By Georgina Wilcox and Colleen McGaw

In a surprise early announcement at the Progressives’ (PPM) headquarters on Crewe Road, George Town just after 5pm today (Sat 25) Cayman’s next premier, Alden McLaughlin, announced some early Cabinet appointments as follows:

Speaker of the House – Juliana O’Connor-Connolly

Home Affairs (that includes Public Safety, Immigration and Police) – Premier Alden McLaughlin

Tourism and District Administration – Dep. Premier Moses Kirkconnell

Finance – Marco Archer

Financial Services – Wayne Panton

Ministry to be decided – Osbourne Bodden

Ministry to be decided – Tara Rivers (she will pick the ministry she wants – within reason)

McLaughlin said Rivers does not need to join the PPM. They hope she will accept, as she would bring a female perspective to an all male government.

McLaughlin has spoken with Governor Duncan Taylor and told him he has formed a government and would like to be sworn in on Wednesday (29). He also said he has had correspondence with Deputy Governor, Franz Manderson.

“The PPM’s aim,” McLaughlin said, “is to restore confidence in Government and Cayman Islands, to get economy back on track, to get people jobs and move on with some of the government projects.”

He also said he had received a call from Mark Simmonds, The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) Minister who said they desire and are willing to work with the new government and be constructive in getting the things done that have to be done.

“Within a few weeks,” McLaughlin said,  “a small delegation (which will include Minister of Finance, Deputy Premier, Premier and some others) will go to the UK and meet with the Minister [Simmonds] and the FCO and talk about long term plans for Cayman particularly on the fiscal side.”  He said they have to produce a budget shortly but a long term four year plan is needed so that some level of predictability and stability can be delivered to the way the Cayman economy operates. This is to ensure those in business do not have to be worrying every budget cycle there will be another round of taxes and also the Civil Service will not have to worry about cuts, etc.

McLaughlin added that the PPM would be delighted if all the others who were elected, other than United Democratic Party, would come and sit on the government backbench, but that is probably asking for too much. He wondered what the purpose was of those in the Coalition for Cayman (C4C) and his friends, Mr. Ezzard Miller and Mr. Arden McLean, who had worked so hard to remove the last government to go now and sit on the opposition benches with the remnants of the government that they just removed! He thinks a far more constructive roll for them would be to assist the current administration.

“There is a lot to be done,” he said.  “There are many committees to be headed up, there is a huge amount of work to do and we certainly would welcome and hope they would come on board as part of the Progressives administration rather than forming part of the opposition, with Mr. Bush and the UDP.” It would be much better to sit with the government the country has just chosen, he added.

Finally, the premier designate said, “The PPM are looking at a range of ways of how the other party members who were elected but have not got cabinet posts can assist.” He said he could not go into any great detail now because they have not had a chance to think about that yet.   He believes the appointing of councilors, who are like junior ministers introduced by the last administration, is a good idea for the backbenchers.  It is good training and they are under the supervision of Ministers.

“As for Kurt [Tibbetts] and Anthony [Eden],” he said, “all would be revealed.”