Opposition walk out

Members of the Opposition walked
out of a sitting of the Legislative Assembly Wednesday afternoon after Speaker
of the House Mary Lawrence asked Arden McLean to leave following a comment he
made about Premier McKeeva Bush.

Proceedings had been halted after
Mr. McLean refused to withdraw a comment that the premier had circumvented the
rule of law and Mrs. Lawrence had ordered the East End MLA to see her in her office.
When both returned to the Chamber, Mr. McLean again refused to withdraw his
statement and the Speaker asked him to leave the Chamber.

As Mr. McLean left, the other four
members of the Opposition went with him.

Speaking outside the Legislative
Assembly building afterwards, People’s Progressive Movement member Alden
McLaughlin said he and his colleagues had left in solidarity with Mr. McLean
because they believed his statement about Mr. Bush was correct and did not need
to be withdrawn.

The walkout came during a debate on
a bill to amend the Tax Concessions Law (1999 Revision). Mr. McLean had been
questioning why the government was proposing amendments to a law that gives
Cabinet power to exempt companies from taxes. During his debate, he cited, as a
possible example of a company that might be exempted from taxes in the future,
a developer of a port in East End – referring to a proposed project by
developer Joe Imparato.

Mr. Bush rose to question the
relevance of the East End member’s comments and accused him of being in “Never
Never Land”. “What is he debating?”, Mr. Bush asked.

Mr. McLean responded: “The premier
would love to think we are in Never Never Land. He wants to circumvent the law,
and the rule of law.”

At this point, Mr. Bush insisted to
the Speaker that Mr. McLean “unequivocally” withdraw the remark. Mrs. Lawrence
asked Mr. McLean to withdraw the comment, but he responded that Mr. Bush had
stated on television that he had overruled the Central Tenders Committee and,
therefore, had circumvented the rule of law.

The legislator was referring to the
premier in October overriding a Central Tenders Committee selection of a bid to
provide a US$185 million government loan in favour of New York-based financiers
Cohen and Company Securities LLC.

For more on this story, read
Friday’s Caymanian Compass.