Hew: Voters need to know more about politics
(CNS): Joey Hew, the Progressives leader-in-waiting, has said that he and his party will make a concerted effort in the coming weeks to raise voters’ awareness of how government and politics work in the Cayman Islands. Hew said that a poll and round-table discussions commissioned by the party had revealed a lack of knowledge of the local governance landscape and political system, which needs to be addressed.
The consultants hired by the PPM to survey voters found that, as the only established political party, the Progressives have a responsibility to educate the voting public on these matters and recommended that they take on the job of explaining how party politics works.
Speaking on Radio Cayman last week, Hew explained how running on a party platform differs from running as an independent and how a party manifesto becomes the basis for policy when a government is elected. He contrasted that with the “experiment” after the last election of a government made up almost entirely of independents with an entirely different agenda.
“I am a strong believer in organised politics in the sense that we are all singing from the same hymn book… and share the same policy agenda and a manifesto that guides it,” he said, adding that manifestos “are not set in stone as things can change” due to external changes that might impact tourism or the financial services.
But in general, anyone running on a party ticket is going to get behind the same policy agenda, which will have been shaped and agreed upon before the election.
He refuted the idea that the 2021 result was a rejection of party politics since eight people, including the current premier, Juliana O’Connor-Connolly, had run on the PPM ticket and were returned to office.
However, he said that in the wake of the results, the Progressives believed that they would form the government. Before Election Day, they had made alliances with several independent candidates they had expected would join forces with them if elected. But instead, all of the independents decided overnight to form a government with Wayne Panton.
O’Connor-Connolly and later Dwayne Seymour also joined the PACT coalition, leaving the PPM in opposition.
He said that in 2025, if the PPM can find the right people, the party intends to run candidates in at least twelve constituencies and hopes to have candidates in all 19.
Hew explained the PPM party constitution and how it provides for selecting candidates and leaders, and then how the country’s constitution provides for leaders and a change in leadership, as will be the case when Hew takes over from Roy McTaggart, the current PPM leader.
After the Progressives vote Hew as their leader at the party conference, McTaggart will resign as opposition leader and the governor will swear in Hew as his successor. Hew will then lead the opposition for the last few months of this administration and then lead the campaign for the general election next year.
Promoting the concept of party politics, where voters know what policies the party candidates will support and who will be their leader before the election, he compared it to the situation now where no one had actually voted for PACT or what became the UPM administration.
He criticised the idea that independent thinkers can form a successful government and pointed out that when people are not on the same page, it’s very hard to develop policy, and it’s important that the public becomes more knowledgeable about how the system works before the country goes to the polls again.
Hew said he had taken seriously the consultants’ comments that it is “incumbent on us as the only party in the country to educate our population about government”.
Watch the full show on Radio Cayman’s YouTube channel below:
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Category: 2025 General Elections, Politics
When the next election comes around, don’t vote for anyone who has ever previously ‘served’ as an MP.
It’s the only way to drain the swamp.
When PPM was last in government, your unwritten policy was to keep people ignorant.
Absolutely! However, each and everyone of you politicians need to learn 3 things:
a. The voters are your boss and not the other way around.
b. Your seat is a representative one and NOT one whereby you expect to become a milluonnaire on the backs of your hard working voters.
c. As a representative of our country, you all should put COUNTRY FIRST at ALL TIMES. That means our PEOPLE, the ENVIRONMENT and the social fabric of our society especially our
HERITAGE/CULTURE.
Joe you are absolutely right our voters need to know more about politics.
If and when they understand the politricks you all carry on with, then they would vote each and every one of you all out in the next election.
F you Joey. I’ve known you since high school and I can say without any reservation that you’ve done nothing for your country and you are a shame to us all. I wish CNS had a middle finger emoji.
Who you calling stupid? The majority of voters? Yes! Expecting an intelligent conversation with those educated by government run schools in the past twenty years? Who’s the stupid one now?
