Bush has ‘forgiven and forgotten’
Speaker McKeeva Bush is a guest on Rooster
(CNS): The speaker of the Cayman Islands Legislative Assembly has denied that politics and a desire to hold onto power led him to join forces with Premier Alden McLaughlin to form the Government of National Unity. After years of animosity between McKeeva Bush and McLaughlin, the veteran politician said he had “forgiven and forgotten” past transgressions. Since taking up the role of speaker in May, Bush has said little about the politics of the coalition, but answering questions on a radio talk show Friday, he lauded his former political nemesis.
Appearing on Rooster’s morning show, CrossTalk, Bush said that he had put aside their political differences because he could see that the PPM had a plan for the country following the election and it was not unlike the CDP’s vision.
“When I sat down with premier and deputy premier, they had a plan for country that wasn’t vindictive,” he said. “They had a plan which I agreed with.”
He said the Unity government was working well and their manifestos “were close”, noting that there were many areas the government was working on that he was “totally satisfied with” and that there was “a whole lot of respect and interaction”. Maintaining that many people had said the coalition was the best thing, he indicated that many good things were going on behind the scenes.
Bush also said he felt that McLaughlin was doing a good job as premier and admitted that he supported the idea of McLaughlin taking another term, as he did not believe in term limits. However, he said he believed the premier was not interested in changing the Constitution to pave the way for a third term.
Political pundit Johann Moxam called into the show to ask how it was that the coalition was working after the PPM and C/UDP had spent almost two decades telling the people that the other was the devil and programming Caymanians to hate each other because one was red and one was green. But Bush denied fuelling community divisions.
During a very testy exchange with Moxam, Bush dodged the central point of the question but insisted his decision to join forces with the PPM was genuine. Bush said the divisions in Cayman had existed long before the political party system emerged and blamed past politicians for creating the division and animosity in the local political arena.
He said that forming the Unity government was the best thing to do in the wake of the elections. “The past is the past and I forgive and forget,” Bush said, adding that the time was right to put aside the differences.
Failing to address the criticisms that he had either misrepresented what had happened for the last 15 years or it had been a simple case of political expediency to hold onto power, Bush insisted that joining forces with the PPM had been the right thing to do for the right reasons and praised the work of McLaughlin. “We have got something better,” he said.
While the speaker claimed that the coalition was doing well, he also made it clear that the two parties remained separate and when the 2021 elections come around, he will be running again as a candidate. Nevertheless, he said he was no longer interested in the premier’s job or a position in Cabinet as he wanted to continue the work of building and developing the Legislative Assembly.
Bush said he was keen to see the parliament building grow, developing a library and more facilities for members to enable them to work. He pointed out that the LA was built in the 1970’s when the legislature was made up of just twelve members, and while the country was still developing politically it now needed better parliamentary facilities.
Category: Politics
Politians do not care about the people, it’s only about filling there pockets. That’s it $$$$$$$$.
He now wants to erect a library in the LA??? God spare us from this hell and save us. McKeeva Bush and a Library is about as compatible as chalk on a dry erase board. I thought I had heard it all when it was announced that Alden and Mac were joining ass cheeks, but the idea of a Library from the most uneducated MLA beats it all. Sometimes the BS that flows from Big Macs mouth, makes Eugene look good.
Whogene?
Really cayman do you believe Bush “forgiven and forgotten” that were just a poltical salvation for the premier and the speaker of the house for them to save their souls fill their pocket holes and try to keep the people dumb so that they can keep them under their thumbs because the premier knew that the people did not want him as the leader of cayman only ppm die hard supporter’s and the speaker of the house knew he were not wanted neither only the die hard CDPsupporter’s especially the do not know better supporter’s the premier and the speaker of the house did not have any other choice but too choose to go to one club and party together for four more years by then they can make more money too survive and live more better it is all about them and every four years it is all promises for the do not know any better PPM and CDP supporter’s. The only cure for those kind of people and their sinful acts is another visit from god.
