With the departure of some of the faces that defined Cayman politics for the last two decades came clear signals of the shape of things to come.
Six veteran MPs, including Speaker Sir Alden McLaughlin and Premier Juliana O’Connor-Connolly, bid their final farewell to Parliament in an emotional final session Friday.
As a particularly tumultuous four-year cycle came to a close, there were signposts of bridges being built among MPs, new alliances being formed and new rivalries emerging.
Beyond the six retirements — Moses Kirkconnell, David Wight, Barbara Conolly and Bernie Bush also confirmed they will not seek re-election — there were clues as to the shape the next Parliament could take for those reading the tea leaves in a series of valedictory speeches.
Leader of the Opposition Joey Hew made an open overture to current Deputy Premier Kenneth Bryan to join his new-look Progressives or PPM— something the minister indicated he will give serious thought to.
Another Cabinet minister, Dwayne Seymour, also dropped strong hints that he could team up once again with that party.
Amid the reconciliations, there were also harsh words for a political newcomer looming offstage.
Dan Scott’s Cayman Islands National Party, which launched last month with 11 candidates — all of them political neophytes — was openly cited as an emerging threat.
McLaughlin, in his farewell speech, did not reference former EY partner Scott directly. But he lamented the loss of “institutional knowledge” as seasoned politicians leave the scene.
And he warned that the “experiment of independents” was now being displaced by what he called “the experiment of the inexperienced”.
He said, “I could never understand why people believe that you have to have all of these years of education and training and experience to become a good doctor, a good lawyer, a good accountant or a good builder, but with politics, it doesn’t matter what you did before. All of a sudden you get elected and you expect to become premier with not one hour of political experience. It is to invite disaster upon our country to go down that road,” he said.
Chris Saunders, MP for Bodden Town West and former deputy premier, was more blunt, naming Scott personally and suggesting he would, if elected, pursue a policy of privatising government services in line with the EY report on that subject in 2014.
Saunders, who is understood to be putting together his own political group, also hinted at where possible alliances may emerge after a general election which seems likely to yield an inconclusive result and a possible coalition of various parties and groups.
Praising the Progressives for their “social conscience”, he noted his unequivocal opposition to Scott’s group, saying, “This election is going to be the fighters versus the fat cats.”
Scott, for his part, pre-empted concerns about his group’s lack of experience in an interview with the Compass last month.
He questioned the success of veteran politicians, saying Cayman needs a change of faces in Parliament, as well as a change of approach.
Asked about Saunders’s comments Monday, he said the MP had “twisted the facts”. Scott was a managing parter at EY in 2014 when the cost-cutting report was published. He said it was not his “personal opinion” but a financial analysis by a globally respected firm highlighting possible solutions to Cayman’s economic challenges at a time when the country was facing “financial ruin”.
And he challenged Saunders’s own record, highlighting his departure from Cabinet in controversial circumstances during the last administration. Scott, in a lengthy written response to our questions, went on to suggest that his team of newcomers would be the “fighters” in the coming election rather than longstanding MPs who he said view themselves as “untouchable”.
Progressives make bid for Bryan
Given the scale of the departures on the Progressives’ side, McLaughlin’s concern over ‘inexperience’ could just as easily have been applied to his own group. Of the six MPs currently in Parliament, only Hew and Roy McTaggart are standing for re-election.
However, Roy Tatum, a veteran on the political scene and long-time advisor to McLaughlin, will inherit his spot as the candidate for Red Bay. And Al Suckoo, a previous Progressives MP, is back in the fold in Newlands.
With Seymour also indicating his continued warmth towards the PPM, it appears likely they could add another experienced operator to their team.
Rumours of a reconciliation between Bryan and his old PPM colleagues gained more traction, too, with Hew publicly praising the MP for his “maturity and commitment”.
He paid tribute to Bryan, who shed tears during the referendum debate as he described his past as a “young, stupid boy” who had got into trouble with the law, saying he offered a voice and a perspective for those who are often written off.
“We heard the deputy premier’s story and I hope his story will continue to be written and if he wishes, we in the PPM would be happy to be part of that next chapter,” Hew said.
Bryan, for his part, said being in government had given him a new respect “for what I was once a part of”, referring to the Progressives.
He said he was “elated” at Hew’s offer, adding, “I will definitely be speaking to my people about that.”
Bryan said people were craving stability after a “turbulent” four years that he acknowledged had left him feeling “seasick” at times.
O’Connor-Connolly did not speak at length on Friday, having indicated in her speech at the last session that she will not stand for re-election.
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