What happened to the Humane Society’s new shelter application on Dart’s land close to the dump that was mysteriously and quietly shut down? Word on the street was it was too close to your home for your high end tastes. Sit down and shut up you blow hard elitist!
Joey being Joey as usual. Not a man to be trusted
I think the sound of dogs barking would have spoiled the taste of his fine wine.
Voters need to know more about politics?
And the so called politicians need what Joey?
A standard education obviously.
Cayman’s politicians need to know more about the constituents they are supposed to serve. The PPM continues to drift further and further away from today’s realities, and that’s why they remain irrelevant background figures.
politics = greed, lies and incompetence.. oh and sometimes in cayman physical assault…yeah I think we got it
The masses have spoken.
More talk show government. What is it about politicians and their love of hearing their own voices?
and seeing their own photos and all wanting something, anything with their name on it.
Covering cowards!
No missa hew they don’t. What they need to know is why the ppm signed contracts after losing last election and before leaving office, also why the the Regen proyectwas held up by your good selves and why we don’t have a transportation system and why developers concessions and paybacks were not measured or where are the records? All a these were in your term weren’t they?
If y’all can explain the why and how’s and because of these above then the people surely will understand the politricks games y’all play
Before the next reshuffle in Spring 2025, voters will need to petition the Governor to amend the Elections Law to disqualify convicted criminals, serial abusers of trust, career lackeys for special interest, remove special immunity, activate Nolan Principles, SIPL, produce passing grade financials, and fund the gatekeeping integrity agencies that have been depowered and underfunded. This is the only education voters need.
He is an ignorant elitist. Why the hell would they want this hignorant hidiot bwoy as a leader.
Before you go down that rabbit hole, save yourself grief and learn how Freemasons operate.
How do they operate? Asking for a friend. Not sure. Clarification would be greatly appreciated.
I understand it has something to do with goats.
Naaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!!!
I’d love to know more about politics! Can we know more about Hew and the Progressives’ connection to CUC?
Yes, and DART…how are they paying you? Please send answer to ACC.
Free rent at Bon Vivant!
All janitorial contracts for Hew’s at Camana Bay while representing Dart’s interests in key government projects e.g. ReGen project.
https://caymannewsservice.com/2024/08/ppm-dismisses-responsibility-for-regen-disaster/
Follow the $$$$
Not to mention exorbitant prices!
Silly question 9.06.
Childish irrational … if you know something inappropriate is going on then say so.
Why don’t you ?
9:06, it wouldn’t matter if anything uncouth was going down because we live in Cayman where transparency and accountability are nothing but buzzwords that 60% of the electorate cannot spell let alone understand the meaning of; and piracy and corruption runs rampant by the very people passing legislation on it.
Voters need to vote in new capable people and stop listening to empty promises from the past and current bunch
Hawaii: Paradise Turned To Hell
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hCkndaJW8cg
Hew does not seem to understand something himself: his party’s policies are unpopular, and he and his colleagues are not trusted, thus, the more they talk about how organised and unified they are, the more they put people off. For a single administration, under Kurt Tibbetts, they were truly a reforming, principled, respectable group that took Cayman forward. Then they lost, and they haven’t won fair and square since. We all know that they literally planned to just win a few seats, and buy as many of the other winners as they could, last election. Such is their contempt for the electorate that they believed people could vote for whoever they wanted, it mattered not, because they would end up in power somehow with all their money. And now we are being told that we need educating in how it works? No, we know how it works, and that’s their problem. They need educating. Only there is nothing they could do to make me trust them again. Truly nothing. I have never seen a Government in any country fight so hard against its own citizens, with so much of their money, as we saw with the Port Referendum. Unfortunately I live in a constituency where I think defeat is unlikely for the Progressives incumbent, but I will be voting for someone else.
I live in a constituency where the incumbent PPM member is utterly useless, but still gets reelected. I will continue voting for someone else, but the PPM’s political machinations (which are advised by experts from other places in the Caribbean) make it unlikely for change. In 2005, the PPM was a good change from the UDP crap (except for Sir Alden’s high school’s debacle) but since then, they have been terrible for Cayman. Joey Hew, in the back pocket of Dart, has been a big part of why it has been terrible.
