Independents, parties and campaign donors
(CNS): Political Watchdog writes: Yesterday we watched a political telenovela unfold with the second premier and fourth deputy premier walking into parliament. And some people want to blame this on “independents”. Keen observers of Caymanian politics will know this isn’t about being independent or with a party.
It’s about the character of the people running and getting elected.
It is about having politicians who are mature, responsible and free to think for themselves. Those left in the minority Government sadly have many negative traits in common. They don’t earn respect, they demand it. They are focused on their haircut, their suit, their big SUV and their entourage.
I personally prefer organized politics and the structure of political parties. But the mess we witnessed these past 3.5 years wasn’t because they were a group of independents, it was because of the caliber and character of the individuals. They get elected because they are easily bought and controlled. Too many of the current Government individuals are immature, impulsive, hot-headed, rude and unprofessional.
I believe a hypothetical group of ‘independents’ like Roy McTaggart, Andre Ebanks, Wayne Panton, Marco Archer, Tara Rivers, Julie Hunter, Barbara Conolly, Heather Bodden and Kathryn Ebanks-Wilks wouldn’t have created this circus. Not at all. Despite their differences, they would all almost certainly remain professional, respectable and focused on the work at hand.
Those MPs in that ‘hypothetical grouping’ would be there to serve the country.
Too many of the current minority Government are there for something other than improving the lives of Caymanians. They appear to be preoccupied with their image and their title. They appear to have gotten elected, appointed ministers and all of sudden, think of themselves as the most important leaders in the country’. They operate with a ready, fire, aim mindset. They are undisciplined and unable to work as a team. If it wasn’t so scary, it would be laughable.
And what exactly have they accomplished?
I wonder what the Premier and Deputy Premier would be presenting in this session of Parliament if not for the work of Andre Ebanks? Sixteen of the 21 Bills are the result of Andre and his Ministry’s work. What a gift handed on a silver platter to ‘Juju’ and ‘Kenny boy’. Be sure to thank him across the floor. And if not for financial services agreeing to higher fees, would this Government even function? How would the Civil Servants get their bonus and pay increase?
These politicians are like chihuahuas when they see the treat bag – completely controlled by whoever’s holding it. And you know who is holding the treat bag? The campaign donors who prop them up and sustain them. These “special interests” pull strings behind the scenes like puppet masters. Special interests direct hundreds of thousands of undocumented dollars to certain MPs every year and more every election. Watch the amount of money that is about to flow this Christmas. That concert being put on next March? No coincidence. If any Government funds are used to sponsor it, the public should demand to know where the free tickets go.
These ‘leaders’ strut around like peacocks with their fancy titles, but they are puppets for the people pulling their strings – those “special interests” who keep them flush with cash. While Caymanians struggle to buy groceries or pay for health insurance, these guys are given thousands of dollars in supermarket gift cards, CUC vouchers and even lots of turtle meat paid for on their behalf.
And let me tell you something else – these rich captains of industry, these wealthy foreigners, and yes, even those multi-generational Caymanians who everyone treats like walking saints – they pretend to not be involved but they are the ones responsible for this mess.
Are they demanding the MPs deal with CUC to lower the cost of electricity? Are they demanding Julie make sure she finds the money to pay scholarships disbursements on time in December and January? Are they demanding that we get better insurance coverage for our seniors? No.But they want a cruise referendum so they can build a $200M cruise berthing facility for a handful of millionaire families. Our children will inherit the debt and the millionaire families get richer. The rich get richer and to hell with the rest of us.
So next election, mi gente, do yourselves a favor – vote for candidates who are sensible, of good character and have real solutions to our problems. Vote for candidates who will tell you straight up where their dinero is coming from. Because if they won’t tell you who’s paying the piper, you better believe someone else is choosing the tune!
The solution is straightforward: we need robust campaign finance reform. This should include mandatory disclosure of all campaign contributions, caps on individual and corporate donations, regular public reporting of political funding sources and strict penalties for non-compliance
True democracy requires transparency. Voters deserve to know who funds their representatives and what interests they truly serve. Without this knowledge, we risk continuing the cycle of political instability that has characterized recent years.
I bet none of the minority Government will support that.
- Fascinated
- Happy
- Sad
- Angry
- Bored
- Afraid
Category: Local News
I think you have overlooked the role of our current electoral system in creating this mess.
