By Peter Polack

Peter Polack

The recent outburst by the head of Cayman Finance seeking more support from the elected government was a misplaced attempt to set policy that is the exclusive purview of any government post elections.

There seems to be a common misunderstanding by civil society and NGO’s that leads persons perched on high places to invariably have a lack of understanding of the Constitution.

The people vote in their elected representatives usually based on promised policies.They are only answerable to the people come Election Day or by the non-existent recall referendum.

The government, even a lame duck one, cannot be directed by those seeking more funding for more expensive overseas trips or similar pork barrel activities when they are busy seeking the survival of the Cayman Islands by diversification of the economy.Dependence on a single platform that exceeds half the economy is a scary thought as numerous prance about like the emperor who has no clothes.

Minister Bryan is no such nudist and he urgently seeks expansion of the tourism sector to provide a necessary fall back as the noose tightens around tax havens. Yesterday’s grey list removal has no relevance as the UK searches for tax targets and Europe’s radar is on ways to fill the Ukraine hole or war.

It is always best to stay in one’s lane, avoid partisan political pronunciations and simply let the voter’s choice implement, even belatedly,the promises to the people.

The only redeeming feature of the Oliver plea for more is that it was an open and raw statement of excess unlike the usual anonymous donkeys roaming the comment sections.

Peter Polack

Peter Polack was a Reuters stringer and criminal defence lawyer in the Cayman Islands. He  is the author of The Last Hot Battle of the Cold War: South Africa vs. Cuba in the Angolan Civil War (2013), Jamaica, The Land of Film (2017) and Guerrilla Warfare: Kings of Revolution (2018).He was a contributor to Encyclopedia of Warfare (2013) and his latest book entitled Soviet Spies Worldwide: Country by Country, 1940–1988 will be published by McFarland.

The views in the above column are his own.