Same election cliche but new reasons
Charles Clifford writes: Voters are rightly concerned about our 2025 general election. Every four years, we repeat the cliche that “this is the most important election in our history”. That cliche was true for specific reasons in the past, for example, during our post-Hurricane Ivan recovery and again during the COVID-19 pandemic recovery.
However, in 2025, the cliche will be true for much broader and even more important reasons, which are difficult to summarise because they are so complex.
Suffice it to say that our beloved Cayman Islands is at a crossroads. Extreme right or left political ideologies or ad hoc and irrational policies will only lead to the ultimate downfall of our country. We can point to many examples of this around the world.
I believe that we must decide to embrace a more centrist/moderate approach to our fiscal, social, environmental, development and economic policies in order to correct our current course and then maintain a safe, secure and harmonious society.
So yes, this is truly the most important general election in our time. If we get it wrong this time, institutionalised corruption will become a reality, and the brewing social disharmony could ignite a level of social unrest that we have never seen in our country before.
I am not a pessimist, but there is no point in us pretending that everything is okay when clearly we have fundamental problems which require urgent remedies. I have never seen our electorate this disillusioned before and I am concerned that we will have a very low voter turnout unless our people see that there is an opportunity for real change. Let’s give Caymanians a reason to maintain our traditional, very high voter turnout.
My commentary should not be seen as an indictment on all current MPs because the truth is, some of them are in a position and have the experience to be part of the course correction. It is also true that all political administrations over the past two decades, including the one of which I was a part, have some degree of culpability for our country’s current precarious position.
My commentary should also not be seen as an indication that I will be a candidate in the upcoming elections. But what I am sure of is that I will be, at a minimum, volunteering and offering my experience and training to help our country in whatever way I can.
I implore other Caymanians who are similarly positioned to do the same and help us avoid a crisis. We will gain nothing from sitting on the sidelines and hoping that the same team of players on the field can deliver the change we want to see.
At this point in our history, all hands are required on deck, so let us be the change we want to see. We must know that we owe it to our children and grandchildren to pass on to them a Cayman Islands that is at least as safe and successful as the one that we inherited from our parents.
I pray that this post will motivate Caymanians who can make a difference but may never have considered seeking political office to step forward as candidates and help make a real difference this time.
Charles Clifford recently retired as the director of Customs and Border Control. He served in the PPM administration as tourism minister between 2005 and 2009.
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Category: 2025 General Elections, Elections, Politics
You are right there is absolutely NO corruption at CBC !
Scales 6.5 years in prison for .009 grams 3 suspects over 200 Fentanyl pills in mail not even charged. Investigation closed.
Female companion/CBC officer promoted 2 ranks in training
4 family members employed at CBC by person in charge of hiring
??? Same person hiring his comrades from elsewhere mostly Jamaica
Foreign female belonging to baby mama hired on WP at CBC
40K in jewelry belonging to a dubious foreign female goes missing in custody investigation “closed “ by director ?
There is really only corrupt rightwing in Cayman…pick your flavour, they are mostly the same, with too few exceptions to form the needed cohesive government to show what centrist or left policies and civil service re-routing could look like. It is deeply one-sided far beyond the Parliamentary chamber.
Mr. Clifford, or should we refer to you as Capt. Obvious?
The “People” have been lamenting their concerns on these issues for years but because you have decided to write an editorial, all of sudden everyone is going to listen or now think it’s all true?
Did you need a consultant to help you come up with this?
Much to take away from this article. At least for me. As it is written.
One whole hearted agreement most of all is what I have already expressed…I believe the Cayman Islands is at an impassse, and crossroads–more so than ever in the islands’ history. Anyone who can vote I hope will do so, especially native and ancestral Caymanians, sons and daughters of the soil who I believe would have the truest invested interest in the future of these islands…knowing these Cayman Islands are truly ‘home’.
I only wish you could have fix the terrible institutional corruption you and others have brought to CBC which you was a part of which over time saw you graduated to no longer being apart of the problem but being the real problem. Please retire quietly Mr Clifford and stop stirring $#@% before you get on your shirt and pants
What corruption are you talking about? Lay it out please. Enquiring minds want to know.
7:05, if you pull your head out the sand, get your eyes and ears checked, can read and use the space between your ears, then you shouldn’t have much trouble.