10:26 I could not have said it better ,….and the visit ain’t far .
pirates of the caribbean!?
Five UDP members of parliament joined the opposition in calling for the no-confidence vote, which needed two-thirds support in the 15-member Legislative Assembly to force Bush from office.
Opposition leader Alden McLaughlin said he was bringing the no confidence motion “with a heavy heart.”
“I am deeply saddened that we have come to this point,” he said. “I cannot say how disappointed I am that the premier has brought us to this point.
“The reality that faced with all of this, the premier will still cling to the Office of Premier,” he added.
“What has happened over the past week is certainly a breakdown that could have been avoided,” said Health Minister Mark Scotland in his contribution to the debate.
Bush was arrested on Dec. 11 and detained in police custody in connection with a number of ongoing police investigations.
Mr. McLaughlin confirmed that he has sent a formal letter to the governor, auditor general, the Commission for Standards in Public Life and the Anti-corruption Commission accusing the premier of abusing his office and misusing public funds in relation to the UDP campaign against the government referendum.
He lists almost half a dozen examples to support his argument that include full page newspaper ads, TV and radio commercials and a series of public meetings all funded from the public purse.
Premier, Hon. McKeeva Bush
McLaughlin said what “appears to amount to an abuse of office and misuse of public funds and may as well amount to election offences. This is the flagrant abuse of the office of the premier and the blatant misuse of public funds to pursue the agenda of the UDP. I therefore request that these matters be investigated and the appropriate action be taken following your findings.”
The opposition leader has publically complained that not only is it odd that the government would embark on a campaign against its own referendum question, having hi-jacked the people’s campaign for OMOV, but it was wrong for the government to use public money to push specifically the “No” vote without educating the people on the pros and cons of both sides of the debate.
Mr. Bush said at the UDP Referendum Rally in West Bay it was spending around $100,000 campaigning against the referendum.
Bush was arrested in December on charges of theft and abuse of office, accused of using his government credit card to draw cash in casinos in the US and the Bahamas to gamble on slot machines. McLaughlin, who was then the opposition leader, filed a no confidence motion in Bush as premier, which was supported by several members of the UDP administration and resulted in him crossing the floor to the opposition benches with less than half of his former government colleagues.
Bush was charged before the 2013 election but theft charges were later dropped and he was tried solely on misconduct charges. After it became clear that there were no government rules against officials using their credit cards how they liked so long as personal expenses were paid back, he was acquitted.
However, the damage was done as by that time the UDP had lost every seat outside of West Bay in the 2013 poll and, for the first time in a very long time, Bush was not able to carry all four seats in his West Bay stronghold.
Calling the whole thing a witch-hunt, Bush had threatened to take legal action himself against those he believed were involved. However, earlier this month he announced his intention to bring a private member’s motion to the LA to debate what he claims was his undemocratic ousting from office by UK officials.
Exodus 34:7 – Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty]; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.
I live and vote in the WB NW constituency. My representative is supposed to be McKeeva Bush but he’s now the Speaker of the House. As a result he’s never at the MLA’s office in WB so as to be accessible to me, a constituent. I’ve always objected to the practice of appointing the Speaker from the ranks of the elected members and this is an example why that should not be done.
I had a concern in my constituency some time ago and was lucky to find another WB MLA to address the matter. However, it was not that MLA’s constituency. Perhaps had it been amore serious issue, that MLA may not have responded.
As it stands, McKeeva Bush is not representing my constituency. Hope he doesn’t plan to run again in WBNW.
Spread the news, tell all the people in your constituent and find someone other than him to vote for. That is the way to sit him down.
Two heads which emanate from the bodice of one beast.
Baba Bahbuska and Alden the Dear Leader and pretender and their political followers and members have hijacked these islands with their sellout agenda. Which we are now just seeing on a daily basis just how far these islands are being degraded and slowing killing and decaying the very essence of the Cayman islands and its people, all the while sarcastically pretending to care about what is happening to us. It has become very clear now that another political group is badly need to put a permanent stop to both this government and the non existent opposition who by their silence and inaction is no longer and option for Caymanians. As for your drivel about forgiven and forgotten how dare you, how dare you ! the Caymanian people have entrusted you and the other elected XXXXX with our vote to look out for our interest. Which you have misused for you own benefit and to enhance yourself with your foreign parasites you invite and allow here to destroy us and our own island.
