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.

Much has been heard over the past several days particularly with respect to the Cap Juluca agreement, and even to the reported exchanges between the Chief Minister and the new owner, whom he met in New York recently. The Chief Minister, who plans to take a motion to the House of Assembly, ostensibly in an attempt to amend the agreement, maintains his intransigence against the proposed re-development of the property and the sale of villas, charging that the hotel was being transformed into a real estate project. The developer appears to take the position of other developers that a real estate element to a hotel, involving the sale of villas, is a way of quickly realising financial returns from what may be an expensive venture and investment.

The confrontation is disturbing, especially when people’s jobs are at stake; when it involves a resort which, despite its longstanding ownership and other issues, has admirably re-captured its world-renowned status as a leading resort, and is again being described as the flagship of the tourist industry in Anguilla. The situation is further aggravated by the fact that the hotel sits on a large acreage of Crown Land, which may give the Government and people reason to have certain expectations and claims which may not be unreasonable, but which do not mean Government should be domineering either.

The Chief Minister has challenged the owner that if he should close the hotel to force the hand of the Government, he would compulsorily acquire it. It seems that there is a lot of hot air blowing over the matter which, like the previous ownership quarrels and uncertainty, is again having a chilling effect on the large Anguillian staff and is threatening the economy as well.

The Chief Minister has said that the Attorney General’s Chambers informed him that the Memorandum of Agreement was legal, but he was going after the money meaning, perhaps, to re-visit what he thought were the lavish concessions involved. The bargaining table, rather than other less formal or inappropriate means, is always the best place to thrash out thorny issues; and there seems to be a need for a cooling of tempers and for a spirit of caution and cooperation to prevail to deal with the disquieting matter in a manner satisfactory to all concerned.

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