On Monday, RCIPS Commissioner David Baines issued a news
release lecturing everyone for publicly discussing matters related to the
current investigations involving Premier McKeeva Bush, including those
commenting on how long one of the probes – begun in February 2010 – has taken
to complete.
Monday’s announcement came a little more than a week after
Mr. Baines and Governor Duncan Taylor announced that there were a number of
investigations proceeding against the premier.
This latest amateur-hour attempt at public relations from
the UK folks is akin to the Caymanian Compass running a headline on the front
page stating: ‘We have a really big story!’ and then providing barely any details
at all to back up the flashy declaration.
This writing is not to fault Commissioner Baines, who, in
this situation, is little more than a foot soldier in a behind-the-scenes
international power struggle largely being fought 5,000 miles away from our shores.
But can the governor not realise that the uncertainty
created by these announcements causes instability in this territory? Can he not
see that an investigation that has already taken 26 months causes reputational
damage to both the premier and the Cayman Islands every day it continues?
Mr. Baines’ news release stated that “continuing speculation
is not helpful or fair to those under investigation”. Is announcing an
investigation and not giving details being fair to Mr. Bush? Is it fair to the
Cayman Islands that its premier should be under investigation for so long?
Governor Taylor cannot pretend that announcing there are
multiple investigations involving the premier and then not giving details won’t
lead to all kinds of speculation. In an information vacuum, the public the
world over will fill in the blanks with its imaginations and it shouldn’t
surprise anyone that speculation and conspiracy theories are running rampant in
these Islands.
We applaud Mr. Baines’ desire for fairness for those under investigation,
but we’re not sure how much more “fairness” like this Mr. Bush and the
territory can take.
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Editorials adding innuendo are not particularly helpful. The subjects in investigations have the option of providing full cooperation, publicly if necessary, in securing a speedy, just and fair resolution. If they choose to conjure up conspiracies or suggest that irregularities are appropriate, rather than cooperate in investigations, then they deserve little sympathy.
Perhaps the commenter could fill us in on what specific evidence he has that the Premier is not cooperating with this investigation. At this point, the Compass has no evidence that Mr. Bush has even been questioned by police in any of these matters.
Jose it seems to me that all the rumours and innuendo are not coming from the media but from the Governor’s residence.
Right now from a UK press perspective the people in the wrong are the Governor, the FCO and possibly RCIPS because what we are seeing is a selective leak of information in a manner that can only be seen as being intended to discredit one individual.
To a number of people over here that is a tacit admission that the various investigations are going nowhere and it has been decided to tackle the problem by other means.
If, or more likely when, the UK media pick up on that it’s probably not a point of view that will do the reputation of the Cayman Islands much good.
Jose P
I’m no McKeeva Bush fan or supporter but your comments cause me to wonder which world you’re living in.
As John has indicated, if and when an independent UK press gets a hold of this, their views will be pretty much similar to this Caycompass editorial.
A lack of cooperation by Bush would be any refusal to answer questions put forward to him by RCIPS investigators; as to date, there has been no statement by Mr. Baines, or Bush, that he has been interviewed or questioned on any matter.
How could he provide evidence in an investigation in which no evidence has been requested from him by the RCIPS investigators supposedly handling these matters ?
As John has pointed out, this is looking like an underhand method by the FCO to unseat McKeeva Bush through the force of purposely manipulated public opinion…without any supporting evidence that could meet criminal charges criteria.
There is no comparison with the Arden McLean investigation, which was a sly and underhand method by McKeeva Bush himself to discredit McLean but…all is fair in war, love and politics….tit for tat being the order of the day.
McLean’s situation had to do with a personal issue between CUC and himself; it would never hold the importance of the political leader of the country being put on public trial through the media by people who wish to force him out of office.
I’m afraid, by all rules of fair play, this is beginning to appear as exactly that, and nothing more.