What has the PPM achieved?
An insider writes: I cannot state any of the following publicly — you can guess why — but I feel compelled to share these thoughts with all eligible voters, be they generational Caymanians or status holders. I listened attentively to Radio Cayman on Saturday night. All of those people were in Cabinet the last four (some eight) years. What did they accomplish? Let us see:
During the lockdown, our population dropped by approximately 3,500 people. Let us suppose that 2,000 of those were on work permits. Did Cabinet take the opportunity to put mechanisms in place to ensure that at least 80% of those jobs were filled by qualified Caymanians before work permit holders could return? In four years, did they seek to address the HSA’s history of malpractice and the rate of inaccurate diagnoses? Did they address the urgently needed reform to the health insurance, immigration and planning laws?
We pay the salaries of the lawyers that the last Cabinet used to fight the Cruise Port Referendum group and appeal the chief justice’s ruling on the Civil Partnership Law, a law that basically aligned our Constitution to the rule of Law. They approved developments without the approval of constituents and used the money we pay to fight us in court. They used our money to pay for the glossy pamphlet to tout the pier project.
We paid their salaries and they tried to stick us with a debt that our children and their children and grandchildren would have had to pay. Yet we will have to pay them three months salary if they do not get re-elected. Am I the only one that sees how wrong that is?! If they choose to run again and fail, well! That is the result of their failure the past four (for some it’s eight) years. We, the people, should not have to pay for that.
They passed a law saying that ALL jobs in our islands had to be listed with WORC so that Caymanians had 15 days to apply for them. Well, I visited the WORC website, and they list close to 600 jobs, and yet Caymanians are not filling them. What is wrong?
Our Constitution dictates that in times of pandemic, government must follow the recommendations of the chief medical officer, the commissioner of police, and the governor, who basically must follow whatever protocol the Foreign Office adopts. The Constitution puts them in charge so that no matter which party is in power, the citizens are kept safe. In other words, this was not a “Premier and PPM” achievement. It was a Constitutional achievement.
In eight years, people went from being homeowners with good paying jobs to making ends meet. Basically, the middle class continues to shrink year on year, which means that where only 22% of our high school graduates get to pursue tertiary education today, that percent is very likely to drop to 20% or lower.
We lost CITN, even though Mr Merren stated publicly during a PAC meeting that the other companies were not paying him for including CITN in their packages. He stated that OfReg was aware of this but was not forcing the other companies to pay him and therefore he would have to close the TV station in a year or two. We had a right to CITN, in the context of free, impartial, and accurate information. The past Cabinet did nothing to protect that right and the people lost CITN.
I give them kudos for activating the free shuttle (although it appears to me that they are mostly driving around empty); for arranging to get a laptop for public school students (the Eastern Districts still have connectivity challenges). I give the Public Accounts Committee kudos for exposing the gross mismanagement of public funds (though I don’t see anyone arrested yet).
In closing, please do your elector homework. Pay attention to ALL the aspiring candidates, not just the ones in your district, because these are the people who will sit in Cabinet and make decisions for the good or bad of this country for the next four years. Our Year 7s today will either graduate from Sixth Form with honors or continue coming out of CIFEC, which automatically places them at the bottom of the heap when applying for jobs.
Let us choose people who have achieved something while we were not paying their salary; people who will not be afraid to grab the bull by the horns and make the hard decisions necessary to ensure we thrive, not just survive. Do not doubt it, if we choose the wrong people on April 14th, there will be dire consequences.
Category: Polls, Viewpoints & Analysis, Viewpoint & Analysis
To 4:13am: I checked the 2009 Constitution and you are right, there is only the Prerogative of Mercy. However, I think we navigated the lockdown as well as we did not because of the Premier or the PPM, but because all of us followed the directives given by the CMO and the Police Commissioner. After all, nobody wished to die or lose a loved one.
Part of our present election quandary is that people get elected by the majority of people who come out to vote on the day, NOT the votes of the majority of registered voters in the district. That is why not voting is NEVER a good option—the same people vote for the same candidates over and over, while the disgruntled stay home election after election. If you are unhappy with the past government, come out to vote and VOTE THEM OUT.