The current system:
– fails to attract the most able candidates, offering generous pay rises to people who struggle to get real jobs in the private sector and at the same time offering the best and brightest Caymanians nothing but a pay cut and a premature end to their careers.
– fails to make good use of our tiny talent pool, and at the same time creates bitterness and resentment, by forcing candidates to pick a district and run against a dug-in incumbent (or worse, other good candidates).
– fails to reward, or even punishes, people who put the interests of the nation above the interests of their district, powerful interest groups or influential constituents.
– results in a government perenially balanced on a political knife-edge because no group or party can ever have a majority of more than one or two MPs. A two-seat majority would be 58% of parliament, which no party in the UK or US ever achieves. As the least competent MPs naturally lose influence in their party, the appeal of breaking away grows till it becomes irresistible. Those MPs can then hold the entire government to ransom with the threat of a no confidence vote if they don’t get their way.
I woulr respectfully propose three changes to the electoral system that would attract better candidates and translate to a more competent, more stable and less fractious government.
1. Create an additional 8 national seats. Give every voter one vote for a candidate in their district plus five votes for national candidates. This will avoid pitting good candidates against one another and allow both candidates and parties to run on a platform of national interests rather than parochial ones.
2. Pay Ministers (and the Premier) 20% above their most recent salary, subject to a maximum of say $300,000 and a minimum of say $150,000.
3. Make serving as a backbench MP a part-time role akin to jury service with a much lower salary (say $30,000). This will allow good people to run without sacrificing their successful careers, at the same lowering the incentive for those without successful careers to run. This will also reduce the threat of corruption by powerful individuals or groups on whose support the candidates come to depend.
Character matters.
Marco Archer?
Tara Rivers?
Roy McTaggart?
Babara Connolly?
I’m not certain I can take the rest of this piece seriously if these are the names on your list of competent ‘respectful, professional and focused on the hard work at hand’ – its basically just a recycled list of PPM cogs who spent their term(s) in office toeing the party line at every turn. The people who smiled along as the damage was done are not going to suddenly swoop in and be heralds of the required changes.
That egregious claim aside – you are partially right: Independents didn’t break our political system. They just showed the inherent flaws with trying to transpose the Westminster System to the scale of what is effectively a town council – if we want Parliament to work – we need a real Parliament with a house that is not made up of 8 ministers (total number not the current number) & parliamentary secretaries who ‘report’ to themselves as there are no backbenches and no one to replace them when the need arises. Which is why people like Mckeeva are always around to step in and fill the gaps for whatever the government of the day has. Its why we don’t have MPs who are preparing to take leadership roles in future governments we just have different mixes of the same faces that have been in office since the turn of the millennium. This ratio of Ministers to members is also why no one can be fired or replaced for poor performance, ethical breaches or mishaps, when the numerical majority holding up a government is 1-2 people you can’t piss those people off – even when they are incompetent or poor performing.
A Parliament which is made up of 60% or more Ministers and junior ministers all of whom have direct monetary incentives to simply back government proposals to continue collecting their cushy salaries and a tiny entirely powerless opposition within a body which is in in session for maybe 20-25 days out of a calendar year is never going to function as intended.
Parliament needs to be in longer sessions, with actual debates, rolling agendas and with actual hearings on matters of importance not decisions made in advance in caucus with Parliament simply rubber stamping all matters, Ministers should be making policy announcements in Parliament not on radio shows or social media posts – they should then immediately be interrogated where needed on those policies by the Opposition. A government should actually have to convince their backbenches who are not ministers or junior ministers to support their policies not for their own monetary gain via the survival of the government. Governments here are too concerned with the Chamber of Commerce and other special interest groups made up of persons whose primary interests are maximizing profit, importing workers and keeping wages low while they charge an arm an a leg for basic goods and services with little to no oversights and restrictions.
The root of the issue has never been whether or not there are parties in place, it’s the quality of candidate, the places and persons those candidates turn to for funding for their campaigns. the motivation that those candidates have once elected and the fact that our institutions especially parliamentary institutions despite all assertions otherwise act in an entirely unserious manner.
A member of Parliament while debates were going on was on Amazon buying shoes and jackets. He needs to look good for his job of course.
The Cayman Islands struggle to attract competent, professionally qualified locals to political office due to several interrelated factors.
