Panton bows out, saying the ‘people need help’
(CNS): Premier Wayne Panton has issued a statement explaining his decision to pass on the mantle of leadership following what he said was a gruelling day of parliamentary debates, followed by a meeting with the other PACT members last night. The former premier said nothing Wednesday night about taking on the speaker’s role, which the new UPM have said they intend to nominate him for, but he did say that at this moment, “our people need our help”.
Panton said he will continue to serve as an MP and use his experience and skill to help guide the Cayman Islands, offering his best advice and wisdom.
But he said nothing about whether or not he would accept the speaker’s job, which would prevent him from speaking out about the environment or any of the other issues he is passionate about.
However, he did stress some of the problems the country is still facing that he had wanted to fix. “In the midst of greed and ambition threatening to drown our Islands, Caymanians look to the government to chart a safe and sensible way forward — a way that puts Caymanians at the front of the line of our national policy agenda,” he said.
“As we continue to evolve and transform as a country, I want each of you to know that I believe all Caymanians deserve a Cayman where we all strive to protect our Caymanian heritage, history, culture and traditions; Caymanians have earned a place where all of us will always be concerned with the greater good and the welfare of the less fortunate,” the premier added.
Panton said the people deserved a Cayman where Caymanians enjoy the fruit of steady, healthy, managed economic growth,” which should be rooted in fiscal discipline and informed by current data. But it needed to be growth that Caymanians can truly feel and see, he said.
“I want all our people to have a country where all our leaders and all our institutions are built on a solid foundation of morals and ethics rooted in the very best Caymanian ideals,” the former premier added.
In the statement, Panton thanked all the people he worked with and indicated to his constituents that they would be seeing a lot more of him. And despite what happened yesterday, Panton said he still believed that the members that came together as the PACT Government represent the best way forward for the people of the Cayman Islands.
“I believe that my colleagues will be able to offer the kind of leadership needed to complete the work we have started,” he stated. “Indeed, we must always remember that pride must never be more important than the interest of our people; and personalities and egos must never be allowed to halt the progress of Caymanians.”
However, it is no secret that it was Panton’s passion for and commitment to protecting Cayman’s environment and preparing these islands for the changing climate that placed him in direct conflict with his Cabinet colleagues throughout his tenure as premier. There are now grave concerns that the efforts he made to push forward a greener agenda, tackle some of the major threats to the environment in the planning laws and pass a comprehensive climate policy will now fall by the wayside, leaving the country at the mercy of more development.
According to the press release about the new United People’s Movement, the importance of sustainability and protecting the environment has been dropped from their policy platform.
See Panton’s statement in full below
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Category: Politics
As a young person trying to make it, now, I feel despair for my home country.
I voted in the last election with optimism, thinking that something would change to improve the quality of life and living standards for hard working people.
I was wrong.
The majority of these politicians continue to disappoint.
The minimum wage is sickening. All I have heard from the government (or their representatives) are excuses and incomplete economic analysis.
The level and nature of crimes are incomprehensible and continue to worsen. RCIPS – people don’t trust uno, nobody is going to risk their life when uno have informants in house.
The corruption in the government is glaringly bad. Money going missing, dodgy long term contracts formed with no management, politicians drinking and driving, corrupt RCIPS, freaking overdevelopment, the list goes on. What about the environment initiatives? Healthcare for elderly? Where are the regular district town halls?
Waste of blasted space.
The lodge is very real.
The way I see it now, don’t depend on them. Don’t expect anything from them. Don’t freaking vote for them next election!!!! Look after yourself, family, and help who you can along the way.
Next election, anyone has what it takes to run? Please do.
Out of all of them, the only one I see that stands apart and is humble is Andre. Andre talks to everyone despite their status. He speaks in a balanced manner, diplomatically, and considering both sides. I am giving him the benefit of the doubt for now.
Referring to Sir Alden McLaughlin’s allegations that the current government was driving civil servants to the brink, Ebanks said it was true. “It is true… there are civil servants more stressed than they have ever been,” he said, noting how “nerve-racking” it is to present to caucus even at the best of times, and it was up to ministers who, like him, have been on that side of the table — as senior civil servants — to bear more responsibility. He pointed to the difficulties created for public sector staff when “it seems the Cabinet is in a battle with itself”, which he said was “unprecedented”.
this is what Andre said in Parliament. Wayne allowed this to happen. How could you Wayne?
the people need help?? Well you had many opportunities to help them and you didn’t. watch Ju Ju take care of the masses.
