No confidence motion fails

A marathon session of the Legislative Assembly to debate a motion on no confidence in the government ended in the small hours of Thursday morning with the majority of legislators voting against it.

Leader of the Opposition Alden McLaughlin first filed the private member’s motion of a lack of confidence in the government in April and debate on it finally began at lunchtime Wednesday, 7 September. It continued late into the night and early morning, with a vote being taken shortly before 2.30am Thursday.

As anticipated, the motion was defeated, with all nine elected government members voting against it. Four members of the People’s Progressive Movement opposition party voted in support of the motion – the fifth member, Arden McLean was absent during the debate and vote as he was off island on a family emergency. Independent member for North Side Ezzard Miller, who seconded the motion in Mr. McLean’s absence, also voted for the motion.

To succeed with the no confidence motion, Mr. McLaughlin would have required 10 of 15 votes.

Mr. McLaughlin said he had brought the motion so Premier McKeeva Bush could respond to many of the unanswered questions the opposition and the country had. He raised 23 issues concerning the management of the Cayman Islands under the United Democratic Party government – issues he said were “not exhaustive”.

He said early in his opening statement in the debate that he could already see his motion was unlikely to succeed, judging by the sign of solidarity of all the male members of the UDP government wearing the party’s signature green striped tie.

“It is not a motion that we have brought to this House without a great deal of thought, care and consideration and, I might say so, pressure from concerned people in the community to register the country’s concern about these issues and the general management of the country’s affairs,” Mr. McLaughlin said.

He said that by voting against the motion, no one in the country would have any doubts about the support government members had for the actions and policies of the premier. “The line will have been crossed when the vote is taken on this matter,” he said.

One of the main themes in Mr. McLaughlin’s criticism of the government was its “stunning silence” in response to the “most serious and persistent crime wave this country has ever faced”. He said that as majority members of the National Security Council – a body set up since the establishment of the new constitution in 2009 – government members were able to play more of a role in advising on policing issues than the previous administration had.

However, Premier Bush and other members of his government who responded to Mr. McLaughlin during the long debate insisted that the National Security Council was an advisory body that could address policy issues, but not operational or staffing matters and that, constitutionally, responsibility for internal security and policing lay in the hands of the governor.

Mr. Bush said that the leader of the opposition, who was a member of the National Security Council, could also make suggestions to the governor, who chairs the body, on the subject of crime fighting.

Mr. McLaughlin said the “attitude adopted by the present administration is that this is really not our business, this is a matter for the governor. That is why the entire country waits and waits, praying, pleading, hoping that the government will do something about the crime wave that is washing over the nation and the premier sits quietly, saying nary a word about crime, running up and down all over the place, breaking ground and making announcements about the grandiose projects that will never happen.”

But government members said they were also concerned about crime, and pointed out that on Tuesday this week, Cabinet had approved $1 million for the police to help combat crime.

Deputy Premier Juliana O’Connor-Connolly urged the opposition not to make a “political football” out of the crime situation.

She described the motion as a “waste of time”, a sentiment echoed by other government members who said it was clear from the outset that the motion would not succeed.

During his opening speech, the leader of the opposition read from two auditor general reports on political interference in the government procurement process and on the Cohen & Company deal to try to secure US$185 million in financing, citing them as examples of the government’s mismanagement of the country’s affairs.

Although not on the list on 23 items in his motion, which he said had taken so long to bring before the House that some of those matters were no longer topical or related to projects since dropped by the government, Mr. McLaughlin brought up an investigation by police into Premier Bush in relation to a letter from Mr. Bush to developer Stan Thomas sent in 2004 that allegedly asked for payment. Mr. Bush has previously called this a ‘real estate bill’.

Mr. McLaughlin attempted to read a letter written by him to Governor Duncan Taylor in relation to the investigation, but Speaker of the House Mary Lawrence ruled that the contents of the letter could not be read into the official record of the Legislative Assembly or reported on.

Education minister Rolston Anglin responded to the motion by criticising Mr. McLaughlin’s performance as an education minister under the PPM administration between 2005 and 2009. He also accused the leader of the opposition of bringing the motion because he was in “a rush to power” and did not want to wait until the 2013 election.

Responding to the motion, Mr. Bush said: “The opposition finally got its day to hammer out its criticism, which has melted down to nothing.”

“It is obvious that the motion was tabled in an effort to smear me,” the premier said.

Addressing criticisms over his own and his government’s travel expenses, Mr. Bush said such overseas trips were necessary and he pointed out that the PPM had spent more than $11.5 million on travel during its four-year administration.

He defended accusations that his government did not have its accounts up to date, saying 93 annual reports and financial statements of ministries, departments, statutory authorities and government companies had been tabled between 26 June 2009 and 18 August 2011 and another 29 reports had been tabled on Wednesday.

“Vote against me if you may,” Mr. Bush told opposition members. “If you had been here, you would not have done any better.”

All elected members of the House who were present spoke during the debate, except for the former leader of the opposition Kurt Tibbetts and the UDP’s Captain Eugene Ebanks and Cline Glidden.