Drugs, guns, illegals, overstayers, all free flowing even with a Coast Guard with 100nm radar and two state-of-the-art helicopters. Still caught unawares of sailboats and immigrant boats beyond landfall. How is this possible unless they have deliberately stood down all this observational and interdiction staffing, tech, and hardware? That.
That is not corruption, perhaps breakdown in duties. Are you saying that he brought in the guns, drugs, illegal entries etc.?
The implication is that he knew and failed to act. It’s not that far fetched.
It ‘s not corruption!
11:30, “he knew and failed to act.”
Corruption is dishonest or illegal behavior by those in power…..
Is that you Chuckie?
Charles Clifford is with the same old regime and was apart of same old system and will maintain same old Status Quo if re-elected to political office how come he can all of sudden now speak to and about system of repression and institutional corruption calling it a cliche the same cliche that installed him in CBC. Please find another topic by which to try to launch yourself back into politics and not preach about your own hypocrisy.
At least, unlike our current bunch, he can read and write, string a sentence together and he knows right from wrong. Rather him than our elected unemployables enjoying income way beyond their worth and intellect.
‘I have never seen our electorate this disillusioned before’. Charles Clifford knows the answer to this. Every 4 years we elect the same people from a pool so shallow that you wouldn’t get your big toe damp. It is a merry-go-around of ineptitude, ignorance, inadequacy and inefficiency involving the usual suspects. Nepotism, cronyism and nest-feathering is the goal.
As has been mentioned earlier, the rewards for being in Government here are among the best in the world and totally disproportionate for an island this size. A serious look is required at the benefits and perks as this is what undoubtedly what attracts people to the role. And serious consideration MUST be given to widening eligibility for selection. It is the only way to get new blood. This insistence on generational Caymanians only is almost archaic. It is severely hindering the progress of the island.
But we know it won’t change at all. And the people who live on the island, but have no real representation but contribute massively to the finances of the island, will continue to shake their heads and roll their eyes at the unfolding horse-trading about to happen again.
And yes, I won’t let the aeroplane door hit my ass on the way out. The standard head in the sand response. And Mr Clifford knows this all only too well.
Charles, I hope you stand for election and I hope you will represent the Beach Bay Area!
Beach Bay? Surely you the constituency of Mandarin East?
Actually it’s Bodden Town West.
Mandarin West then. You got the point.
Too haughty.
Well, if it comes down to him and Mr. Driftwood (who I hear is planning to make another run) the Chukster has my vote for sure. Driftwood can continue drinking milk and getting fat off the HSA Board gig.
I know you’re retired, but the legacy of CBC currently and I need to vent:
3 days to ship a package across the planet to Cayman’s borders.
3 weeks and counting for Customs to process it.
#WORLDCLASS bobo. Can someone please tell me wtf are they doing in there? WHY is it taking so long lately for packages to clear? Pointless paying for expedited shipping.
CBC collects revenue so staffing should never be an issue.
They have made delivery of goods here exceedingly difficult. All the complaints made are for nought. So how do we award incompetence we give the Director a royal gong. You cannot make this mess up.
Gene pool for MPs is limited due to the practice of Apartheid. UN definition of Apartheid also includes denial of right to a group to stand for any elections.
You could always go back to your country where you are eligible to run for public office
Chuckie is making friends with the enemy and strengthening relations with his friends. Yeah, I can see the wisdom of this post. I just cannot figure out how it makes me more informed as a voter.
I hope if Chuckie in standing for election that he will be in the Beach Bay Area.
“institutionalised corruption will become a reality” – political commentary from the past head of Customs & Border Control. But the question is ‘did you actually see something (in CBC or another agency) and not say anything’? or was there nothing to see so you are raising a boogey man to fuel people’s fears and direct them towards some ‘outsider & honest’ politician. – Either way it comes across as disingenuous poli-tricking.
His close family are known drug importers, growers, and dealers. He saw plenty and did nothing. Perfect fit for PPM.
11 @ 1pm – Seems you don’t know of or recall Mr Clifford’s history of whistle-blowing.
But anyone with any sense of ethics who works in the public service will see the entrenched attitudes of ignoring value for the public dollar…gross wastage here, some graft there, like the money is free!
Institutionalized corruption is correct, because from top to toe most don’t care and many don’t even register that it’s wrong…like the NHDT Chairman.
Sadly, Legge was right.