Wayne politics is just not for you. retire and operate a think tank focusing on the environment.
I completely agree with everything you say, however Andre is just a greedy and power hunger as the others. He is a rookie that lied in the last election about his loyalties and he was holding out for the Premiership this time, however he met his match with Julie – the is no-one ( other than maybe Mac) that can out-fox her political prowess. That’s a fact!
That move to put his the Premier seat will cost this country dearly. Start with $60M for a new high school in the Brac for a total of 151 students and 26 teachers. YOU DO THE MATH. To keep her power she will give every one of her cronies what ever they want to maintain power in this upcoming budget. JUlie is now the MINISTER of FINANCE so SHE controls the money. Fact!
I can’t remember anything
Can’t tell if this is true or a dream
Deep down inside, I feel to scream
This terrible silence stops me
Now he wants to help!!?!
Our people need help, is what all politicians say to get voted in.
No politician is interested in you.
At the end of the day we only have ourselves to blame for this nonsense. Granted, we really didn’t have much to choose from in the first place. However, we have to raise the bar on what we expect from individuals before we cast our vote. We will also need the media’s help to remind us of the crap because it seems our memories are very short. We need a nifty summary on each existing member and their accomplishments over the 4 year period.
I find that the debates were extremely embarrassing with most of them not even bothering to show up. A complete lack of respect for us the voters. We need it to be clear if you don’t show up – no vote. If you don’t register your FULL interests by the deadline – no vote. If you don’t hold a minimum number of public meetings – no vote. If you don’t declare your platform and include your presentation on how you plan to execute – no vote. We have to start putting them through the ringer to weed out the undesirables. Its like any job application you have to meet a minimum standard before you are even considered.
The fact that John John felt comfortable enough to say how low his standards are in a public forum should give us all pause at the absolute gall of this man. We need to exercise our power and let him know next election sorry your low standards are not good enough for us!!
I beg of all voters start doing your research from now, keep a little file and let’s elevate the discussions and hold these clowns to the fire. The future is bleak if we keep electing self serving, greedy, disrespectful, visionless morons.
Once we demand better we will get better otherwise John John will be right.
Most of John John’s electorate in the Bodden Town East are blue collar Jamaicans who like his style of poloitics and do not care about standards.
cns: can you run an opinion poll to see if people have confidence in the new government and leader?
None. Nada. Zero. Same goes for the PPM cronies
NO!
Wayne and André, please pull together a NEW team from a NEW pool of talent with the knowledge, education, aptitude and principles to move forward with your goals. Let your experience be their guide. We don’t need any of the old crews and their “experience” because we’ve experienced enough, for decades. Fresh new blood guided by principled leadership could do so much better and that, is what Cayman needs
Andre the backstabber.
Sorry, this is wrong 4:28!
Andre is NOT a backstabber! He is an extraordinary statesman!
He is a person of the first order and a phenomenal servant of the people of our beloved Cayman Islands.
Wayne Panton
Hey there Wayne. Tell us who paid for Andre’s campaign, I double dog dare you.
Wait I don’t know tell me seriously? We need all the information to make better decisions.
Surely, you jest. You say Panton, but I say you stick with the usual suspects, you just keep gettin what ya been gettin.
Bet he’s learnt a lot more about the frailties of human nature now anyway surrounded by those morons.
add OFFReg to that
“in the midst of greed and ambition threatening to drown our Islands….”
much of which was centered in the Cabinet. Facilitated by you Wayne, when you sold your principles down the river in order to become the Premier – getting into bed with mac, appointing the likes of Chris, Jay and Kenny. You are the architect of your own misfortune. You couldnt control them or their paymasters, and with no loyalty from them you got thrown out so they could continue on their merry way. You thought you were the organ grinder, but it turned out you were the monkey.
Unfortunately its not just you that got s@#$%d, its us to as they now have a full year to help themselves to whatever they want and sell our islands interests to the highest bidder. We would have been better off with the PPM – and I have to say I never thought I would say that. Thanks for nothing.
how would we have been better off with ppm? Serious question.
