Cabinet Minster Alden McLaughlin likened the governor to a demigod during the Constitutional Review Secretariat meeting at Elmslie Memorial Church last Thursday.
The comments were made while Mr. McLaughlin was explaining why the People’s Progressive Movement has proposed limiting the governor’s powers in the new constitution.
Although he was not speaking about any governor in particular, Mr. McLaughlin said no one should have as much power as the governor does in the Cayman Islands.
‘The governor is human,’ he said. ‘It is… unwise to give that much power to any one individual. Recent history tells us we cannot rely on the governor to make sure the right things happen.’
Mr. McLaughlin pointed to the fact that the governor – who was Bruce Dinwiddy at the time – did not step in to stop the granting of Caymanian Status to 2,850 people by the Cabinet in 2003. He also pointed out that two successive governors have failed to act on five auditor general reports that were critical of the last government.
‘The governor is like a demigod,’ he said later. ‘We think that is fundamentally wrong and bad.’
Former long-time Member of the Legislative Assembly and Executive Council member Truman Bodden, who was in attendance, disagreed with Mr. McLaughlin.
‘I think a strong governor is vital to this country,’ he said. ‘It keeps politicians honest, to be blunt.’
Mr. Bodden spoke about the PPM proposal to transfer the governor’s powers.
‘You talk about too much power being held by one man, but [in the PPM’s proposed constitutional changes] the governor’s powers are being transferred to one man – the premier.
‘If you want to transfer some powers, sure transfer it to some to committees, but not to one man.’
In response to Mr. Bodden’s remarks, Mr. McLaughlin said there would still be checks and balances to the powers of the premier.
‘The premier cannot act capriciously or arbitrarily because he or she would lose the support of the House and lose their office,’ he said.
Mr. McLaughlin said the United Kingdom was no longer the maternalistic figure it had been when Mr. Bodden was in the government.
‘The landscape has changed,’ he said, adding that the reality of today was that the UK was unlikely to step into help Cayman deal with problems unless it in some way affected its own interests.
‘Even in times of dire emergency, and all we have to do is hark back to Hurricane Ivan, we will see how willing the UK is to step in and assist.’
Mr. McLaughlin said that even when Cayman’s legislators are sworn in, they don’t swear allegiance to the Cayman Islands, but to Her Majesty the Queen.
With regard to cabinet ministers, Mr. McLaughlin said they all ought to be people elected by the voters.
‘These should be people who are accountable to you,’ he said. ‘Right now, the chief secretary, the attorney general and the financial secretary aren’t accountable. Whether you like what they do or not, it doesn’t matter. You’re stuck with them until the governor decides to change them.’
Mr. Bodden suggested it was not in the public’s best interest to have elected ministers replace people like the chief secretary and the financial secretary because they would not have the qualifications for the job.
Mr. McLaughlin said the proposal was not to make the attorney general, chief secretary and financial secretary obsolete, only to have them report to an accountable elected minister, similar to the way all other portfolios work.
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