“Seems you don’t know of or recall Mr Clifford’s history of whistle-blowing.” – Please do enlighten us.
12:47, use Google and go forth enlightened one.
Ah, so nothing then actually. Figures.
1:01; Trouble finding Google?
https://www.caymancompass.com/2014/04/10/cayman-drafting-whistleblower-law/
Chuckie, I like you as a person, but Drs Express was a cluster F@$& and you should have refused to be involved in that mess created by Dr Lee.
Dr Lee was not the person behind it but was left the scapegoat
Read the email between Dr. Lee (former CMO) and the former HPC Chairwoman, which is quoted in the cases, before making such comments. Dr. Lee conspired with other public officials.
Lee was not the creator. He may have participated – but it was not his doing alone.
But a drug dealer , drunken woman beater , others of dubious character, that’s OK is it..?
thanks for the words charles.
direct rule for 2 years while a new raft of political candidates are selected/vetted based on qualifications, experience and integrity. then we have new elections.
We’ll only get a new bunch of politicians if we rid Cayman of the Jamaicans with Status who will continue to vote their fellow countrymen into power ….over all of us.
Well that’s never going to happen, so Cayman get used to Corruption, social division, ghetto politics, crime and of course Curried Goat….as we see businesses leave and property prices tumble.
They did it to Jamaica, and they’ve started to do it here.
Correct. Jamaica is particularly dangerous, as the culture in inherently dysfunctional:
“Jamaican culture is among the most violent in the world. For example, murder rates are fifty times higher than in Britain. Guns are normal, so it is unsurprising that Jamaican immigrants brought their gun culture with them; indeed, the gun culture of the Afro-Caribbean community is now a specific concern of British crime policy. That culture is perhaps why Duggan carried a gun: his uncle had been a gun-toting gang leader in Manchester, and he did not recognize it as breaking a taboo. Manchester itself is struggling to live down its description as “Gunchester.” In 2012 it was the scene of a tragedy in which, for the first time in Britain, two policewomen were shot dead.”
Exodus: Immigration and Multiculturalism in the 21st Century, Paul Collier (Professor of Economics and Director of the Centre for the Study of African Economies at Oxford University and a former director of Development Research at the World Bank), https://www.amazon.co.uk/Exodus-Immigration-Multiculturalism-21st-Century-ebook/dp/B00ELXQYM0
It should be possible to cap the % of work permits for any particularly nationality to, e.g. 20% of the total number granted. E.g. this would allow 7,466 non-Caymanians from any one country. It would only impact Jamaicans, but this would be a reasonable and non-discriminatory way of preventing any one culture (said neutrally) from influencing Cayman.
How you neutralise the de facto Jamaican politicians here is a different challenge, and one which may be impossible to overcome, sadly.
Bigger question is how does one neutralize the “Jamaican mafia” controlling the judiciary and the attorney general’s chambers?
All the “qualifications” BS is just a way of you sly folks that have used it to keep Caymanians down in their own economy. You all had easy access to colleges and universities, then came here signing of qualifications. Funny how we are the only Caribbean nation to fall for this BS.
[Summary. The problem is that 60% of Caymanian kids leaving school are functionally illiterate and innumerate.]
Professional services firms fund Cayman, and pay for everything here. These are ferociously competitive industries, and clients have freedom of choice as to who they instruct. Mutatis mutandis as to which jurisdiction those clients choose to invest.
In that context, has it occured to you that:
(1) Qualifications and overseas experience are both substantively and presentationally vital (e.g. such people are both objectively superior and look superior to clients), and this is why clients choose to instruct them?
(2) Caymanians are free to compete with non-Caymanians to sell their services, and clients have the freedom of choice as to who they instruct?
(3) The reason Cayman is the most successful Caribbean territory is specifically because Cayman has commendably not indulged in xenophobic, self-sabotaging economically suicidal rhetoric (except at election time) and protectionism?
