Found at: http://www.anguillaguide.com/article/articleprint/2379/-1/133/
|
Job, Sampson And Delilah by Colville Petty
|
Someone called me on the telephone: “Brother Pet, the House on fire!” My first reaction was, “Call the fire truck!” He said: “Not that kind of House! Ah mean di House of Assembly!” And then he went on: “Hubert Hughes giving David hell, saying that he cannot be working for Flag Luxuries and also be Speaker of the House at the same time; that he cannot serve two masters; that there is serious conflict of interest and that you cannot trust the rat to mind the cheese!” He also said that Victor Banks called Hubert a mega-yacht maniac (his version of megalomaniac).
|
|
Colville Petty
|
Then he shouted, almost deafening me: “Brother Pet, turn on your television quick and look at Belto (Albert Hughes) in his suit with some flaps bigger than the jib on the Hog Boat. And I turned on my television and there was Belto sharp like a razor. Bunton (Osbourne Fleming) usually boasts that he is the best dressed man in Anguilla, but that day in the House of Assembly (12th April) he couldn’t touch Belto. No way!
And yes, as the caller told me, the House was on fire. Hubert was giving David hell and the guests in the gallery were giving Hubert hell. There was pandemonium and it was hard to tell who was legislator and who was guest because almost everybody was shouting. At one time I thought that it was Brother Clive Smith who was controlling the proceedings.
The meeting was the worse that I have ever heard in the House but one, to which I will refer later. And, to think about it, the House opened with a prayer by the Revd Joseph Lloyd, in the presence of the Right Rev Errol Brooks, Bishop of the North Eastern Caribbean and Aruba; Pastor Ambrose Richardson and Pastor John Gumbs and others of the Lord’s anointed. But the way things turned out it was as if there was no prayer because no sooner had Rev Lloyd finished praying than all hell broke loose, to use the popular Anguillian phrase.
The matter before the House was the election of a Speaker. And, as expected, Hubert made a case why it should not be David Carty. In my view he had a right to be heard and that right should have been respected. Also, in my view, he had no right to slander and malign and it was certainly the right of the other members of the House to make him toe the line and respect the dignity of the House. But that right did not extend to the invited guests (of leading Anguillian citizens). They had no business whatsoever getting involved in the fray and thus no excuse for their behaviour. The matter was one for the members themselves to deal with. The intervention of the invited guests cannot be justified and should never be repeated. Of course they were angered by some of Hubert’s remarks but I still maintain that the House of Assembly is a debating chamber for the people’s representatives and that the people in the gallery are merely observers.
When the cursing and fussing had finished, David Carty was elected Speaker of the House of Assembly. His first duty was to administer the oaths of allegiance to its other members. A historic moment in the political history of Anguilla occurred when, after taking his oath, Hubert stretched out his hand to David who reciprocated and they shook hands perhaps for the first time in their lives, or in some 30 years or so. They are venomous political enemies and whenever Hubert sees David it is like a bull seeing red.
With David as Speaker, Hubert goin have a long time seeing red. Hubert’s dislike for him goes way back. In the by-election in Valley South in 1985, when David ran against Victor Banks and Alan Gumbs and lost, Hubert told a public meeting that, “Any black person in Valley South who goes to the polls to vote for David Carty should go and live in South Africa.” He went on: “David [Carty] has never associated with anything which involves the working class, the ordinary person. He has never been. He can’t. His whole upbringing, his whole concept of life, is not with us.”
As time passed there was no let up in the war of words between the two of them and Hubert used David as his political whipping post. Hear him in 1994: “The battle we are fighting today is not a battle against David Carty. It’s a battle against slavery. David Carty is the agent of slavery.”
David fired back christening Hubert as “Hubert Confusion Hughes”. Hubert responded (1993), “I am not Confusion Hughes as David Carty said. I am a true Afro-Caribbean man.” Later, in 1994, David said of Hubert: “You have always been, you are and, you always will be, a confused buffoon.”
Such name-calling was in keeping with David’s doubts about Hubert’s sanity and intellect. Listen to him (1994): “The Chief Minister [Hubert] has always had a profound ability to sound as though he knows what he is talking about. He will tell you all about ANGLEC, and high speed and low speed generating sets... He will tell you about low grade and high grade fuel. And I doubt if he could smell the difference between gasolene and diesel.” David has even questioned (1999) Hubert’s claim to have done studies at the London School of Economics: “For all the years Hubert was in England, Hubert was employed” in a rubber factory in a “trading estate in Slough, making rubber grommets.”
And he has questioned his leadership ability saying (1999) that he was “arrogant to the extreme,” had “no sense of humility” and was “a danger to this island.” He conceded that Hubert had “the gift of the gab” but observed that he was using it for the wrong reasons: primarily for “belittling and crucifying ordinary people.”
