The Government made a serious blunder when it failed to tell the people of the island that some amendments were being made to the Constitution to facilitate the changing of the name “Police Force” to “Police Service” and to insert the name of a new body the “Police Service Commission”. While the amendments appear to be simple or, as the Government’s press release, printed elsewhere in this paper stated, “consequential”, the concept of making what may be believed to be even the most insignificant change to the Constitution without informing the people before hand, is wrong.

The Government ought to have known that some sharp-witted person or someone just playing ‘the devil’s advocate’ would most likely take up the matter with the public and that the people, who displayed much disinterest in the constitutional reform process, would nevertheless be indignant.

It was around the middle of last year that a second Constitutional Reform Commission, this time headed by retired Judge, Don Mitchell, submitted its report after exhaustive consultations following upon the work of a previous review body. Put together, it all has been a very long and perhaps boring exercise. One would have thought that by now the public would have heard some discussion of the report in the House of Assembly or of some other action taken on it by the Government. To suddenly hear of some amendments to the Constitution being made in London at Government’s request ahead of dealing with the wider recommended changes tossed about in the public domain can, understandably, give rise to questioning and concern. All sorts of rumours can fly around and the facts can easily get distorted in the minds of the people.

The right to know is one of the main constitutional demands in the public interest in every democratic society. The Government could have easily and quite effectively dealt with the matter by simply telling the people in advance what it was going to do. If this was done there would not have been this uproar in the public and the flurry, rush and frustration of Government to explain and quell the situation. Probably whatever Mr. Mitchell said may have stemmed from his own interest as Chairman of the Constitutional Commission and the desire of the public to see some action on the broader proposals which were submitted and on which so much time and effort had been spent.

While it is true that he could have checked with Government for balance reporting, it was up to the Government to take the initiative to inform the people about what it was doing in the first place. Even now the people could have been told in the same press release what progress it was making on the report submitted by the Anguilla Constitutional Commission. This is another missed opportunity.

The Government has at its command its own information and public relations machinery. There are many privately-owned media houses for such a small place like Anguilla. Government must use all of these outlets and avenues to reach the people and dialogue with them. Our leaders must always be conscious of the people’s right to know and of their responsibility to keep them properly informed.

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