Mac: ‘I’m not prepared to go’

(CNS): McKeeva Bush has dismissed any ideas that his recent comments were indications that he was stepping away from the political fray and said the remarks made about him “looking pity” had fuelled him on. Speaking for an hour and a half to a crowd of over one hundred people on Tuesday night, the premier launched a full scale attack on his critics and the opposition, accusing them of inciting people on a path to violence and destabilizing the country with their calls for demonstrations and campaigns against his government’s proposals. He told the audience that he was “not prepared to go" and that he was still the premier and he intended to “stand fast”.

“I said I was tired, I was tired of finger pointing and the accusations and after I lost my daughter I had lost the fight,” he told the audience gathered behind the court house in George Town. Bush said he wanted to see young people getting involved in the process and, “I said I couldn’t be here for ever, but I didn’t say I was not going to run.”

Speaking about the grief he had suffered over the death of his daughter last year, the premier said that perhaps he needed sympathy but when Arden McLean went to East End and told the people he was “looking pity … and said that the Foreign Office was forcing me to retire there could never be a bigger lie … It stirred the old fire in me!” he exclaimed to the cheering crowd.

Bush said he did not say he was going. “And I am not prepared to go now,” he added. “And if Alden McLaughlin is right and I am out, then so be it, but in the meantime I am the premier; in the meantime I am the leader here.”

The premeir condemned the recent agitation against the ForCayman Investment Alliance, a proposed agreement with the Dart Group, and said that in order for Cayman to make an economic recovery the country had to be stable. But he said the opposition, the independent member and what he described as their  “cohorts and wanna be politicians” were endangering the country with their action. He said that when they “smeared the mud”, they damaged the image of Cayman. He said their reckless speech was damaging the country and the “cave” people were obstructing everything because they knew they would all be lost if his government was successful in its economic policies.

Bush told his supporters that he was concerned about the “self-seeking” action of the opposition and said they had to be more responsible because of the impact this had on the international stage and Cayman’s global image.

Despite being under police investigation himself while remaining head of the government, which many critics say is having a genuine destabilizing and damaging impact on the country’s international image, Bush said it was the opposition, the call for demonstrations and the media such as CNS and the local talk shows which were the problem as he accused them all of not caring how their actions appeared and how it could hurt everyone.

The premier said he was not afraid of anyone, “even if they were in the governor’s office”, as he had done nothing wrong and the “truth would come out”, in an oblique reference to the investigation into financial irregularities associated with the premier and the developer Stan Thomas, a former investor and land owner in the Cayman Islands, over a 2004 transaction.

“I am not worried about any accusation against myself. I know myself and where I have come from and where I have been,” he said. “They tried that before, but if your hands are clean the truth will come out at some point. So I am not scared of them. What I am scared of is the height of irresponsibility they are promoting and calling it love of Cayman.”

In his fiery presentation, which looked much more like an election campaign speech than an update on the current projects as billed, Bush listed what he claimed as his many political achievements, adding that he had 27 years of results in politics and described himself as a worker. From the introduction of benefits to veterans to labour rights for workers, the premier spoke about what he had done in comparison to the activists and opposition politicians, who he said had done nothing for the people of the Cayman Islands and were promising a “path to violence” and the destruction of property.

He said destabilization came from “desperate, power-hungry empty vessels with nothing to lose”, who were leading innocent people on a Kamikaze mission.

Bush also took aim at the bureaucratic harassment that he said he was facing from inside government as well as outside. In a familiar criticism of what he described as "stumbling blocks”, he said that the plan to divest the Water Authority’s sewerage system had stalled and he was determined to find out what had happened. He said the UK had supported efforts to sell assets and the WA board had agreed to put it out to tender.

“I am committed to ascertain where the hold-up is and why it is held up at all,” he said, adding had the project got off the ground more than a 1,000 people would now be employed in that venture. Bush said the auditor general had “audited this” and the CTC had made comments, but “who’s stopping it?” he asked rhetorically. “There is much more to it.”

He said it was part of the whole bureaucratic harassment and believed someone had complained to the auditor general so he would investigate. “But it can’t be held hostage because the people can’t get the business themselves,” he stated.

Bush spoke about the promise of many of the forthcoming projects and other issues that he said his government had achieved. He described the launch of Cayman Enterprise City as a “master stroke” and that the Dr Devi Shetty hospital project was about to go through the planning process. He said his government had attracted interest from investors worth "billions and billions of dollars". Bush also claimed that his government had managed to get the public accounts up to date, despite the fact that the accounts from most of the ministries and portfolios after 2007/2008 have not yet been made public.

Although the premier’s office circulated a flyer about a number of issues, including the port negotiations, there were few new details on the current state of that particular development project. He said government was still negotiating to allow local people to have shares in the upland project and that government had just signed a contract with Luis Ajamil of Bermello & Partners, one of the world’s leading marine architecture and engineering firms, as a consultant on the project.

Check back to CNS later this week for more from the public meeting.