“People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones” is an old and often used proverb that means: “Those who are vulnerable should not attack others” and in other words, “don’t gossip about people if you have secrets of your own.”

When Premier, Hon. McKeeva Bush reported East End MLA and former Cabinet Minister, Arden McLean to the Anti-corruption Commission (ACC) because the PPM member had admitted that he had not paid his electricity bill for more than a year during the time he was negotiating with Grand Cayman’s monopoly power provider, I was wondering if it would come back and bite him.

However, the ACC cleared Mr. McLean after a very short investigation into whether he had abused his position by not paying power bills that McLean had disputed with CUC for twelve months. The MLA had cooperated with the investigators from the start and was proactive in ensuring his name was cleared as quickly as possible. When he received his letter from RCIPS Commissioner, David Baines, concluding that he had committed no offence, he called on the premier, to do likewise regarding the investigation against him. This investigation was acknowledgement by Governor Duncan Taylor that a fax sent by McKeeva Bush in 2004 to Texan developer Stan Thomas asking for $350,000 in relation to the zoning of land was at the heart of a police investigation

In a short statement on Radio Cayman Mr. Bush said in his usual confrontational style, “While Mr. McLean and his cohorts have done their endeavour best to smear me and I hear them say of an investigation I know of none. It strikes me, though, rather odd that there would be a criminal investigation of me while he was a sitting member he could negotiate such a lucrative agreement with CUC while not paying his electrical bills.

“I am not surprised that McLean and other opposition members do not recognise the dangerous game of international politics that is being played against the Cayman Islands. They are using me as a scapegoat to do so.”

He claimed, “I have done no wrong and I therefore can say my hands are clean and my heart is pure.”

This was after charging that McLean and “his pals” were facilitating the “dangerous game” by “scandalising” him.

Bush, in the radio broadcast, said, “All the benefits I have I am entitled to and have earned as a result of being returned to office seven times. I had wanted to cut politicians salaries more and the PPM had objected but I cut my own pay as well as the opposition leader’s salary.” The PPM leader, Alden McLaughlin, angrily disputed his MLA’s had ever objected to the cuts at the time.

Why is Mac surprised that Arden would dare to hit back at him now after he had instigated the investigation, by also criticising the benefits the premier was receiving as a result of his position, and even in the almost dire economic times drawing full pension as well as his salary?

Now that Commissioner Baines, who is also chair of the ACC publically stated recently that allegations of corruption being dealt with by the commission that occurred before 2009 were difficult to prosecute as the new law isn’t retroactive, I can only wonder if this is the reason Mr. Bush is claiming that he knows of no investigation against him?