Mr. Bush you are the one who gave Dart the keys to our country’s future. It is now in his hands not any politician we may elect. The PPM has carried on that tradition and with each passing day Dart takes more and more control. Our politicians run around acting like they are in charge but no longer.
Don’t forget that also Bush gave the rest of the country to the Jamaicans .
“Bush also said he felt that McLaughlin was doing a good job as premier and admitted that he supported the idea of McLaughlin taking another term, as he did not believe in term limits. However, he said he believed the premier was not interested in changing the Constitution to pave the way for a third term.”
I see where this is going. Anyone else spot this?
That’s right Mac.
Pick the projects that will benefit the majority of the people like expanding the LA building. An office for the speaker and one for the premier. A library within the LA building. Yes, these are wery, wery important.
Continue to ignore things like education, healthcare, immigration, social services, trade schools, and the “minor” things that are not important to the future of the country.
Zzzzzz.
who needs forgiveness?just thinking!
West Bay will vote Big Mac in again for sure; most of his voters do not read the news and do not know what politics is.
But they do where their appliances come from!
Bush: “they had a plan for country that wasn’t vindictive”
Why oh why would someone get into office in order to have a vindictive plan for their country????
That mentality… *eyes roll* This is why edumacation is so important. And also to get some more edumacation beyond your small teeny tiny borders. It’s a big ol’ world our there Mac.
It is regrettable that the outgoing Governor confirmed a coalition of backstabbing sore losers to form an Unity government after each of those parties had lost their mandates at the ballot box last May.
They continue to demonstrate bad faith by plodding ahead with manifestos the broader public didn’t vote for, while deferring enactment of the very basic “Standards in Public Life Law (2014)”, and silencing the opposition that the majority of the public actually voted for.
In response, the voting public should be petitioning for Constitutional reforms prior to 2021, including a broadening of candidate eligibility parameters to allow many respected, pragmatic, and good-natured people an opportunity to serve their homeland without party bias or conflict. For that to happen, the process needs to start immediately – led and initiated by voters that care about the future.
Your reading of the election is interesting, but flawed. The people who are in the MLA all won mandates to govern, and a coalition of sorts was formed to do so. All perfectly legal. Now, you may not like that coalition, or what it is doing, but that is a sundry lesson to Cayman in ensuring that your brightest step up at election time, and it is high time some of Cayman’s bright youngsters stepped up too. You cannot keep electing frankly self serving and uneducated people. They will kill Cayman.
It is arrogant and revisionist to pretend that the conflated “Unity/PPM” manifestos were given a clear majority by voters at the ballot box. It was resoundingly the opposite last year. The CDP were almost completely rejected as a party of relevance by voters. The PPM were not returned as a majority government. In fact, it seemed to be a CDP and IND Opposition Cabinet, until the PPM forged an undisclosed last minute deal with Mr. Carrots and Milk, relegating truly Independent members to a backbench where the Cabinet and Speaker have chosen to disregard all productive input for the next 3 years, while continuing to defer transparency, accountability and ram-rodding through crony projects in the absence of EIAs and Business Cases. Hopefully we now have a Governor willing to raise his hand and question why we have a paid Opposition that, through permission of “Impartial” Speaker, isn’t supposed to be doing or saying anything to rock the Cabinet’s plans.
Illegitimate unity government
By deciding to team up, they became the group with a majority of elected members, which meant Alden was most likely to command the confidence of the House, so he was appointed. The Governor had no decision to make.
This is all pretty pathetic and disgusting, his behavior in the speakers chair is even worse! Has anyone seen the way he abuses the opposition members ? Drunk with power and willing to sell his souls for it !
