EDITORIAL

Candidates Have Independent Aims

Friday, August 20, 2004

Recently a prominent Caymanian politician, remarking on whether a certain candidate for the upcoming General Election was truly an independent, indicated that ultimately, all candidates would end up aligning themselves with one political party or the other.

Following the November elections, when it comes time for the newly-elected members of the Legislative Assembly to choose the next government, and there can be little doubt that that government will come from either the United Democratic Party (UDP) or the People’s Progressive Movement (PPM), certainly anyone who is elected as an independent candidate will have to take sides one way or the other.

By the same token, however, just because a candidate is a member of a political party, does not necessarily mean that they are aligned with a common ideology that defines that party. Indeed, there seems to be a lot of independent thought, and aspirations, embedded in Cayman’s burgeoning political parties, especially in the UDP.

Those who know the elected members of the UDP may agree that some of the personal political ideologies present in that party could hardly be more different from one another. There are some economic and social philosophies in the UDP that are extremely capitalistic, while some may be considered socialistic.

It should come as no surprise then that a rift has arisen in the Cabinet, or that there have been reports of squabbles inside the UDP over the past year.

The differences are so pronounced between some individual UDP members, it is easy to imagine that they may not have the same philosophies in common.

What binds them, it could therefore be assumed, is the desire for power.
As a result, Cayman’s young political parties have yet to become very cohesive because they are held together more for expediency than philosophy. Ultimately, then, what we get is a coalition of convenience, whereby it is often the independent desires of candidates that form the basis of their party allegiance.

This tendency is not limited to the UDP. There were recent decisions by two prominent PPM members to snub the party and run as independent candidates. There could very well also be other candidates seeking a nomination from one party or the other that decide to run as an independent if they are not selected by their party.

All of this shows that the party’s interests are not necessarily at the core of a candidate’s agenda at this point of Cayman’s political evolution.

Personal desires, even if those which relate to better serving the people, typically take a back seat to party goals in most countries where the party system is well established. In the Cayman Islands, however, with that system still in its infancy, the concept of toeing the party line for the sake of the organisation is not automatic.

If the party system is going to survive in the Cayman Islands, this will have to change. The quasi parties of the past – such as the Vanguard Party of the 50’s, Ormond Panton’s National Democratic Party or Willie Farrington’s Christian Democratic Party of the 60’s, Jim Bodden’s Unity Team for the 70’s and 80’s, and Truman Bodden’s National Team of the 90’s– all died out because they were driven more by individuals than cohesive philosophies.

There is no guarantee of what will happen to the UDP should many of its members not return to office this November. Without the structure of power holding their divergent ideologies together, it is possible the whole party could collapse under the weight of individual aspirations.

To be fair, the PPM has structured itself more for the long-term, but unless its individual members buy into the idea that what is good for the party, is good for them and the country as well, then even it will have difficulties surviving.

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