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:
- Fascinated
- Happy
- Sad
- Angry
- Bored
- Afraid
Category: 2025 General Elections, Politics
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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…
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.
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
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.
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.
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.