Couldn’t have said it better! Wayne was so blinded by desire for the Premier seat and a hatred for Alden he actually didn’t see this coming! Most anybody could see this was a train wreck from the moment it was formed! Proved how inexperienced he is, not only politically but as a Leader as well. Sorry but not sorry!
JuJu should have most of the Brac paved over by the end of next week. Cant wait to see the $200M high school with her name on it.
Is WP a part of the UPM? This part has not been made clear. Or is he truly an independent MP at this point, like Chris?
Would be good to know whether UPM has 11 or 12 members, cause clearly numbers count these days.
UPM = Unmitigated Political Mess
Can the SIPL Committee please publish all of the dated and signed registers of interests for public scrutiny? Juliana’s seemed incomplete for many years. Absent were any entries for property in the Brac, yet we recall her acquiring property (with government funds)? How do we reconcile this? Any official comment from the SIPL Committee on the lack of transparency? Are the Nolan Principles just buzzwords?
if you want to help the people…you should not support the new government.
wayne..please go back to ppm and try and sort out this mess.
Unfortunately, “Caymanians” in this politically charged heritage sense is really geared towards looking backwards to those born to Caymanian parents, with Caymanian grandparents, or that did special favors for someone important back in the day (ie. sheltering folks in Storm of ‘32). It doesn’t embrace the diverse needs and evolving ideology of the Caymanian of today, which includes nearly 50% of the new electorate added properly since 2004 (post status grant giveaways). It also doesn’t include those waiting years for lawful merit-based applications to be heard.
yes. deal with it! we have enough s%@# to deal with now as it is, without adding you lot to it!
Not happy about the new premier but also not sad to see Wayne go. Wayne’s ego won’t allow him to be a productive team member, he’s too much of a sandbox bully.
World Leaders are sounding the alarm over the climate threat. We just recorded the hottest year in history and it is projected to continue and worsen.
Wayne was the only one taking this serious and rightfully so and gets overthrown by a group of power hungry and selfish people.
Wayne was the glue keeping this group accountable albeit some of the damage was down when he assumed the finance responsibilities from Saunders. The Auditor General has highlighted some serious discrepancies and more will come.
This group has no common vision to move the country forward. It will just be what can I get now so I can get re-elected in 2025.
It is truly disgusting that Wayne had to shoulder the blame.
Be careful what you wish for. I am not confident that the budget will be in the best interest of the country more in the best interest for a self serving agenda.
An election should have been called.
The spending has been unprecedented so stay tuned for this budget.
Spot on!
Crabs in a barrel
Bullocks.
I laugh at your new tactic of rebranding to climate change. The globalist alarmist propagandist mafia used to call it global cooling or global warming. With climate change you can claim to be right if the temps go up or down.
World leaders like the ones who advocated for the lockdowns and clot shots? Bunch of deranged egotistical losers.
Well enjoy the turkeys and hams this Christmas Cayman cause the next one you will be eating mangrove roots and Marlrock soup because the UPM United political Maniacs led by bababuska will have scraped this place down to the coral bedrock !
Better compromise than PPM getting back in power.
Rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. When’s the ground breaking ceremony for the new Brac HS🤡🤡🤡
You mean the Judasanna O’Connor-Connolly Center for Academic Mediocrity at Great Un-needed Expense to the Country?
Oh the Brac is about to know prosperity like it has never known before. She has no purpose for being in office. It is just her job. She is a professional cabinet member. She probably has the strongest hold on her seat out of all of them, which means she is always around to take whatever $200,000 a year role needs filling, whether it’s cabinet, speaker, or premier (which pays $300,000!). Alden is our first two-term premier, Juliana is now our first premier to serve twice non-consecutively. Just because she was there when the other guy got deposed. And she only became Deputy Premier because she was there when Panton and Saunders fell out. And she was only in government with them because the PPM and its allies did not win. If they had, she would have been with them instead, as she had been in previous terms.
She is a weather vane, she blows with the wind, and when she is in power, Cayman does too. She does not steer the ship or provide a heading, she simply puts the hat on. The last time, she was a caretaker premier with an election a few months away so people put up with it. This time it is no coincidence that people want an election instead of the same exact clowns who put us through what they just did, but slightly reorganised with someone even worse in charge. Wayne may not have been the leader his rabble needed but Juliana is not a leader at all. And obviously, none of them wanted to sign up to the PPM plutocratic agenda anymore. They have been rejected repeatedly now that bunch, people have their number and are not going to trust them again.
