Bush says no plans to stay on as leader

Premier McKeeva Bush may relinquish the top political job next year, running only for his West Bay Legislative Assembly seat in May 2013 elections.

Speaking yesterday to iNews Cayman, Mr Bush said he had “no plans not to run” in next year’s elections, but only as an MLA candidate, as he pondered vacating his seat as premier, making way for 
a successor.

“I have always said I would be moving on,” he said, citing exhaustion from the political process, bureaucratic infighting and the emotional devastation of losing his daughter last year.

One factor in the decision, he said, “is whether there would be a change in the interference, in the bureaucratic harassment I am getting in trying to get the economy going.

“I am disgusted with it,” he said, appealing to his opponents, and seeking “to discourage that, not to extend that.

“I feel it is my duty,” he said, to try quelling the criticism.

A second consideration was progress in his ministries of Finance, Tourism and Development.

“It all depends on political development. We will see what happens in the course of time,” he said, delivering a potted history of his political career and insisting he was “very tired after all that.”

“I took over the country from [PPM Leader of Government Business] Kurt Tibbetts in 2001 when it was in the doldrums. I took over just in time for [New York’s] September 11, and then there was Hurricane Ivan, which did $41 billion worth of damage,

“I turned that around and left a $106 million budget surplus in government accounts. At that time, though, people were listening to all sorts of rubbish about corruption and how we were not doing enough and Caymanians were not getting anything out if it.”

While corruption allegations “never amounted to anything”, the PPM, in 2005 elections, “kicked me out, and they borrowed and borrowed and they spent and left a deficit of $81 million on the current accounts side and well over $200 million in capital deficits.”

He had tried to warn of the 2007 economic downturn, and Cayman was “grey-listed and in some case blacklisted,” he said, referring to 2009 judgements by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.

After his 2009 election, he said, “I cleared the country of all that and put us back on a footing. Then the UK tried to put on taxes and I stood up to them and said no, but the UK took control and now we have to go hat-in-hand each time. They started to tell us what we can build – the port and airport – and we started getting hype about good governance to ensure the whole process was going right in time with accountability and responsibility.”

“After all that,” Mr Bush said, “I am tired. I have gone through the greatest tragedy, losing a daughter suddenly,” referring to the 25 January death last year of daughter Tonya Yvonne, 30, from diabetes complications.

“I am tired of the finger pointing and the very dirty campaign by [North Side MLA] Ezzard Miller and his cohorts,“ Mr Bush said, “and even a scruff like David Marchant,” editor of Miami’s Offshore Alert, a financial-industry newsletter frequently critical of Cayman.

However, “I am not going to give my district up to ‘make-believe lions’ or to people who have done nothing for it except complain,” he said, an oblique reference to West Bay activist and 2009 independent political candidate Paul “The Lion” Rivers.

But while hoping to retain his LA seat, he said, “Yes, it is a possibility” he may leave the premiership.

“I will come to the West Bay people and ask again for their support. I believe the constitution is wrong. It leaves too many matters in the hands of the governor for extreme oversight. There is nothing to help us in our recovery. We are too rich to get a grant, there is no budgetary support and we can’t get the economy started.”

He declined to speculate on his successor. “I am not going to say who it is going to be. There are a number of good young people that want to run with me if I run,” he said. “We can raise new candidates. People want good governance that is effective and is going through to a bright future.”

His remarks echoed similar sentiments in a speech at last Friday’s Royal Palms opening ceremony for Cayman Enterprise City.

“I am moving on soon,” he said, looking forward to the benefits likely to devolve from the multi-million-dollar project. “I am determined to leave Cayman in better shape than I found it.”