Colin Wilson

I have not always applauded North Side’s Independent Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA), Ezzard Miller. I think his marches re government’s immigration new policy are ill timed and ill advised.  There are two sides to the immigration problem and he has decided to opt to what he thinks is the more popular side. That it has attracted his nemesis, ex-premier McKeeva Bush to join him should have been warning enough.

Watching him lead a small march comprising mostly the usual vociferous and ill-informed minority in my mind has not done him much credit.

Government has a very difficult task on their hands without this marching antic he likes to play imitating Bush’s oft tactic he always used when in opposition.

The country needs investment and whether Miller and other Caymanians like it or not it is not going to come from Caymanians. It is not even going to come from within the country.

With the Internet and smart phones capable of taking instant images including video, a march of a few persons with a minority viewpoint can look like the opposite. Placards attacking expats and foreigners are the last things we want to show the rest of the world and 60 persons can look like hundreds.

Would anyone from abroad even consider investing in a country with that going on?

With local activist Billy Adam dressed in a strange outfit and performing antics that would make the audience of a horror movie split their sides in laughter, I shudder to think what the outside world thought of it all.

However, where I can applaud Miller is his probing and questioning of Cayman’s Information & Communications Technology Authority (ICTA) Director David Archbold. (See iNews Cayman story October 20 2013 “ICTA and Lands and Survey found guilty of irregularities in recruitment practices” under iNews Briefs at http://www.ieyenews.com/wordpress/?p=88545.)

Miller exposed that two advertised positions at the Authority in the local press had already been filled by overseas persons who had been sent contracts of employment.

Other MLA’s jumped on the bandwagon as it emerged at last week’s Finance Committee meeting at what appeared to be the manipulation of the process of recruitment at the ICTA and other government departments, including Lands and Survey.

Incompetence, ineptitude, irregularities and improper processes in government departments and in government companies and statutory authorities was uncovered and, quite rightly, MLA’s were outraged.

And so should all of us.

Even when an overseas person hadn’t already filled the advertised position it was discovered that additional requirements were added to the advertisement tailor made to fit the person the government department head wanted. This stopped experienced Caymanians from applying even when a person without these added requirements had already filled the position successfully for many years.

I personally know of a quasi government position that was advertised in the local press that had already been filled prior to any interviews. In fact the organisation had even approached the person they wanted to employ who was working for a similar organisation well before the advert was placed. They even told their new employee they would ‘doctor’ the advert to make sure it would exclude anyone else from meeting the requirements placed in the advert.

None of this is new. It has been going on for a long time but until now it is the private sector that has been taking the hit.

Thank you Mr. Miller for starting the ball rolling and exposing this shocking practice from government ministries themselves.