Where this is ultimately going to lead is Premier Andre Ebanks, I think. Just how long it will take us to get there we don’t know. But I’d be happy to see him take over and use his youth and energy for the sake of the country. Deputy to Juliana is not the end for him I predict.
Change of plans, it’s now going to be a University. She will recruit the brightest and best professors from Harvard, Oxford, etc. and then all Cayman university students who wish to study overseas can go to the Brac. Of course, it will be named after her so it will have to be very grand in keeping with the name.
That would be a great idea
Same time as she forces Cabinet to be held on the Brac costing the country another 25,000
The island I once called home has truly descended into the cesspit. Zero integrity shown by the ‘politicians’. Zero strategy. Humongous greed. Zero planning for the future. Zero depth of knowledge and education. Tiniest of pools from which to draw elected members. 3rd World intellect wanting to be 1st world but holding onto archaic thinking. Strap in citizens of Cayman. Those with a brain will manage fine. Those requiring help i.e. a big % of Caymanians….tough. Your politicians have sh@t all over you….again.
Wayne didn’t offer very much
Down with the Judean People’s Front. All hail the People’s Front of Judea.
Duh! Very productive, not.
Spliters
what is the point of even voting for anyone here when the backroom deals matter more? No one voted for this yet this is what we get?
If you take a bag of crap, shake it, you’re still left with a bag of crap.
Panton goes down in history as the premier who failed to remove gaudy illegal billboards from our once beautiful shores.
Now Roy will have a new group to complain about and Mo$e$ can continue to sit in silence at his brac office.
can we just have an early election.
Call one. Start the petition. Better yet, start the petition to amend the Elections Law to disqualify those with a criminal background. Maybe those with criminal proclivities should not be handling a billion dollar budget, or deciding what are our laws?
Go woke go broke. Inn this case lose your job.
Get an education please.
Thank you Wayne you tried but made fatal decisions that came back to haunt you.
1. You made a deal with Mac.
2. You thought you could lead a team of mostly uneducated MP’s who had never achieved anything in their personal lives.
3. You didn’t trust the civil service from day 1 and failed to capitalize on the talents within the service
4. Your chief of strategy. The fact that you are at home this morning says enough.
5. Failed miserably in the appointments to Boards. Look at CPA
Learn from these mistake when you walk into the Parliament.
I have a suggestion for
#1. Thought you were the smartest person in every room. Refused to drop your arrogance and humble yourself, and spent too much time trying to impress your expat supporters.
And still goes around being called ‘Dr.’ when it was revoked.
Look at CPA, look at HSA and CIDB Boards
add OFFReg to that
PACI spending on themselves should be investigated.
generally correct except the stuff about talent in the civil service…you were joking, right?
He trusted the Civil Service too much.
I woke up to this news hoping this was April 1 not November 16! Ju Ju as Premier???????? We just erased years of progressive, balanced, ethical, empathetic, and sensible leadership and replaced it with a compromised numbskull dinosaur who failed miserably as her education post and will drag us back to the dark ages of political corruption with Big Mac pulling the reins just in time for Xmas. What a joke. What a mess. What a disgrace. Give Andre the Premiership. He is the only minister (other than Premier Panton) truly fit for the post. He is articulate, educated, has a clear and balanced world vision, and deeply cares about his community. Why else would a person of his educated and professional stature hold political office in Cayman? Andre doesn’t need this. He doesn’t need the grief, or the paycheque but, still, he serves.
Spot on!
This is what happens when you put a good, intelligent, honest man in charge of Cayman’s govt. Everyone moves to topple him so they can get back to their grubby deals and self-interest / vanity projects. Shame.
Hon. Wayne Panton is the best Premier with integrity and compassion to have sat in the position in my lifetime.
Amen. Same here, and I am over 50 years old. And he was deposed by a consortium of the crooked and clueless, led and engineered by the worst Premier these Islands have ever seen – a real Big Mac Attack. Literally makes me sick.
Are you a newborn?
Spot on!
He hired Sandra Hill to basically be his press secretary. There’s zero integrity in that.