Cayman is utterly dependant on highly-qualified expats, unless Caymanians perform better. How’s that’s going? ⬇️
“Premier Wayne Panton has said the civil service headcount cannot continue to grow… Panton said that the government must move away from “social hiring””
https://caymannewsservice.com/2023/09/premier-says-civil-service-must-stop-growing
“It’s the duty of communities all over the world to give their children an education to a standard that enables them to become full members of their home communities. It takes a village, as they say. By that measure, Cayman’s government has failed, and continues to fail. Some of our Islands’ children succeed, but most don’t…”
https://www.caymancompass.com/2016/01/21/barlow-education-versus-protection/
“Cayman’s current representatives have their knickers in a twist, trying to resolve the consequences. An uncomfortable number of the tribe’s members are coming up short in the following respects:-
· Unschooled beyond a minimal level
· Unemployable because of an anti-work attitude
· Untrained and undisciplined in the management of their personal finances
· Intolerant towards foreign ethnic groups
Those deficiencies have steadily worsened in recent years; the drift to full dependency on government handouts has passed the point of no return. There is no apparent solution on the horizon. It looks as though, in time, our “native” citizenry will become overwhelmingly dependent on welfare.”
https://barlowscayman.blogspot.com/2015/05/caymans-entitlement-culture.html
If Caymanians want better jobs, they must perform better. That starts early. See:
(1) 2021: “Almost 60% of Year 11 students miss 2021 exam targets …according to the Data Report for the Academic Year 2020-21, just 40.3% of Year 11 students achieved the national standard target of five or more Level 2 subjects including English and maths.” https://caymannewsservice.com/2022/04/almost-60-of-year-11-students-miss-2021-exam-targets.
(2) 2023: “A data report released by the education ministry reflects a decline in external exam results…with standards in mathematics dropping back to 2017 levels… despite the significant investment that has been made in public education… Only 27% of all students at Key Stage 2, when they leave primary school, had reached the expected standards in all three core subjects of reading, writing and maths.” https://caymannewsservice.com/2023/05/report-shows-school-leaver-results-drop-from-peak/
(3) 2024: “…only 26% of children leaving all government primary schools achieved the expected standard in reading, writing and mathematics, according to a data report published last month by the Department of Education Services and the Ministry of Education. This is 1% down from the [previous] academic year.” https://caymannewsservice.com/2024/04/education-data-report-reflects-poor-school-results/
Also:
https://caymannewsservice.com/2019/09/school-standards-gap/
https://caymannewsservice.com/2018/12/2018-year-11-exam-results/
https://caymannewsservice.com/2017/05/education-results-fall-in-2016-data-report/
Businesses are not welfare schemes for the unemployable (that’s the World Class Civil Service™ AKA NAU). The equivalent of the obsessive navel-gaving about Caymanian affirmative action, and whinging about expats, is the Black Economic Empowerment legislation in South Africa. As with all attempts to impose racial preferences/unmeritocratic tribalism, it has been a failure: https://theconversation.com/only-south-africas-elite-benefits-from-black-economic-empowerment-and-covid-19-proved-it-189596.
If Cayman wants to regress to being a handful of fishing villages, then quasi-Jamaican politicians can have hissy fits about expats. If not, keep quiet, knuckle down, and focus on educating the kids so that they can compete clients to further develop Cayman. Compete on merit: not skin color. There will be limits to this, though. An island of only 30,000 so-called “multigenerational Caymanians”, with the record of educational achievement documented above, seems unlikely to be able to rapidly generate any more that a tiny % of competent, internationally competitive, white collar professionals to fulfil the wide range of roles here.
Every election cycle their salaries and that of their civil service henchmen in leadership has a substantive increase yet their ability to improve or enhance the efficiency of government decreases and frustration with govt increases and the citizens and govt employees see their economic situation worsen. There something drastic wrong with this picture and needs to serious change. The workers are being punished whilst the political/Govt wasters are being rewarded?
Especially the hard working Elections staff.
Institutionalised corruption WILL become a reality?
Where’s he been living the past 20 years or so?!
This about says it all.
Blinded when you are a part of it?
No matter who runs, over the past 45 years our electorate has been tailored to expect personal favours for votes. That precept has pervaded the society, down through the generations since and most voters now know nothing different – neither do most candidates. They actually think that IS the way it is supposed to be!!
Even if a candidate has “good” intentions of staying above that mindset, if elected they are soon brought into the sad reality…that political favours keep you popular and populism wins in Cayman! Not ideals!!
Garrison politics…and OMOV made it worse.
No essential change in our political landscape will come unless/until ideals and fixing our collective problems are the focus of any candidate or elected member. But, that takes intelligence and statesmanship.. qualities which have been lost from our political system for a few generations.
