Good night fellow Anguillians
For those who do not know me, I am Haydn Hughes, the President and
Co-founder of the Anguilla Independence Movement – A.I.M.
We are a non-partisan movement geared towards the social, political and
economic advancement of Anguilla.
I would like to say that the notion of independence is not new and indeed it
is not new on Anguilla. We have been an independent people for quite some
time. Long before the revolution we were and we still are today. The Hon
Minister of Finance confirmed that when he declared recently, “we are paying
our own way!”
In 1967 we went into political independence, albeit very brief. The essence
of what caused the revolution was about more political Autonomy and yet
today, we have far less political power than ever before. When you take into
consideration that the Governor’s powers in 1976 were external defense,
internal security and the public service. Compare that to today where his
powers are absolute, they are external defense, external affairs which
includes international relations, consular services, treaties and
conventions, internal security which includes the police and the courts, the
public service, the judicial and legal services and further to that he also
has responsibility for passports, nationality, visas, disaster preparedness,
international financial services, including any relating directly to finance
and he is not required to consult with the Executive Council on these
matters! Makes you wonder why you go out in the hot sun on election day?
Even Sir Emile Gumbs, though not a public supporter of independence for
Anguilla wrote to the President of Taiwan on the 29th of November 1984 using
the following words, “we are a small country on the threshold of
independence. Great assistance is required in infrastructural
pre-independence development…” end of quote. 1984 the ANA party reported to
the United Nations that independence is the ultimate goal of the party but
will be determined on the level of infra-structural development.
On 11th October 1984 the UN general assembly special committee on the
situation with regard to the implementation on the granting of independence
to colonial countries and peoples, reported that Anguillians did not want to
proceed into full political independence because we thought we did not have
enough political experience and our infrastructure was not up to par.
As we speak, the Chairman of the Anguilla constitutional reform committee is
having discussions with officials from the United Nations and I’m sure there
are few here that knows about that. That in itself shows a lack of
transparency as laid out in the white paper, partnership for progress and
Prosperity and the United Font Manifesto.
Independence is not merely an option but it is a very real option that we
must seriously consider in light of UK citizenship, EU charters, fundamental
rights, reciprocity and the like. Even on Dutch St. Maarten that enjoyed
non-reciprocity for many years they are now being forced to relinquish that
priviledge.
In the Official Journal of the European Communities on the 16th of February
2001, it was stated on the question of how to represent the specific
interest of the Ots of certain member states that; there should not be any
difference between the interests of the union and those of the Overseas
countries or territories. Any of us can interpret what that means.
We are late in our preparedness for political separation from England but we
must continue to prepare and be vigilant about it. The Government is not to
be blamed, we are the ones to blamed because we elected them all. We should
take it upon ourselves to educate ourselves about the issues that really
count. We are missing an opportunity to prepare by allowing the
constitutional reform to be rigged. Preparation for independence will
include Constitutional advancement, not constitutional review. This is a
serious matter and Baroness Scotland made it clear, and I will quote,
“constitutional change is not a matter to be entered into lightly. There
must be full consideration and consultation across political parties and the
community as a whole” end of quote.
And I will continue. In this constitution, there must be devolution of the
powers of the Governor to the people of Anguilla through their elected
representatives. This is imperative!
- The Government of Anguilla must be given the power to truly represent us
as in any democracy.
- We must graduate from being an Autocratic state to a full- fledged
democracy. This includes taking responsibility of the offshore financial
services from the Governor and giving it to the Minister of finance,
internal security, including the police, passports and nationality, setting
up of an independent ombudsman must also be given to the elected officials.
They must also have the power to enter into negotiations with investors and
approve of investment after the due diligence process. The Governor can
retain external defense. The Government should be able to make decisions and
act on them without the approval of HM Governor. If anything he should only
be a rubber stamp.
- There must be accountability and transparency engrained in the new
constitution and more participation by the people of Anguilla on the serious
issues that affects us all. Eg. UK citizenship.
- Orders in council as it affects Ots must be a thing of the past if we are
to be a full democracy.
- If not, all the people of Anguilla should boycott the polls.
- No longer should the British Gov’t be allowed to pay lip servce to
democracy, it must be practice. There is a saying that goes, “actions speak
louder than words.”
- We need to ask and get answers to the following questions, what is our
present political status? What do we really get or benefit from being a
colony of Great Britain? what does UK citizenship means? What’s are its
benefits and what are its burdens?
_________________________________________________________________
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From: "ANGUILLA INDEPENDENCE MOVEMNT - A.I.M."
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Subject: Opening remarks give by the President of A.I.M. 16-8-01
Debate
Date: Fri, 17 Aug 2001 10:21:56 +0000
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