Notwithstanding the impending cuts and taxes to help offset the 2010 public service expenditure, and the difficult financial situation facing Anguilla, it was a relief that, after a second attempt, a budget was presented in the Anguilla House of Assembly this week which the British Government can sanction. Congratulations are in order to the Government and the technocrats who hammered out the budget, though carrying a fairly large deficit.

Thanks should also be offered to the British Government for allowing Anguilla the rare opportunity to work towards balancing its budget over a three-year period and for facilitating the requisite loans to enable the Government to get beyond its financial dilemma, by relaxing the borrowing guidelines.

Responsible and respectable Government is now a highly desirable requirement if Anguilla is to be taken seriously not only by Britain, its fellow Overseas Territories and other regional islands, but its citizenry as well. Among other things, our leaders must steer the island towards quick investment opportunities to achieve the capital input so very necessary to rejuvenate our stalled economic growth and to enable the island to repay its huge loans and growing national debt. The second and equally-important consideration is for Government to show respect for all of its citizens, those Public Servants who work assiduously and close to the political machinery providing professional and dependable advice and administrative assistance, and the investors on whom Anguilla depends so much.

Listening to the House of Assembly this week, and to some of the speakers on the Government side, one cannot truly say that the contributions were all uplifting, polite and honourable. It seemed at times that it was a Government in opposition to itself and therefore in stark contrast to what its role should be. While the Speaker placed no time limit on the budget debate, “in the interest of openness, transparency and accountability, and in the spirit of true democracy,” that did not give anyone, and certainly not the Government, a licence to attack and castigate persons on matters which absolutely had nothing to do with the budget. Those unfortunate attacks, including not addressing the Speaker directly, were reasons to call for order and decency in the House and they gave rise to an unnecessary and over-bearing display of disrespect and acrimony in the Assembly.

Take for example the Chief Minister’s attack on Permanent Secretaries and references to other public servants and some investors, including Chinese business persons, who did not give themselves licences to operate in Anguilla. It is not right, and certainly indefensible, to attack and probably libel defenseless people outside the House. There are other forms of enquiring into, or dealing with, issues where there may be a need for clarification without stirring up public resentment, animosity and causing embarrassment. “Corruption” is a strong and loaded expression and must not be used loosely even by persons having an obsession with such a word. Public Servants, and Permanent Secretaries in particular, must not be seen as obstacles by power-wielding politicians or their agents, for without these esteemed workers, the administrative and governance system will fall apart, leaving politicians out in the cold and dysfunctional. Woe to hard-working and professional Public Servants the day they fall squarely under the unfettered control of the whims and fancies of self-aggrandizing politicians.

Oh for a tightening up of the rules of procedure and respect in the Anguilla House of Assembly, to rid that honourable place of acrimony and vainglory!

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