How terrible, ?…they have not been in power to do anything terrible..
What are you talking about? The POM held the government from 2005 to 2009 and then again (as the Progressives) from 2013 to 2017 and then again as the leaders of a coalition government from 2017 to 2021. Joey didn’t become a Cabinet minister as part of the opposition! Alden didn’t become Premier as part of the opposition!
You are 100% correct. Hew and the other bullsh*tetra from PPM fought so hard against the majority wishes for that port. They are owned by Dart and others. It’s clear as day. Take a look at who the politicians socialize with
Some helpful takeaways from the recent weeks’ shenanigans:
1. Politicians lie through their teeth, or at a minimum make false promises- do not vote them in based on their promises
2. The laws do not apply to politicians like they do to us common folk- especially when it comes to DUI and dredging canals in the north sound, or groping women, or billboards
3. Politicians back stab each other to get ahead.
Please feel free to comment to add to this list, especially #2 above
Joey should not be trying to educate anyone about anything. He is a dunce and has zero qualifications or formal education and commercial success at anything. The party would be better off making his brother Richard Hew its leader
Joey is uneducated himself, so how is he supposed to educate anyone?
Cayman gets the representation it deserves. Buying votes in the poor areas is the game that has been mastered. Voters don’t want honest MP’s they want people that give them money so buying and selling votes is common in all districts.
Then those by MP’s or Ministers thru negotiations with special interests and financial backers give away millions in concessions to those that pay to play whilst contracts for services are provided in exchange to the Public Official’s various pecuniary interests.
These actions merit full investigations and criminal charges for “abuse of office” as per the standards in public life provisions and the Anti-Corruption legislation.
It is the only way to stop the overt corruption that exists for all to see.
I think you got this wrong Joey..It is the PPM that needs to be schooled on the topic of Politics…
For God’s sake, please don’t let anyone from the PPM teach anyone about their type of politics..
The political landscape is so disheartening now I would vote for anyone right now that is not currently in government or affiliated to the party. We need men and women to stand for caymanians and the envorinment. Without protection of the said two, cayman will not be cayman.
Our future politicians will get elected by kissing the backsides of Jamaicans with status..get used to the fact that Mac’s status Jamaicans have bred more of their own kind who want us to be Jamaica.
Jamaican control of the judiciary and attorney general’s office is concerning. Boddden Town’s demographics are thanks to McKeeva’s 2003 status grants.
They all need to be to thrown out, useless kiss ar** lot!
If the poll was conducted among tbe PPM sheeple, then no wonder the majority dont understand politics, the PPM Leaders keep their supporters blind to that sort of thing
The PPM have done more than anyone else in the past 15-20 years to obfuscate and disengage people from politics and political causes in Cayman.
They refused to implement the District Advisory councils despite being the ones who drafted the 2009 Constitution which requires them – they would be a direct way for constituents to raise issues within their districts (other than moaning on local radio shows or sending messages to certain disreputable media personalities)
They actively opposed the few bits of direct individual involvement in politics that have occurred recently such as the effort for the Cruise Port Referendum – spending tens of thousands of dollars scaremongering with their campaign of media bombardment in opposition to the idea of even having a vote.
The PPM refused to hold Mckeeva accountable to basic democratic and ethical norms during their ‘Unity Government’ from 2017 to 2021 despite public pressure and protests after his multiple ‘incidents’ because it would have endangered their governing coalition
They have fundamentally failed to reform our election system to ensure that voters are given as much leeway as possible to be involved in the process – it is ridiculous that you have to register half a year in advance to take part in a vote in a country where the voting pool is less than 30,000 people total. The entire system is designed to be as unintuitive and time consuming as possible as we can see with the upcoming referendum where voters have no time to register even if they tried on the day of the announcement.
