could put indigenous Anguillians at a serious disadvantage” (G.I.S Sept.1987.) The above was my view in 1987 and it is even more true now than ever.

Anguillians wake up and stop thinking that all is well. If we continue with this trend, we cannot govern what is no longer ours.

Julian R. Harrigan
General Secretary
Anguilla Democratic Party

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