The lucrative and globally employable careers in professional services like finance and law offer better incentives than local politics, which lacks career longevity and mobility. For honest Caymanians, politics is a thankless task with limited scope for advancement or lateral movement, especially on a small island where political experience holds little value elsewhere.
The high cost of living, extreme weather, and indirect taxation through work permit fees diminish the appeal of risking a political career that binds individuals to the island.
Strict eligibility requirements mandating multi-generational Caymanian heritage drastically narrow the candidate pool, leading to a shallow gene pool and removing any leadership diversity and innovation. Cultural pressures, fear of public scrutiny, and a lack of institutional support further deter qualified individuals.
The heavy reliance on an expatriate workforce, who are ineligible for political office, exacerbates the issue.
Collectively, these factors create a near-total absence of capable locals willing to enter politics, posing challenges to effective governance and the islands’ future development.
Agree with the first half of this but as soon as we get to the criticising generational Caymanians being the only ones able to run you lose me
People can and do earn the right to vote here and I have no issues with that, but Caymanians – with established ties and roots should be the ones who are holding political office changes on that front would directly disadvantage a people already in the minority in their own country.
Aside from that – they will never vote for it so its a moot point. There are alternatives that should be the focus of persons unhappy with the status quo – Caymanians are not going to give ground on that area.
We better get this right soon though, otherwise we are on a slippery slide to a “banana republic”. Too much political expedience and “riding the fence” none of the MPs willing to face difficult decisions of undertake the BHAGs (Big Hairy Audatious Goals). They only seem to be able to constituency “sugar daddies” and “sugar mamma’s”. Events for every occasion/holiday, but too exhausted to tackle the big Issues.
Are we willing to change, whether it is Parties or Independents? I doubt it, Caymanians like to complain but we “want our cake and want to eat it too”…
Hmmm..basic point made but listing specific persons…this article looks, reads and sounds like a pre campaign article and not written by anyone based here either. Let the fun begin..
This is a great view point. It gets to the root causes of the current madness and vote buying by financiers that own and control the elected politicians. There are too many desperate, unscrupulous, uneducated and corrupt persons involved in politics and managing ministries and departments in Cayman’s world class civil circus.
I stop voting several elections ago, just got tired of voting for the least poor candidate.
Bodden Town East.
independents will never work. we need stability, not people who cant work with each other because they all ran on a different message and platform.
Jay Ebanks threw a big party at the North Side Dock on Saturday night. Drinks, food and fireworks galore. I wonder where that money came from. How is it that he gets to throw big parties on Public Land?
He ordered NRA to put speed bumps on the main road which I believe is not lawful. So I hope no one in North Side needs an ambulance as in a life and death situation they will have to drive slow. Why are the senior civil servants bowing to this stupidity?
Why doesn’t someone FOI how much money he has spent from government coffers as a “sponsor”.
He campaigned against serving the elite yet he had no problem with government buying him a shiny SUV to drive around.
Paving roads has not improved the quality of life for the people of North Side.
Building an open air basketball court next to swampy water that is not being used.
He is part of a government that has expensed over a billion dollars and counting. They can’t even payout out scholarships now!
North Side people please look at the bigger picture. Is the free parties solving your struggles to deal with the rising cost of living?
You should be very concerned that the over half a billion of debt now on the country’s books will come back to haunt your children and grandchildren.
Let’s get practical. Covid 19 shook the entire planet and alot of people suffered financial hardships. Businesses failed. Cayman’s tourism took a big hit and small business owners have still not recovered. The point is that this government has not put aside funds in the event something happens like a major hurricane or god forbid another pandemic. They received a billion and spent a billion. Does that make sense to you??? Do you really think this is sustainable?
The bible speaks about this – give a man a fish he eats for the day, teach a man to fish he eats for life.
Jay will not teach you to fish. I would rather eat for life.
Wouldn’t you?
You lost me at Wayne Panton. The architect of the mess we are currently in!!
A hot steaming mess.
Julianna, Jon Jon, Jay and Isaac were all signed up with the PPM. Say no more.
Mckeeva, Joey, Juju, Jon Jon and Kenny have to go they are all working for their sponsors in private sector not the people.
Saunders too, he is working to return Cayman to the control of his Native land, Jamaica.