They thrive on a political system which allows them to obfuscate the donors and sources of the hundreds of thousands of dollars they blow every election cycle – despite their massive failure rate of new candidates then submit to the Elections Office en masse “party totals” for the campaign which are impossible for anyone to review or challenge. Elected officials and parties only have to account for money that is given to them directly in the runup to an election, or during it – there are YEARS of gaps where money can be handed to them and held by the party and no one says a peep.
Their organisation is not a functioning party with engaged members and active processes its insular social club where prospective candidates are picked in advance from the people who donate funds to the party or otherwise be committed to the party line for years and be willing to be a voiceless empty suit in parliament who nods along to whatever the leader of the day says
They regularly draft candidates based on them being long time political assistants or donors that don’t even live in the constituencies they stand in because the only thing they care about is someone who will do what they are told.
Despite their claims about their competence of their party and the need for a party to form a strong government, they have failed at every turn to get an elected majority in 2013, 2017 and 2021. The only time they have ever had an elected majority was once almost 20 years ago in 2005 and they used it to push some of the most disastrous policies and projects this country has ever seen – while failing to prepare Cayman for the decades to come.
They can talk as much as they want about their internal processes or conferences, they much like their preferred style of governing is done mostly behind closed doors in back rooms with insiders with smalls charades made public because they think they are above the involvement of regular people.
They can scream “For love of Country”, “Service over Self” or whatever other nonsense they want come the next election, that party is rotten to its core, and I hope and pray they are never again trusted to be even a room away from where decisions are made.
please do not send this clearly dart-influenced poor excuse for a politician back in. Please.
And not just him. He’s bad. But wow, so many are even worse.
We need new folk. Now.
And now they realize that public needs schooling on the subject. After all the years PPM been the CI government the new Chinese leader decided to be Kung-fu teacher at base camp when it’s people have been left in dire situations and hardship.
Only reason Mr Hew and PPM is plobing off their mouth is today’s electorates has awaken to the BS and hardship of these jokers.
Come April (or May if UPM don’t try pull a fast one on elections date changes), there’s going to be a swift changes in the way Caymanians vote. This coat tail doesn’t work no more….. New batch has arrived for ’25
I know he’s never bought my momma a turkey at Christmas.
Please tell this joker to piss off. He is a large part of the political problems
New batch ? Lmao I hope you not referring to the “Lets Crown Dan King” group because they ain going no where. We are no longer electing rich guys who have no idea what the average Caymanian goes through. Dan and Wayne cannot sit in White Towers for decades and suddenly appear to save the people without them first decided what they are going to get out of the deal.
Neither Wayne, Roy or Dan feel our daily struggle..We are no longer electing Golden Spoon babies.
Anonymous 6:00am, do you live under a rock or have anything in-between your ears?
“feel our daily struggle”
The very people currently serving the 19 seats have put you there; and most of them have been sitting there for 3 election cycles at least.
Who else has caused the “daily struggle” but them?
But hey, let’s wote them back in right?
#legalisecommonsense
How it works Joey: in a democracy, district representatives are supposed to listen to voters, consulting and working for their constituents and their issues, not to advance their own personal finances or crony ambitions through preferred developer side-deals and private Caucus motions outside of transparent Parliamentary procedure. The ACC will hopefully get around to the PPM’s historic warehouse of contempt. Lessons perhaps already in the pipeline.
Lodge is the only real party.
Were you turned down?
No. But I’m not much into pointy hats and robes and weird rituals.
…and the sacred ring!
If you were..it’s a lucky thing. not those abusers
Please, no More Mr Hew in politics. Term limits? Time limits? anything that stops him and others just pulling in so much money in salaries and perks and doing nothing it’s too the insane over development of our lands.
He was in power. Nothing. Just stop.
A stunning return to form for the PPM
Alden was made leader a few years after the smashing success he led the country into: 60-million-dollar schools that actually ended up costing around 200 million.
