PM Gaston Browne – Arvel L. Grant

…rests in the hands of these two talented politicians.

In 2018, when Gaston Browne led the Antigua & Barbuda Labour Party (ABLP) to a 15-1 victory, it confirmed its position as the majority party in Antigua. With Trevor Walker leading the Barbuda People’s Movement (BPM) to a clean sweep of available seats on the Council, in the 2021 elections, it confirmed its position as the majority party in Barbuda. So, what next?

MP Trevor Walker seems to believe the results of the 2021 Council Elections suggest a majority of Barbudans, are upset with the treatment of Barbuda by the central government.

PM Gaston Browne seems unphased by his party’s defeat, believing that the strategy of large-scale development and initiatives to move from communal to freehold land rights will be vindicated.

The Barbuda People’s Movement appears to have a different vision of development. A preference for communal land rights; small boutique (niche-type) economic activities; living off the land and sea; minimum population growth; preserving traditional Barbudan values.

Conversely, it appears the ABLP believes:

· Tradeable land ownership, gives Barbudans and other investors equity, powering growth.

· New areas for immediate impact being: banking, insurance, and construction.

· Under-written losses from disasters would be covered by the insurance sector.

· That commercial land tenure will drive expansion in GDP; increasing the island’s input to The Consolidated Fund; boosting Barbuda’s recurrent and capital receipts.

Given the way the world works, both these positions have very strong merits. Communal land rights can co-exist with leasehold and freehold rights in Barbuda. Indications are it does on every continent and in many regions around the World. For that to happen in Barbuda, PM Brown and MP Walker must commit their undisputed political talents to honing the well-developed state-craft of negotiation and compromise. After all, isn’t “politics the art of the possible?”

There are no good reasons why a negotiated land-use policy for Barbuda, cannot achieve mutually acceptable zoning. Producing an arrangement that protects the communal land rights of Barbudans, while advancing opportunities for modern economic activities.

Done right, such an arrangement could drive development at scales which earn sufficient revenue to fund Barbuda’s recurrent and capital requirements; while protecting the traditional values of Barbudans.

A just and equitable arrangement on the basis of “one island, two systems” may even achieve surplus as reserves to fund the management of major natural disasters.

When it comes to issues involving communal land rights, national governments should be wary of opting for settlement by the judicial route. Indications are, there are more than 100 countries in which communal land rights issues are of public interest. The further up the judicial food-chain these disputes climb, the more likely judges (in the Commonwealth Jurisprudence) will see arguments between national governments and aggrieved communities as human rights cases. Often, the human rights of aggrieved: Individuals, groups, or communities overwhelm the arguments of national authorities.

Further, indications are, recognition of communal holdings in the official land register is gaining in ascendency around the World. In Barbuda, zoning for private commercial development, in exchange for communal registration of the rest may be too big a carrot, for Mr. Walker to resist.

Walk good until next time
Arvel Grant, Political & Current Affairs Analyst

Over a matter of weeks, the Honourable Asot Michael (believed to be of middle-eastern descent) may have caused extreme distress at or near the top of three branches of Government in Antigua & Barbuda.

The: Chief Magistrate, Speaker of the House and the sitting Prime Minister (all black people) took evasive actions as a kind of “political wrecking ball” appeared to sweep through the heights of polite society.

Such was the consternation, that:

A Chief Magistrate appearing to hurriedly recuse herself from a matter (some believe) well within her purview.
A Speaker referring an MP to a Parliamentary Privileges Committee, which does not appear to exist.
And PM Browne declaring his “frenemy” a future outcast from party and Cabinet.

That an (ethnic minority) elected member of the house could be accused of causing such public mayhem (in a matter of days) suggests that:

Either the system of public manners is so badly broken in Antigua & Barbuda.
The accused has yielded contact with minimum behaviour required by polite society.
or it is OK for a member of an ethnic minority to keep his “knees” on the necks of the black majority (in Antigua-Barbuda) for as long as he likes.

Having observed the politics of these islands for more than 30 years, I never (before) witnessed so great a consternation in the higher echelons of polite society. Truth be told, for decades now, many in Antigua and Barbuda seemed numbed to the alleged excesses of the Antigua & Barbuda Labour Party (ALP) politician and the seeming inability of his party colleagues to do anything. Indeed, members of the public, begun to believe that so overwhelming were any ”secrets”, that some party officials could not survive a release.

In 2014, Gaston Browne became Prime Minister and continued earlier talk about corruption in the party. Leading by example, the PM even laid his finances before the house. But it took the actions of British crime authorities to nudge the hand of Browne and his colleagues. Those British intervention(s) triggering Michael’s sojourn “out of Cabinet, back in Cabinet and out of Cabinet”. Now, if this round is not enough to “break the camel’s back” then the Camel has no spine.

Secrets or not, that any mortal can attract such sustained and decades long, national and (now) international allegations of running roughshod over civil and (perhaps) criminal norms, (almost undisturbed) is stranger than fiction. Let us see if PM Gaston Browne has the “political balls” to “bell the cat” and “put the genie back in the bottle” for some people think “the whole country fed-up”.