Personally, I think Charles Clifford is an intelligent and ethical man but sadly, I don’t think these are what voters want. They want fridges, light bills paid, rent money, roof repairs, whatever it takes to get votes from me and me crew!!!
Enough of that crap!!
Take the favors and vote how you want. This is not hard. If someone else has a favor, take that too.
Thank you Mr. Clifford. For those who may have forgotten Mr. Clifford was part of a government that brought in our new Constitution and also our first Anti-Corruption legislation. Sadly that Anti-Corruption legislation was gutted a couple of years ago by the current bunch.
the whole government system is broken. look at the civil service, the head of each department is incentivized to spend to their absolute limit so they can get the same or a bigger budget next year. There is no thought given to efficiency and it shows. People of tired of empty promises from all these politicians, every 4 years we rotate between parties and get the same result. I’m not going to vote for voting sake, it needs to be earned, and I hope everybody else feels that way.
The replacement of the fakest most insincere and self observe narcissistic female politicians is inevitable the YaYa of Savannah and Imelda Marcos of Prospect and the” Kameleon “of WBay is hopefully on the horizon who have done absolutely nothing for women nor Cayman but smile all day everyday and GP got paid !
Ridiculous comment. You clearly don’t know any of these women!
I believe ministers salaries and perks should be slashed in half and linked to performance. They become greedy money addicts from day 1 and this just makes them so arrogant and corrupt. If they start listening to their constituents instead of money, and consistently come in under budget so they can DROP duties and fees AND pay off all our liabilities (as opposed to being public liabilities themselves) then we might agree to a slight pay rise… in line with what the rest of us get, which is sometimes nothing at all.
At the moment the interests of politicians and the electorate are not alligned. If the salaries of elected officials were fixed at the average income of a Caymanian worker then they might start to pay attention. Either that or they would become even more corrupt if that is possible.
How ? when we have three possibly 4 millionaires elected right now ? Do you really think salary matters to Wayne, Roy, Moses, Joey and Alden ? Shoot after her real estate buying spree Sabrina may now even be a millionaire.
Come up with answers and solutions instead of asking how. Change it now for the future. Nobody is indispensable, not even MPs.
Solutions don’t matter when the institution blocks all progress. Yes, before you comment – I have no solutions – Cayman is screwed.
I was asking the the original poster How will cuting MP salaries help? perhaps you shuld be asking that poster to come up with answers and solutions. I was questioning his/her logic!
millionaires are a dime a dozen now.
I wouldn’t mind a little traditional Republican governance right now, but not MAGA Republican.
In many ways, Chuckie is only stating the obvious, but I guess it still needs to be said.
Traditional Republican governance would be an anchor around your neck thrown over the Cayman trench. Traditional Republican governance has gone away as a failure to the lower and middle class – it existed only for the elites.
Please don’t mention ppm and Chuckie in same sentence. He is an intelligent gentleman and knows the ppm is done. The ppm have lost basically all of their top brass and have become disconnected with the grassroots Caymanians. They only focus on big developments and passing out concessions that have no benefit to the generational Caymanians.
Agreed Chuckie is a decent man , and will bring some honesty to the self serving circus of politicians feeding at the trough.
Good luck.
You sure about that? Perhaps misinformation occurs often.
But he was PPM wasnt he? You cant erase your past when its convenient.
Recently retired? 🤣🤣🤣. Did he jump or was he pushed?
Whosoever does not cost our country millions of dollars by ordering illegal raids on medical facilities has my vote.
And whoever stands against the $150 to 2HundredMiliion dollar waste on a new resort prison to make our (mainly imported) criminals more comfortable.
Is he planning on running with ppm or the new cayman republican founded by Mr Scott?
or the Bodden Town Peoples Front.
Hopefully neither!
Cayman version of Trumpites coming to a district near you!
Or continue with liberal idiocy.
Cayman is famously a bastion of radical liberalism
Sometimes I wonder what you people are smoking
I really hope that happens 7.15, and I hope they take in Andre and other decent educated Caymanians into their fold.
We must stop this downward spiral into a 3rd world cesspit run by uneducated, unprincipled unemployables turning us into Jamaica.
Please add inarticulate to the bunch. Speaking of Jamaica, not sure if crime is on the increase over there or that I am more aware of the YouTube channel from there, but it seems like all hell is breaking out there. Unfortunately that might also means that more of them will wash up on our shores. Please be aware!!