Bush accuses PPM of intrigue
McKeeva Bush, Cayman Islands Leader of the Opposition with MLA Eugene Ebanks
(CNS): The opposition leader has accused the Progressive-led government of “political expediency, divisiveness and intrigue” and of achieving nothing to help the people. In the wake of his removal from the Public Accounts Committee last week, McKeeva Bush issued a statement to the media Tuesday criticizing the makeup of the committee, describing it as a rubber stamp, and criticizing the PPM’s style of government.
“I have accepted the vote to remove me from the Public Accounts Committee. I have voiced my opinion and my concerns about the political homogenisation of the committee and that without the proper checks and balances that are all hallmarks of good governance, the operation of the committee will become a rubber-stamp for the current government,” Bush said.
The government motion that ousted Bush from PAC replaced the current chair, Roy McTaggart, who is now the deputy chair, with Ezzard Miller. The committee is now made up of two C4C government members, as Winston Connolly continues to serve alongside McTaggart, one PPM member, Joey Hew, and Capt Eugene Ebanks from the opposition UDP.
During the debate on the motion to constitute the membership, the premier and McTaggart both pointed to Bush’s public and persistent criticism of Alastair Swarbrick, the recently departed auditor general, and his history of conflict with the office, which includes the current senior auditor, Martin Ruben, the acting auditor general, Garnet Harrison, and the former auditor general, Dan Duguay.
Speaking in the Legislative Assembly ahead of the vote to remove him, Bush said he had been targeted by the Office of the Auditor General and again launched an attack on the office, accusing the auditors of lying and the government of being determined to get rid of him. In his statement Tuesday Bush said his removal was a strategic move by government.
“What we have seen over the past five years from the PPM are not achievements but a push towards political expediency, divisiveness and intrigue. In the past weeks we have seen my removal as chairman of the PAC, the proposition to redistrict the electorate and remove the sense of community that is so vital for political representation,” he said, talking about the vote to introduce single member constituencies.
“Changes such as these, in a compressed timeframe, are a strategic rationalisation of government for the benefit of the party and not the people. Simply put, I don’t like where this trend has led us and where it leads to,” the opposition leader added.
Listing what he claimed were his achievements in office, Bush said the UDP had changed the PPM’s “restrictive and prejudiced immigration rules”, which he said they had put back, but the changes have not helped either expats or locals. He also claimed that during his time as premier, the Cayman Islands “became the preferred domicile for the financial services sector”. Bush also took credit for the East End hospital and the Dart projects.
“We established Health City, worked with the Dart Group to get all the projects which are now ongoing, worked with the developer for the Beach Bay project and developed Cayman Enterprise City, which just received an international award for the ‘Most Progressive Economic Environment for Investing’, kept our credit rating intact and created a surplus after finding an $81 million deficit. These achievements, that have helped define our country, do not belong to the People’s Progressive Movement,” he said. “They represent the vision and the tireless energy of those involved who created these successes. The UDP.”
Bush said the current government should be meeting the needs of the country, which were not mutually exclusive between social classes of the wealthy, middle class and poor, instead of dealing with things that benefit them. He said it was important to make it easier to do business, earn more from each tourist dollar, and improve education for better skilled employees rather than studies on paper.
“Instead, the current government has us contesting issues that don’t need to be contested, to create politics for their benefit instead of progress for all,” the opposition leader stated.
Coverage of the LA proceedings are broadcast live and repeated on the government TV channel. The sessions are also posted to the CIGTV YouTube channel and broadcast on Radio Cayman after 7:30pm each evening.
Category: Politics
9.27
Churchill said of a fellow politician that debating with him was like “being mauled by a dead lamb.”
I had it as “being mauled by a wet sheep” as spoken by a U.K. politician a while back. Maybe he was paraphrasing Churchill’s joke?
can you actually be accused of intrigue???
…an by a character who is extremely machiavellian himself???
With mckeewa anything is possible. Unless of course it makes sense.
Mr.Bush, it’s over. Take it like a man, go home, play some on-line poker, then enjoy a glass of warm milk and a cookie before settling down to a nice long nap.
Correction: “milk and carrots”.
Macattack!! Like being savaged by a dead sheep. Somebody said that once.
It was said of Denis Healey the Labour Politician.
CNS: Wrong. Denis Healey said it of Sir Geoffrey Howe.
Politicians are all slime bags and full of intrigue. They line their pockets at the people’s expense, spend frivolously and break promise after promise.
They are all feeding at the trough and will not stop until every Caymanian is employed by government and leeching off the backs of the middle class entrepreneurs.
A very famous Roman once said that you can measure the level of corruption in a society by the number of its laws. Here in Cayman, we have broken the mould. Law after law of nonsensical garbage designed to fleece honest folk out of their hard earned money.
Politicians, I am disgusted with you all. You make our lives so hard. Please go away, all of you.
Mac, Go away!!!
Hahahahahaha bang. Sorry, just laughed my head off. Classic.
Many years ago, one of my prep-school teachers had an expression perfectly suited to bush – ” empty vessels make the most noise ” – enough said ?
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. “
The pro port people got that teacher! And so obvious what they do…
In this photo the good Captain looks like he wants to give his opinion – if he dont fall asleep first…
His opinion being that the Wahoo is running!
As a matter of interest, what kind of captain is he? Was he an airline captain? Or a ships captain? Or both?
Or was he Captain of West Bay Primary’s Football Team?
And in other news, McKeewa blames everyone for everything.
my thoughts are SHUT UP mac, you have no idea what good governance is. You sold the Caymanian people out behind closed doors when you bent over and let dart into Cayman. I hope, in the next elections you are finally removed from office and I don’t have to listen to you yap your lips when you don’t get your way!!
Dart was the one good thing he did. Give him that one.
And then take away for the fact that he screwed that up too.
Amazing. I guess crazy talk will get you in the news.
Why are we so worried about a ineffective government body that does very little but complain, who’s recommendations are never followed or abided by either government and is merely a forum in which our elected officials get to showcase and display their personal grudges and dislikes for one another in public! Total waste of time and money?
So now Mac is the same thing that Connor was in Mobile that time…
Only a person with very little going on in-between his ears would see a problem with himself being removed from a Committee formed to scrutinize his Government’s accounts. And people with very little going on in-between their ears would agree with him.
I think the point that Mac is trying to make by saying rubber stamp. If you put all of those guys in a room with say someone like Donald Trump , that all you are going to get is rubber stamps on the issue.
“Instead, the current government has us contesting issues that don’t need to be contested, to create politics for their benefit instead of progress for all,” the opposition leader stated.
True. Very true.
lol