Sorry to deflate you Mr. Bush, but again this is not about you. This is not about you and Alden. Who cares?
This is about the good of a country and its people. Obviously, you do everything in the best interest of a lone person, MacKeeva Bush.
Remember, if you can’t stand for something you will fall for anything. All you did was settle for one of the highest positions in government after your failure to do what’s best for the people (all) of the Cayman Islands.
You would have had my respect if you had stood up to Alden, so please don’t add insult to injury. Forgiving him is between you, him and doing the Christian thing, good for you. Joining forces with him or turning off from exposing and opposing him for the good of this country is another, shame in you.
Why then must we pretend to have a party system if there is only the Unity team in contention? #sham
None of Cayman’s current politicians can be trusted especially Alden and Mac! The new ones are just as bad look at Austin Harris he has sold out his voters too becoming the Premier’s lap dog and whip after years of opposition daily on radio.
lol…just read the allegations against this “good ol’ boy”, hysterical.
I have more respect for solider crabs than I do these politicians.
Why would you degrade soldier crabs like that? So uncalled for!
Those words aren’t gospel, warch next election they will be reversed . This is a 30 year veteran say those words .
Yeah, but I wish you wouldn’t use the word “veteran” in conjunction with this person. I’m a war veteran and it seems to take something away when it’s used on politicians.
I am happy that if you’re a war veteran, but if you are a war veteran you should know the meaning/definition of the word “veteran “.
I am glad Bush isn’t going to willingly bow out of the next election, hopefully the people of WB will see he has been in the LA for 30 years and their problems are still there
Logically if your MLA isn’t solving your problems, why is he still your MLA
Unfortunately, the people of West Bay, which majority are the minority in the district, will not see that he has done nothing as long as the hand outs come in some form. Their parents were groomed to think that way and the misinformation and lack of education and understanding of how simple politics work, made them dependent on their parents to make a simple choice in relation to who they should vote for. Now that they are grow and independent (but rather dependent on CIG), they make their choice to vote based on which politician has given them something. Until the younger voting populace decides to get involved, nothing will change within the CI political arena until the political dinosaurs become extinct, and by then the generations left after these buffoons will be left to pick up the pieces and suffer while the people responsible for this mess will live quite happily on their Government pension.
Bush has ‘forgiven and forgotten’… but we haven’t.
What exactly does he have to forgive….?
There’s much he has obviously forgotten, still an embarrassing buffoon.
people of west bay have….
Mac and Alden now lovebirds? Does Eden know? Boy are we in trouble.
Boy, do I miss the LOL button.
Mac may have forgiven and forgotten but the people haven’t. Retire while you still have some iota of dignity left.
He has that much left?
Clean hands, pure heart, who hath not lifted up his soul to vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. Apparently.
Mckeeva joined forces with Alden and his team because he is hoping that if his lawsuit against Government for malicious prosecution succeeds, then somehow the grand payout will experience less resistance.
A politician always does what’s in his/her best interest first……… and just maybe, his constituents will come afterwards or perhaps not at all.
Self before Country.
Wrong motto…it has been amended to “Sell our Country”
Mac you can feel free to not run again. Someone else can do whatever it is that needs to be done to the LA building. He really believes that we still need him and that he is still relevant. Let me clear that up, both you and little Mac can just do us a favour and go far far away
Correction mate Alden needs him very much unless he wouldn’t be a 2 term premier.
Politics make strange bedfellows. Apparently when compared to Ezzard, McKevva didn’t look that bad after all.
The enemy of Alden’s enemies becomes his his bestfriend and Speaker of the LA in a sweet deal. NO integrity on either side. SMH
Alden McLaughlin has no pride
Alden McLaughlin has no mind of his own, either!
Kurt Tibbetts is still the leader of ppm and will always be its true leader. He picked a poor successor but had the sense to bow out of frontline politics. Too bad others have chosen not to do the same.
what a disgrace …. just power. you built your career shooting down PPM … now your are PPM. and now you want to talk about forgive and forget. ??? forgive yourself first mr bush … for hurting your very own voters …. yes, you have let down your own voters …
Well done Johann. Thank you for holding him accountable asking valid questions. There has never been ideological differences between the ppm or cdp. Both groups are cults of personality.