So ends another chapter in this complete farce. However sometimes better the devil you know. God help these islands when you look at the choices to replace him; a serial sex pest, a drug dealing narcissist, a flat earth educator, the donkey man who cant avoid a lamppost, a few who couldn’t graduate from remedial school…it would be a wonderful cast for a comedy if at the same time it wasn’t so serious.
Seriously. JOCC. No. I didn’t vote for her… look at the mess our schools are in – call an election NOW! Roy… dust off your suit! ) so much more I could say on this but am sure it’d not get posted.
And just like that, the Government of Independents is no more.. witness the rise of the United Peoples Movement Caymans newest political party
un-united people’s madness
United Peoples Bowel Movement?
UDP, the Sequel. Chaos! Disorder! XXXX! And all consuming GREED! Starring the most unethical politician known to Cayman – the great McKeeva Bush! Coming now to a government near you.
and the people have a leader nobody voted for or trusts, just politics and power greed,
We didn’t vote for Panton as Premier either
just like wayne.
We need bypass running to frank sound!
Why? Still going to bottleneck at Hurleys going in and out of town. East-West should have gone behind Hurleys (compluslary buy all it needs but will never happen because to many rich light skinned foreigners live there even though they will bulldoze a poor Caymanian in a heart beat) to the Linford Pearson, with an overpass connecting it, travelling straight from Frank Sound and keep Shamrock Road as is. The only plan I see that makes any sense to sort out the morning parking lot.
You seem to forget the complex behind Hurleys was built by a Caymanian. But maybe as he’s also ‘light skinned’ you ignore that fact.
really sad day for sustainability and the environment
Disconnected, dismissive, discriminating, riding on the millions he was paid to leave his old firm, no empathy, no use. Good bye sire, resign now before you take another loss in 2025!!
Apparently being the token Caymanian in a law firm doesn’t require leadership or team building skills
“Our people need help” – and yet here we find ourselves with Juju as the leader *shakes head in utter bewilderment*
There you have it. With this lineup the people REALLY DO need help.
“Indeed, we must always remember that pride must never be more important than the interest of our people; and personalities and egos must never be allowed to halt the progress of Caymanians.”
Wayne, which of these members of the ‘United People’s Movement’ do you think will or have ever adhered to these principles?
I’ll tell you the answer, Zilch. None. Not one of them.
EACH of these Members are money hogs who will throw any Caymanian under the bus if we get in their way as long as it means that they continue to grow the millions in their personal bank accounts.
God help us here in the Cayman Islands.
One thing I do know is that the children and future generations of these people will have to live in the same crappy CAYMAN that these Members will continue to create following PPM’s sell out of the Cayman Islands.
What a hell of a legacy that these people and their families will have to live with.
SHAME! SHAME! SHAME! on ALL on unna!
We salute you for your service.
Alas the future is upon us horizon dawns spirits a flutter like doves unleashed at a joyous ceremony this indeed hope and change!
Literally in tears reading this. You madam captured the emotions of the moment beautifully!
Why would you reply to your own post?
Empty drama, drama, go wash your feet.
LMAO Is that new ‘premier’ preaching again UGH!
Oh here we go again with this crap!
Faced with no other options, Wayne pretended he had a choice in the matter.
Mac played the smart game and outwitted Panton.
Give Mac his due, kingmaker again or in this case queenmaker! Cayman’s savviest politician just delivered a Masterclass in shrewd political machinations.
Any underhanded c#*t could do what he does. More akin to the most succeesful bully in a playground at this flyspeck banana republic sideshow.
Neither are King or Queen, never will be, just small pawns, quit the dramatics.
waffle to the bitter end. you meant well but achieved little or nothing and the country is in a bigger mess than when you started. little sympathy for someone who laid down with dogs and now gets up fleas…
the only choices were dogs, or rabid dogs.
we need new blood in power so badly
yep….status blood
Thank you Mr Panton.
I have always voted for you and will continue to support you. I have never received a turkey from you but you are always there supporting your community. For that we are truly grateful.
Mr Panton a man of principles best Premier ever. Couldn’t be bought!
“Time langer dan rope” and “every dag have ‘im day.”
Hold on to your principled vision, Mr Panton. Difficult to lead a bunch of crabs in a barrel. Remember also that most in the Cabinet are wet behind the ears and the worst thing is when you don’t know you don’t know.
“Culture eats strategy for breakfast” – Peter Drucker
Everyday of the week Wayne, every single day.