A great necessity for change says former British MP
Matthew Gordon-Banks
Friday, March 4, 2005
Mr Matthew Gordon-Banks, a former Member of Parliament for Southport in England, is currently on a private visit to the Cayman Islands and Cayman Net News was able to catch up with him for an exclusive and candid interview.
Mr Banks has worked at senior levels in the British Government and is a former Parliamentary Private Secretary at the Department of the Environment to John Gummer, MP.
He has advised, at the very highest levels several governments including the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Cayman Islands, Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela.
He is currently one of the principals of a UK-based public relations firm, Parabola Communications Limited.
Net News: Mr Banks, what is the purpose of your visit to Grand Cayman at this time?
MGB: I am visiting Cayman in a personal capacity as a friend of the Cayman Islands. I care passionately about the future of the Cayman Islanders and I really cannot stand by idly and watch recent events without doing what I can to improve the situation.
Net News: How long have you been interested in things Caymanian?
MGB: In 1995, I set up the British All Party Cayman Islands Group, which was co-chaired by George Foulkes, a former Labour minister at the Department for International Development (DfID) and well-regarded in the House of Commons. I am currently one of approximately twelve official ‘Friends of the Cayman Islands,’ a group supported by the Cayman Islands Government. Additionally, my company, Parabola, was retained by the Cayman Islands government in 2002 for public relations work in relation to the launch of the Cayman Islands Investment Bureau (CIIB) in London.
Net News: How successful has the London CIIB been?
MGB: Frankly, my impression has been that the CIIB was set up only so that the present Leader of Government Business could say that he had delivered on an election pledge, but in reality it has been nothing more than a shell and, in my view, a waste of public funds. Until more recently there has never been any kind of headquarters established in Cayman and no coordination of policy.
Net News: Have there been no efforts at all made by the government to place it on a better footing?
MGB: Not to my knowledge. All offers to help have been rebuffed. One of my principal concerns is that the Director of the CIIB, who lives in the UK and is a brother of Richard Parchment, is I believe qualified as a motor mechanic; he was and is, in no way qualified to run an investment bureau, which has produced little or nothing and cost a fortune in the meantime. A more qualified director ought to have been able to accomplish a great deal by approaching UK businesses. As it is, it took Mr Parchment 12 months just to get business cards printed.
Net News: What about the other two offices in London – the Cayman Islands Representative and the Tourism Office?
MGB: In my view, the Tourism Office has been something of a non-event for the past 10 years. The office itself is not readily accessible to the public but is on the 4th floor of a somewhat anonymous building. There is no up-to-date literature and, when I last visited, I was horrified by the amount of dust in the office. The only visible effort to market the Cayman Islands is the occasional advertisement.
So far as the Government Representative is concerned, it is well known by the Friends of Cayman In London that Jennifer Dilbert does not like going to Brussels and engaging in the necessary EU lobbying.
After the election in Cayman, the senior staff in each office needs to be replaced and reorganized with a more dynamic representative. Many of us in London have been disappointed after Hurricane Ivan by the amount of time Jennifer Dilbert has been away from the office on leave or vacation, at a time when she should have been fighting hard for assistance from the UK government and others.
DLA, the Government’s PR firm in London, has also failed adequately to promote the Cayman Islands. I get the impression they are used more to promote the Leader of Government Business.
Net News: What about the situation post-Ivan?
MGB: The performance of the Cayman Government post-Ivan has, to my mind, been an absolute disaster for the Cayman Islanders. The Cayman Islands Government has been totally ineffectual, with too many vested interests getting in the way of what is best for ordinary Caymanian men and women.
A senior British government minister told me that far too much time was allowed to elapse after Hurricane Ivan before there was any formal request for aid. The UK government was willing to provide substantial immediate assistance but says it could not force such help upon the Cayman Islands Government if they weren’t asking for it.
The same is true of other events that impact upon the future of the Cayman Islands. In October 2004, MPs, (Members of Parliament) and ‘Friends of Cayman’, including John Maples, himself a former Cayman Islands resident and a founder of the law firm Maples and Calder met Hon McKeeva Bush in London.
Some people were surprised to hear only at that meeting of the probable extent of the likely negative effects of the EU Savings Tax Directive on Cayman’s financial industry.
According to a senior member of the Labour Party, there was a stand up row between Mr Bush and Mr Rammell over the Cayman Government’s handling of the situation.
At a time when businesses are trying to promote the Cayman Islands, the Cayman Government has let the people down.
Net News: What are your thoughts about the political situation In Cayman, especially in relation to the upcoming election?
MGB: In my opinion, the future of real democracy in the Cayman Islands depends on a change of government and I hope that there will be a massive turn out of voters to accomplish just that. For too long the Cayman Islanders have been patient and have given the benefit of the doubt but from an international perspective we need to see a clean sheet because of the many allegations of corruption.
I am personally very concerned about the ongoing intimidation of public servants and business people, including the press, in the Cayman Islands. I myself have been effectively threatened by the Cayman Islands Government office in London by way of a suggestion that I should get a business visa in order to address one solitary lunch meeting of the Chamber of Commerce. I regard that as intimidatory.
I therefore urge Caymanians to vote in force to remove the present government.
Net News: What is the UK government’s position on all this?
MGB: Some UK institutions and very possibly the UK government itself would like to see a change in the Cayman Islands. The United Kingdom government has raised a number of issues relating to good governance with the Cayman Islands Government, but to no avail.
In relation to human rights in the Cayman Islands, or the absence thereof, there is no one to blame for this but the Cayman Islands Government. The Cayman Islanders have the solution within their own power to make the necessary changes and I am confident that they will do so. There is a great necessity for change. I believe the British government is therefore biding its time until the outcome of the election is known.
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