Well said!!
They deserve each other. Alden showed his desperation for power and he’s exactly like MacKeewa!
Has he dropped his lawsuits or will the Premier help his new BFF and settle?
What a load of horseshit
He might actually believe what he’s said or it’s
Just Another Day in Absurdistan
Alden McLaughlin and McKeeva Bush chose to unite in order to guarantee their own political survival. The decision was self serving and an act of betrayal to the PPM and UDP supporters who have benefitted from their loyalty with political appointments to boards and lucrative access to contracts in most cases. The converse is that most also suffered for years from political victimization and being blackballed when their preferred party was out of power. Despite the the new union the political fallout for many Caymanians remains the status quo.
Unfortunately, the consequence for such willful blindness has impacted every district and Caymanian who supported either group or who were perceived to support one side over the other outside of the upper echelons of society and corporate cayman.
Mr. Mclaughlin and Mr. Bush are now focusing on consolidating their union in order to create a super team with appropriate constitutional amendments to guarantee continued power sharing. Each man is now reliant upon the other to maintain control, power and high positions in the power structure of Cayman. The voters have demonstrated in the last two elections 2013 and 2017 that they are not in favor of either hence their inability to lead and win enough seats for the PPM or UDP to lead government outright without forming a coalition. Their admiration and respect for each other, the faux friendship and forgiveness is driven by survival and placating certain agendas. That is the definition of political expediency.
Important to note that have both been funded and are now controlled by the same business interests that blessed the union of two long term political adversaries that are ironically still locked in law suits against the other and CIG.
Utter scum, the pair of them.
Wow, is anybody else embarrassed when hearing Mac respond to criticism? Let me remind you, that this is the Speaker of The House.
He is the leader of the UDP and a joint leader of UNITY government
To be fair, I am embarrassed every time he opens his mouth.
Listen carefully to the way he attacks the media and Johann and other critics
He still didn’t answer the questions John put to him which were very direct. Instead Mac went Mac on him but Alden would have done the same thing to deflect from the facts they sold out for power!!
Who gives a shit? Schools, Crime, Affordable Healh Care, Pension, High Cost of Living …stop blabbering and get to work man!
That’ll be why I saw Alden walking into Bush’s attorneys’ office around the same time.
I’m not sure about a library in the LA, there’s a very good one right next to it, but I’ve never seen a single MLA using it, ever.Perhaps a games room would be more appropriate with some slot machines and an ATM which accepts Government issued credit cards.
There’s already a library on the second floor. It’s just that the politicians don’t need the books.
Half probably can’t read
Can any of them read?
He needs to go back to primary school, because his pronouciation of simple words is astrocious. I hope with the implementation of the library they also make it illegal for illiterate persons to stand for election.
MCKEEVA never finished high school folks … look into that. THAT’S an actual FACT!
A true elder statesman. Praise to our great Unity Team government. Four more years!
Zero more years!
A true waste of space he is. Look at his home district. What a disgrace. Little or no progress. All he wants is the “big man” style of politics that we see in Jamaica and Africa. The ruination of the nation will come from “leaders” like this man.
Honorable Bush is a great man and leader. We love you
I hope that was a joke
No it wasn’t.. that fool is probably a sheeple.
That was a laugh a minute. Really glad I decided to drive to EE when he was on. What an angry man who hides behind Jesus. He was so pissed when that guy called in and asked him legit questions. He even had to make fun of him to make himself feel better. Poor Mac loves power XXXXX.
Mckeeva reminds me of the great orange hope up north. Cannot have a decent debate, have to turn to insults and making fun of others. that all come from ignorance and lack of self respect.
My friend ,he can’t hide behind Jesus …none of us can, we only fool ourselves there . Not to worry he will be exposed one day .