The drama in the political rivalry between Hubert and David was played out, in part, following the ANA’s defeat at the polls in 1994 and the coming to power of a coalition government comprising Hubert’s AUP and Victor’s ADP, with Hubert as Chief Minister. Hubert’s Government, which included Victor, Edison Baird (Eddy) and Belto, refused to allow David to take his seat in the House of Assembly as the Second Nominated Member. This was possible because the Speaker, Leroy Rogers, was a member of the ADP faction of the coalition and followed the coalition’s directive. I could never forget Eric Reid (of the ANA) telling a political meeting (1994): “Roy [Rogers] is the de facto Speaker of the House. He does not make one single decision in that House unless he first makes the eye contact [with] or get the instructions from Victor Banks [leader of the ADP].” Eric pleaded: “The man [Roy Rogers] must be able to stand up on his own two hind legs if he is to be the Speaker of the House of Assembly.”
The Speaker ‘concurred’ with Hubert’s contention that Governor Alan Shave did not consult him on David’s nomination as was required by the Anguilla Constitution. And so David could not take up his seat. Actually, on 2nd November 1994, he entered the House, carrying his own Bible and took the oath of allegiance without the Speaker’s approval. Immediately after, he was escorted out by the Sergeant at Arms.
David took his case to the High Court where Justice Neville Smith ruled that he was a duly Nominated Member of the House of Assembly and was entitled to sit therein. Armed with that the decision – with the Court on his side – he entered the House again on 18th December 1995 and was escorted out by the Sergeant at Arms on the instructions of the Speaker, Leroy Rogers. At that point, Osbourne Fleming, Leader of the Opposition, rose on a point of order. The Speaker ordered him to take his seat and when he refused he (Osbourne) was physically removed from the House of Assembly by the Sergeant at Arms on the instructions of the Speaker. He did not go without a fight. He, Eric and Kenneth Harrigan wrestled with the Seargeant before they gave up the struggle. That was, indeed, the ugliest day in the history of the Anguilla House of Assembly. And Hubert boasted: “I treated David like Queen Elizabeth treated the Spanish Armada.”
David was never able to take up his seat as a Nominated Member of the House. Today he is the Speaker and, in light of the foregoing history, he is obliged to make every effort to ensure that the political feud between him and Hubert does not spill over in the House of Assembly. Hubert is already saying that, as Chairman of the ruling Anguilla United Front, and as Speaker, David cannot be fair – cannot be impartial – in his handling of the business of the House and in his treatment of the Opposition.
David thinks otherwise. And it was extremely clever and responsible of him not to use his first address to the House, as Speaker, on 12th April to respond in kind to the bitter attack which Hubert launched on him when opposing his election. He took his blows like a man - without a murmur - and upheld the dignity of his office and of the House.
Even though some diehard AUF supporters are advocating ‘payback’, for past injustices, David, it appears, is refusing to go down that road. And he used his opening address to allay the fears of those who may have doubts about his ability to be fair and not to be influenced by party affiliation. He stressed that, “in the interest of avoiding any ambiguity,” he intended “to follow, uphold and enforce... [the House’s] rules without bias or favour and certainly without fear.”
He also pledged to ensure that debates in the House were free and open, “a principle which cannot be compromised...; and that the House’s business was “conducted with order and decorum.” In a comment directed specifically to members of the Opposition, he told them that he recognised that they had “an onerous task of scrutinising the affairs of Government in order to provide and ensure that transparency and accountability... continue to be foundational cornerstones of our democracy.” He also recognised their right to raise “any issue’ no matter how unpleasant because, as far as he was concerned, “divergent and contrary views are essential to the democratic process and must be voiced freely if we are to grow as a people...”
Well said. Good intentions. I believe that it was in the best interest of Anguilla that David threw out an olive branch. It is now for Hubert to grasp it. But more than that. Towards the maintenance of a stable political environment, David goin have to use all of his boat racing experiences, and cry out “hard lee” or “ease the jib sheet,” especially when something bafflin. And Hubert? He goin have to park up his political bulldozer and stop running it recklessly over people.
Both of them got to make a determined effort to leave the past behind. That may not be easy but if Eric and Victor could kiss and make up, why can’t David and Hubert? And look at David and Victor! David was once of the view that Victor and Hubert wanted to exterminate him. He told a political meeting (1994) that: “Although I know the Government [ADP/AUP] would love to do me like Maurice Bishop, and shoot me against a wall, I believe that Anguilla is still a democratic society with peace loving people and I would still have my life.” Today David and Victor are like dove and pigeon.
That aside, there is no denying that the potential for serious political conflict in the House exists. And that the chances of it not raising its ugly head depend largely on how David and Hubert, in particular, undertake their responsibilities. The situation certainly calls for statesmanship not from them alone, but from all political players. It calls for them to have the faith of Job, the strength of Sampson and the cunning of Delilah. It calls for compromise, common sense, the swallowing of pride and putting country before self.