Roy was never going to be Premier, a blind man could see that, and Alden only stepped down in the first place because he was term limited by the constitution, so they basically just made Roy the figurehead because Alden had no interest in exerting himself while in the opposition and just wanted to relax as a backbencher.
and here comes Joseph Hew – the man who as Minister of Infrastructure and Planning from 2017-2021 shares a good chunk of the blame for massive infrastructure failures like trying to force the Cruise port deal through along with Moses Kirkonnell, and the disastrous dump deal along with Dwayne Seymour – and who could forget the East West Arterial project where he basically spent the entire term in office spinning his wheels in the mud.
A stunning display of precisely the issue that haunts Cayman these clowns are constantly failing upwards in politics, whether its Alden or Mckeeva or Joseph Hew, they have no plan, have no credibility and have horrible track records and still because our democratic system is so infantile they are promoted well beyond their station – its all about waiting your turn and being a yes-man for enough years to get a turn at the top. This man works for wealthy special interests that control everything he says and does that much we can all see.
Now they are going to run candidates in as many constituencies as they can get people to run in because their ‘alliance’ from last election went nowhere fast because people had virtually no interest in electing ‘independents’ who had already pre-committed to work with the PPM and God help us all if they manage to convince a few independents to get them up to 10 seats
A few points to remember Cayman:
-Despite what the PPM says about independent MPs incompetence they have not gotten an outright majority since 2005 (in 2013 and 2017 they relied on MPs they did not run for their majorities)
-The PPM has struggled to win seats outside of George Town and the Sister Islands since 2017
-The PPM has only lost seats since their peak in 2013, and even after claiming ‘successes’ in government regularly loses members and collaborators in elections (Marco Archer and Osbourne Bodden in 2017, and Austin Harris and Alva Suckoo in 2021)
I’d say their peak was more like 2006. Ah, the good old days with Alfonso, Lucille, Action Man Arden, Anthony and Chuckie. 2007 brought the beginning of the economic crisis which showed their gross financial incompetence and it’s been downhill for the PPM ever since. They were so bad by the end of that term that voters decided McKeeva (!!!) was a better choice to be first Premier. Talk about a waste of political capital!
Someone with time should explain to this brat why the PPM haven’t been elected as a party with a mandate in several election cycles. The PPM still don’t understand the new composition of an expanding electorate. One they seem to resent. They are consistently on the wrong side of today’s issues, their lodge politics having been rejected at the polls again and again. Relegated to the backbenches, they are the ones that need to read the room when voters reject them. There is lots of room for an honest party to run, especially a candidate for his district seat. It’s not going to be Hew.
He is proof that too many unethical and uneducated people are easily elected to politics in Cayman. I went to high school with him. How he became a leader in Cayman is a sick joke. It says our standard are too low!
All PPM candidates were elected…you forgot that..?
Maybe so, in some slim pickens districts, but that doesn’t collectively give them this “mandate” to disregard majority of voters and force through their donor plans. That’s the fallacy that has been rejected since 2005. The inflexible “manifesto” construct that ignores constituent sentiment and interests, is why they polish the backbenches.
What kind of head-up-your-own-ass revisionist history is this? 😂😂
Voters need to know more about dirty politics…
Public education on the Elections Law is crucial and a better understanding of what constitutes vote-buying is absolutely essential, too.
We all know how Cayman politics work, nepotism, vote buying, corruption and you can be premier with 266 votes out of 60,000 residents of which, the majority do not have a vote.
The results of the 2021 was not a rejection of party politics but rather a search by the voters to elect some party, group or whatever you want to call it to represent their views. It doesnt seem to matter who is in power nothing seems to change
yes because the party manifesto and promised made by political parties has been closely followed in the last 50 years. last election just proved how much people are dying for a change in the political landscape. PPM will get in not because their good, but because there’s nothing better.
With you until the last sentence. The PPM will not get back in, because they are all glowing white hot with radioactivity…see Joey Hew’s articulated condescension above. They don’t care about Cayman, or the voters, and they remind us of this, inter-election – otherwise, yeah, it’s possible some with amnesia might have forgotten! They do it to themselves.
They want us to know more but they do everything in secrecy and don’t consult us on decisions they make. Make it make sense.
