Former Ministers of Governmentsupport Petition
Dear Sir,
It is past time for the Government, MLA'sand their two parties to provide solutions to get Caymanians employedand bring investors back to the Cayman Islands. While the twoparties struggle for power Caymanians suffer loss of jobs andCayman is dying economically. This must stop.
Unemployment has reached an all time highof nearly 1000 jobless, and there are about 260 High School graduateswho will need jobs.
If the present Government and the otherLegislative Assembly members who voted for the 1999 motion aredemocratic and true to their word and expect the people to believewhat they say on these issues, they will follow the 1999 motionand have a referendum before they propose sending informationto the United Kingdom for the drafting of constitutional changes.
Cayman's most democratic and fundamentalright is for a secret vote on the constitution in a general election,as was done in 1992 or by a referendum.
The United Kingdom in its press releaseof 05th April, 2002 stated clearly that they had set no timetable,that London had no official deadline for completion of the constitutionalprocess and that the MLA's and the last Governor had set the time.
Under the United Kingdom and Commonwealthsystem of Government and under our present constitution a referendumis initiated by a motion passed in the Legislative Assembly ona matter of public importance. Then a specific law for that referendumhas to be passed setting out the questions and procedure for asecret vote normally by "yes" or "no" on thequestions.
In countries with federal systems wherethe referendum is used often including Switzerland or the USA,we understand that general laws are passed with a procedure forthe electorate to initiate the process and the executive or localor state legislatures to do the questions and fix the date forthe referendum.
We originally called for a referendum ora general election before constitutional change in August 2001and several times after that. We supported the move by the publicin their petition to have a referendum. We hope that the UDP willdo what is democratic for the people of this Country and supportthe referendum. After all, 6000 people asking for their democraticright cannot be wrong.
The present situation may have been easilyavoided if the leader of the opposition had presented a properlydrafted motion for referendum or amended it. Alternatively, theGovernment could easily have agreed to the motion being debated.
It is time for the Government and the MLAs"to put country before self."
It seems to us that the Government and MLAsshould focus on the economy and employment rather than engagingin damaging controversial issues which will further hurt the economyand create uncertainty for investors and make Caymanians jobless.
Thomas Jefferson,
John McLean and
Truman Bodden