The following is a general statement made to The Anguillian by the Elected Representative for Road North, the Hon. Edison Baird, on Tuesday this week.
I feel very happy and I want to again congratulate the people of the Road North constituency in particular for reposing such a high level of confidence in me.

Hon. Edison Baird

I want the people of Anguilla in general to know that I will practice openness, transparency and accountability because I believe that the absence of these things constitutes one of the biggest political sins in Anguilla where Government operates in the dark and people do not know what is happening. A typical example is the failure of the previous administration to introduce a budget. I see it for what it was: an attempt to cover up intended taxation on the people of Anguilla, but I am very glad to be back in Government.

As you were aware, Hubert Hughes and I had our differences, but we put aide those differences to help Anguilla when we were portrayed as people who could only win power, but who cannot retain it. I have made a pledge that I will give Mr. Hughes the respect that is due to him as the Chief Minister of Anguilla, and I expect, and hope, that he will give me the respect that is due to me as a Minister of Government. As long as we act within those parameters, I don’t foresee any difficulty developing between us.

This is the fifth time that I have attained elective office. I ran for the first time in 1989 against Mr. Gumbs, who is now Sir Emile Gumbs, and then I won in 1994, 1999, 2000, 2005 and 2010. I have always believed myself to be the natural representative of the Road North constituency for 16 years now.

Of the three of us who ran in the General Election this year, Fabian Lewis was only technically in the race. After I did my analysis, I realised that he really didn’t have any support in either of the sections of the constituency. Therefore, I didn’t make him an issue, and the reason I really didn’t go after him was because his father, Mr. Arrindell Lewis, played a very important role in my development as a politician; so I couldn’t bring myself to hit him with brass knuckles, so to speak. I would only just push him to one side of the ring, because I always saw Delsic Rey as my main opponent. But he didn’t put up much of a fight. We had a meeting at the Tyre Shop and I told the people I want to accomplish two objectives: one, to give Delsic Rey a two to one, which I did, and cause Fabian Lewis to lose his deposit, which I did.

I don’t have anything personally against Delsic Rey. What I know about him is that he is a gentleman and these things happen when we are on different sides of the political fence. I am sure each of us would have said things about the other that, upon reflection, we should not have said. I recognise that and I believe he recognises that too, but I don’t believe that he has allowed that to negatively impact our relationship because, even while the campaign was going on, we spoke to each other and we were very cordial. What is unfortunate is that other people don’t seem to understand that politicians will fight today and the said politicians could end up working together tomorrow; but nevertheless the bitterness that exists among our supporters endures beyond the reproach between the two politicians which should not be.

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