Surely you have to agree that the Premier’s refusal to bow to pressure from the financial/legal and tourism special interests deserves recognition..
PPM protected us from Covid whether you want to admit it or not. ( No wonder you are afraid to own up to this VP.). They took good care of the economy, they did not increase the national debt, they built up a surplus which enabled them to pay a stipend to tourism workers etc and assist small businesses etc, tourism was booming until Covid arrived on the agenda. Those are just some of what they accomplished while you were taking a 4yr nap. So like Johann you also need to wake up and ‘stay woke’.
The cruise ship industry was clearly more important than covid to this government. Hence why we had the lockdown in the first place.
Could you please point us to the section and subsection of the Constitution that “dictates that in times of pandemic, government must follow the recommendations of the chief medical officer, the commissioner of police, and the governor, who basically must follow whatever protocol the Foreign Office adopts.”
The shuttle is empty as no one in govt can see that there is no point having a free shuttle if no one knows where is goes, when and how. No kudos needed for that pretend solution. It’s the same as spending millions on buildings but forgetting to administer them properly… schools are a prime example and “town plan” another. There is no plan it’s just a pretty drawing. Terrible leadership with no real solutions.. a govt with a budget they don’t know how to use.. too busy selling us out to big developers.
There’s an app for that. At least for tracking where the GT shuttle is and when it will get to you.
As for everything else, including the rest of our public transport buses …
Our organization has opportunities posted on WORC. 4 interviews scheduled last week, 3 people no-showed. And now they complain they weren’t interviewed when someone else gets the position!?!? Others provided contact details, but don’t return emails or voicemails.
One person came to the interview and didn’t even know which company or job it was for. This is why Caymanians are not filling SOME of these roles.
Can you see the problem with this constituency system? It’s pros are corrupt politicians know where to deliver the CUC or grocery gift certificate too, it caters to corruption! Ask our new leaders to change the constitution to island wide voting. The districts should have districts councils to take care of district related problems. This voting system only helps to facilitate bribery and vote buying!
9:41 Will the COUNCILS not be People too!
No to national vote. In a national vote the people in the bigger districts will select the representative for the smaller districts.Always.
Majority should rule.
The majority of Cayman’s voting population is no longer based on district loyalties.
There are more West Bayers and Cayman Bracer living in BT than original BT’ers.
Do you think that these people will suddenly forget the needs of their elderly parents living in West Bay and the Brac?
National vote will benefit more than this messed up system we have now.
We need one man one vote – we don’t have that now!
So 10.13am tell me this ..when you enter the booth on election day how many votes do you have.. 2,3, 5, 10, 19?. Or is it one (1)? Sorry but our system is one man , one vote or one person one vote.
Good article, Insider, but in saying “let us choose people” etc what do you suggest voters like us in Bodden Town East should do when the choice is between Dwayne Seymour and Osbourne Bodden? A very real problem in our islands is the sheer mediocrity or worse of the quality of candidates we are forced to choose between.
Just vote for Osbourne Bodden. Seymour is a national embarrassment and should not be a health minister. “Vote them out”? Vote him out.
Seymour is a national embarrassment but Ozzy cowcod f’n driftwood is not? Give me a break. They are equally useless and pathetic.
On a more constructive note, it seems that a lot of constituencies are facing the same problem of a very small number of qualified, competent and credible candidates. How can that be fixed?
If a stupid word like “driftwood” offends you then that’s your problem. And he apologized about it. Do you really want a complete idiot like Seymour to win over him?
The fact that he called someone driftwood is actually the smallest part of the story. Remember why it happened? Because he tried to get you (the tax payer) to pay for his personal expenses. When the CO tried to stop the corruption, he called her driftwood. THAT’s why Cowcod is no better than JohnJohn.
Educate the voters!! Encourage them to stop voting for backpacks and turkeys. And vote for a real future. Let them know they don’t need hand outs, if they demand to be trained and educated well enough to provide for themselves and family, and not needing to rely on these useless politicians!
Then we get good candidates