We know ‘how’ it works Mr Hew, but it’s been so long maybe most have forgotten how it ‘should’ work. Which one are you going to lay out for us ? 🙄💸
I agree the public needs to be better educated about how Government, cabinet, parliament, the opposition, civil service, and party systems etc work in Cayman. However, I am very wary of the Progressives being the ones to carry out such education…
Mr. Hew is not qualified to be the Premier. The Cayman Islands needs an educated, professional grade and experienced leader with a proven track record of success outside of the political arena. These core competencies he does not possess. We need a person that understands what makes the Cayman Islands successful and will continue to make pertinent decisions for the country thrive for all not just a select few friends, family members, rotarians and others that will provide a slice of the pie.
I have seen how Mr. Hew operates with his circle of friends or business partners that all benefit from the schemes. At this rate, we will end up like the Turks & Caicos islands given the unscrupulous behaviour that has gone on in the past and will only get worse if characters like Mr. Hew were to ever assume power.
If given the choice between Mr. Hew, Sir Alden McLaughlin and Mr. Andre Ebanks as a future Premier it is obvious to many that Mr. Hew is not in the same class or character. The choice for the masses would be simple and thankfully it would not be Mr. Hew.
We all know it’s corrupted, what else is there to know?
Doesn’t matter who you vote for, the entire lot is full of lies and dishonesty?
But please tell us more what we need to know?
Educating the voting public is the best practice. Kudos to MP Hew for taking up this effort.
🤑
do-nothing-ppm or no-plan-indypendents?????….neither thanks.
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.
Say you are a foreigner without saying it.
Furriner to you foreigner!
Which foreigner exactly..are British ‘foreigners’ in a Britidh Overseas Territory…
Yes. Hope this clears things up for you.
caymanians elect these people so you have no-one else to blame but yourselves.
question for joey: why do you prevent the most qualified and successful people on island from being elected…?
Answer: Because it’ll take the power and their agenda out of the PPM hands. Look at what they done Mr Marco Archer, Mr Alfonso Write, Mr Charles Clifford and Mr Arden McLean over the years. PPM now Progressives are nothing else but a damn cult surrounded by Mr Kut Tibbetts and Mr Alden McLaughlin along with the loyalist 2 Wights boys and few old foots. They have no connection with today Cayman. They are dry weed trying to get Hew to water their 2025 platform. Not going to happen PPM
Amen GTN voter…from a fellow GTN Voter..
Never again PPM!
he got one thing right…a rag-tag bag of small town, small minded independednts should never be allowed form a government….hence what we got for the last 4 years.
It’s been absolute crap chute the last four years. Blame Panton, DS, Juliana, Andre and all the others who had this nonsense forced upon us. Shame on them all.
Panton proved to be just as bad or worse than JOCC.
PPM have proved to not be trustworthy.
Time for a clean sweep. Vote them all out.
Voters: politicians need to know more about politics
How it works in Cayman is quite simple. I’ll promise you the world, deliver nothing but make sure myself, my family and my friends have a big fat pay day.
Hew’ve got to be kiddin’ me!
Ps. Frank Cornwall is not “the right person”.
Politicians need to learn more about governance, leadership, accountability, particularly in so far as that relates to reckless spending and responsibilities when utilising the public purse and misappropriating funds (environmental). Political corruption and conflicts have become so rife and OUR money is being wasted so recklessly that it has become incumbent on we, the public, to educate our government about the needs of Cayman, its population and our precious environment… what little is left after the wanton destruction over the last few decades
Integrity. Integrity. Integrity.
That (and following the law, all day, every day)is how politics should work Joey. Anything else comes across as self-aggrandizement and obfuscation.
What law, ask Jon-Jon and Big Mac – they are all above the law. What matters is to kiss the money people’s ass.
Politics in Cayman is pretty simple- just get the most money for yourself, screw everyone and the environment, make as many sweetheart deals as you can, suck up to all the small people at election time and lie – lie – lie. When that doesn’t work just buy the voters off. Just remember to take care of those fat cats so the bucks keep on rolling in.