Premier remains silent over governance vacuum

| 01/11/2024 | 44 Comments
Premier Juliana O’Connor-Connolly (file photo)

(CNS): Twenty-four hours after half of her Cabinet and one backbencher resigned, leaving the government without a functioning majority, Premier Julianna O’Connor-Connolly has failed to address the country, though CNS understands that she held closed-door meetings with the opposition yesterday. The premier’s silence is not unusual, and this is not the first time that the UPM leader has dodged the voters in the face of major divisions in her administration.

On Friday morning, officials from the Department of Communications told the press that they were not expecting the premier’s office to release a statement. “Nothing for this morning,” the spokesperson stated when asked if the premier would be addressing the country.

However, McKeeva Bush, who is understood to have played a significant part in causing the exit of four members of government, remains the only person in government so far to have spoken to the press, including CNS.

He told us what he believes are the key issues that caused the latest crisis. These include Wayne Panton’s controversial loan to Sabrina Turner to help her buy a million-dollar-plus home, issues over proposals for cruise berthing, and the UPM’s attack on the National Conservation Act.

When he appeared on Radio Cayman on Friday, he said the government had not yet reached the stage where it will need to call an early general election, even though the UPM has lost four, possibly five, of its eleven members. It is still not known if Bernie Bush will cross the floor when he returns to the Cayman Islands.

With the departure of three ministers from her Cabinet — André Ebanks (financial services and social development), Turner (health and home affairs), and Katherine Ebanks-Wilks (climate) — the premier has a significant problem on her hands unless she can cobble together a new coalition with the Progressives. To do this, she would have to offer those vacant ministries as bargaining chips.

Bush accused the four who resigned of being “conniving and deceitful” as he detailed how the conservation bill was handed over to Dwayne Seymour, which became the first of the problems at Tuesday’s caucus meeting. Ebanks-Wilks has disagreed with the changes to the NCA that other Cabinet members, including Planning Minister Jay Ebanks and Seymour, have pushed for as a result of lobbying by developers.

Bush spoke about the changes he wanted to see, though he erroneously stated that the director of the Department of Environment is chair of the National Conservation Council. Stuart Mailer chairs the NCC, and DoE Director Gina Ebanks-Petrie is one of four ex-officio voting members.

Bush said the departed members also objected to a move to prevent the NCC from using the courts when a government entity breaches its obligation. However, this power is fundamental to the NCC’s ability to enforce the law.

The Central Planning Authority has broken the law on several occasions regarding environmental issues related to planning applications. Because the planning minister has failed to direct the politically appointed board to follow the law, the DoE has been forced to seek direction from the court to protect Cayman’s natural resources on behalf of the people.


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Category: Politics

Comments (44)

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  1. Anonymous says:

    May she remain silent, keep her word and retire next year.

  2. Junioe says:

    This government is unable to run a small island. Blinkered and biased. Silence now they are torn apart? Ignorance pure ignorance. Those who left should have at least had the decency to wait till the election to stand down instead of throwing Dollie’s out of the Priam in fits of anger.

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  3. Anonymous says:

    She was carrying on all day when same sex marriage got on agenda, prophecies and fear mongering and all kinds of nonsense, not to mention harassment and discrimination. Not long after she personally contributed to a well known constitutional crisis. And now she is quiet. Bravo.These people and their incompetence are ‘world class’.

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    • Anonymous says:

      She encouraged residents to go to Caymanian same sex marriage to disrupt it. An awful evil person to the core.

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      • Anonymous says:

        It would have been very interesting if any of them cavemen had a nerve to attempt to disrupt mine.

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  4. Anonymous says:

    So let me think about this. Andre, Kathy, Sabrina and Heather resign feigning intolerable behavior by their colleagues, but they fail to give any specifics and examples, and we are to just to believe that this recent behavior was intolerable despite the fact that they have sat with the same colleagues sans Panton for almost 4 years now.
    Rather than call out the wrongdoers and expose their terrible behavior, the 4 deserters decide to remove their honorable, mightier than though selves from the pack and depart into the wilderness.
    And we, the idiot public are to simply accept this untimely departure and swallow their excuses.
    The other shocking element is the number of accusations being made against the PPM who have been forced to act in the best interests of the country and return stability to the Government quickly before we begin to have an international fallout, investors become nervous, and the UK acts.
    Yet many of you are accusing the PPM of being power hungry and blaming them for the actions of the 4 deserters. How does that even make sense? The PPM are elected, they have a duty to act in the best interests of our people. If they sit quietly and remain uninvolved, they are blamed for not doing their jobs.
    We need to really stop listening to ignorant conch brains Aunty Sandy who is paid to promote Panton and think for ourselves. This move is clearly being orchestrated and planned so that the Government fails, Panton can jump start his new party (Possibly in partnership with Dan Scott) and early elections can be called which will not favor the PPM or the remaining UPM members. This is nothing more than selfish political maneuvering by Andre and the crew to save their precious asses.
    We need to wake up to the fact that in politics nobody makes a move unless it benefits their political survival.
    Early elections will come, and anyone who was thinking of opposing an incumbent will be at a severe handicap due to the lack of time to be prepared to run, and we will end up with the same people being elected and the shambles will continue. I hope that at that point, we can all then point the finger in the right direction (Panton and his 4 deserters).

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  5. Anonymous says:

    forget ju-ju…shes a waste of space…what about the governor!!!!!
    any comment mrs governor??????

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  6. Anonymous says:

    looking for new curtains to wear

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    • Anonymous says:

      Obnoxious comment. If you see the state of frumpy, ill-fitting suits most of our male MPs wear, but we rarely post a peep about their unfashionable representation.

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  7. Anonymous says:

    A more pressing issue is the current unavailability of Timbits at Tim Hortons Cayman.

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  8. Anonymous says:

    The real vacuum is between her ears.

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  9. Anonymous says:

    Bush is the sort of rubber stamping “leadership” and expedited “stability” that developers love.

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  10. Anonymous says:

    Voters can petition the Governor to dissolve Parliament, reinstate legal accountability removed by JOCC, prohibit convicted criminals from nomination or holding public office, and call a new election.

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  11. Anonymous says:

    Didn’t she get some award for being an exceptional listener? Maybe she is just listening for signs and wonders.

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    • Anonymous says:

      the hilarious thing is it was an award for leadership from people who have no clue who or what she really is, and how, like most of her colleagues, she lacks any leadership skills whatsoever.

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    • Anonymous says:

      She paid for that award with CIG money. FOI how much CIG paid to host the event

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  12. Anonymous says:

    Maybe she should become the Minister of Feet Washing.

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  13. Anonymous says:

    Well in anyone knows how to be “conniving and deceitful” it’s Mac Bush. Those are the things he has a PhDs in. Ask his constituents how many are any further ahead from his representation.
    About 40 years ago he did once run a lawnmower reasonably. Then got into politics to enrich himself. Now he likely can’t get out as the riches have been gambled and drunk away.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Yes. I greatly look forward to the day when we no longer have to read any issuance from Mr. Bush’s mouth. Most of us have had enough. It’s bad enough that a felon is still in office, and that he will enjoy a hefty pension with bling for the rest of his life. He will go any way the wind blows which personally benefits him. He is not a good person. He does not have the best interests of the people of the Cayman Islands in mind.

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      • anonymous says:

        I wish the west bayers who vote Bush in would realise that he is only interested in himself and certainly not the people. Almost anyone is a better choice than Bush. West Bayers please WAKE UP

    • Anonymous says:

      I remember when he was a messenger boy for a local bank, he got fired from that job.

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