New Yéar´s Message 2009

Fellow Antiguans and Barbudans;

Residents and Friends of Antigua and Barbuda:

I trust that you and your loved ones had an enjoyable Christmas. We must be thankful that there have been no serious road accidents or violent incidents over the holidays. I pray that our New Year’s Eve and our New Year’s Day activities will be equally accident free; and equally incident free. I also pray that as we were spared major natural disasters in 2008, our country will be similarly blessed in the New Year.

2009 will be a challenging year for Antigua and Barbuda; and for the world. Economies around the globe are in free fall. This is happening in the most powerful countries in the world. Contraction of the American economy is a work in progress. Growth has slowed. 533,000 jobs were lost in the United States in November. This took the number of jobs lost in the United States between December 2007 and November 2008 to 2.7 million; and the unemployment rate to 6.7 percent.

Developments of this nature can have a domino effect around the world. Emerging economies, particularly for tourism dependent economies such as ours, will not escape. It is projected that starting from the second quarter of 2009, our region will face significant declines in tourism revenues; with consequent job loss. The decline has already started. Layoffs in the industry are already widespread in the region.

Against the bleakest horizons, however, possibilities and opportunities exist. In the most challenging circumstances, over the last four and three quarter years, the productive partnership between the Antiguan and Barbudan people and the UPP Government has succeeded in continuously moving our country forward. We have succeeded beyond all expectations.

The speed and effectiveness with which the UPP Administration succeeded in turning things around; in laying the foundation for a fresh start, and in generating growth - with meaningful numbers of new jobs - has been the envy of our Caribbean neighbours.

First of all, the UPP government shaped up to the country’s obligations local, regional, international and institutional creditors whom the previous government had snubbed over many years.

One of those institutions was the Medical Benefits Scheme, which the Government owed $500 million over a number of years. Shaping up to our debt obligations was critical in restoring trust and repositioning Antigua and Barbuda in a positive light with the local and international investment community. A key priority in that effort was to bring relief to local contractors and other local suppliers whose invoices for goods and services provided to the government had long been ignored.

We proceeded to shape an investment climate conducive to profitability and job creation and the expansion of small business. This generated a cadre of new micro and small business operators, who have become significant contributors to the national economy, while creating wealth and new jobs. A large number of those new businessmen and business women are young Antiguans and Barbudans venturing into business for the first time.

Through innovative policies and prudent deployment of the limited financial resources available to the Government, very early, we began delivering on our campaign promises to ease the financial squeeze on the Antiguan and Barbudan people. The Sunshine Government swiftly introduced measures to improve the lives of the poor, the vulnerable and the elderly.

As a priority, we removed some of the burden parents and guardians faced in equipping their children for primary and secondary school. We have greatly expanded the opportunities for university education for our young people graduating high school. And we have done a number of tangible things to honour our senior citizens; and to make them a little more comfortable in their golden years.

To reduce the hardship on all citizens, the UPP Administration removed import surcharges and taxes, including the sales tax, from a continually expanding basket of food items and other essential consumer items. In the extensive safety net the government has in place, we protected some seventy percent of income earners from paying income tax; and we have been adjusting the personal income tax to provide increasing relief to those taxpayers.

We upgraded and expanded physical infrastructure across the country. V C Bird International, the Sir Vivian Richards Cricket Stadium, and the nation’s upgraded and expanded road network are prime examples.

At the start of this challenging year, I am confident that because of the character of the Antiguan and Barbudan people, the productive partnership between the people and the government will continue to move our country forward over the challenging period ahead.

I am committed to maintaining the social programmes we have put in place.
Indeed, I am also committed to increasing citizen benefits where they are needed.

For example, provisions are in place to extend the school meals programme to all government schools. And I am committed to the commencement of construction, this year, on the first of a number of new secondary schools. Even with the commissioning of the Mount St. John Medical Centre, and the newly opened Health Centres, we will continue to establish public health facilities across the country.

I will be consulting with the Cabinet on measures for reducing expenditure throughout the government system. Among those measures, will be the introduction of best practices in all Ministries, Agencies and Departments of government. We will also cut cost by utilizing the capacities of information and communications technology in e-government to conduct business with our international and regional partners and governments.

Other countries in the region are responding to the growing financial crisis engulfing the world according to their particular imperatives. Trinidad and Tobago has modified its budget priorities to cut back US$1Billion in capital spending.

The Dominican Republic has stepped up the deportation of illegal immigrants from Haiti. The Dominican Republic’s repatriation of large numbers of illegal Haitian immigrants has come as Haiti is still recovering from the effects of four hurricanes in one month. One outcome to the financial pressures poorer countries in the region are facing will be waves of migration to other Caribbean islands.

Even with Antigua and Barbuda’s long standing liberal entry policy to immigrants, we now have no choice but comply with stringent border security requirements imposed on us following 9/11.

Prior to that, however, there existed the need for a rational approach in our immigration process.

This has now become an urgent priority. The long overdue review of the immigration process is underway. The immigration system that emerges from that review will include a number of critical underpinnings.

• Our immigration policies and practices will be transparent and just.
• Our revised immigration policies and practices will recognise that immigrants have made a valuable contribution in building Antigua and Barbuda.
• The diversity of our population is a treasure to be cherished.
• The living concept of “One Caribbean Family” was shaped by the people themselves; before there was a West Indies Federation, before there was CARIFTA, and before there was CARICOM.
• The Antiguan and Barbudan character, culture and identity will be respected, preserved and treasured..
• The human dimension, and fundamental compassion where children and other family members are concerned, will be at the core of our new immigration policies and practices.
• Central to the new immigration policies and practices will be the establishment of a Naturalisation Facilitation Unit with a remit to assist new entrants to our national community, and to our national family.
• In introducing the new Immigration Code, provision will be made for regularizing the immigrant status of non-nationals in good standing already residing here for a designated period.
• Strict compliance with the new immigration policies and practices will be required of immigration personnel as well as applicants for guest worker status; for residency; for citizenship; and for enrolment on the register of voters.
  On the very last point I just articulated, operatives of the opposition party continue to violate existing immigration laws in plots to register immigrants in constituencies in which they are not eligible to vote.

The price to non-nationals, who are used in that manner, can be very high.
There could be breaches of the Representation of the People Ordinance as well as our immigration laws.

I urge our brothers and sisters from other lands who have chosen to make Antigua and Barbuda their home, to avoid any entrapment by representatives of the political party which was involved in issuing illegitimate immigration documents to Lee Malvo and John Mohammed for travel to their sniper spree in the United States.

On the matter of law, peace, and public order, the leader of the ALP made a statement in a radio interview on Tuesday which, coming from that source, can be viewed as ominous.

He predicted escalating crime in the coming months. He also spoke of a Band of Red Shirts marching into Mount St. John Medical Centre. For many persons, those threats triggered instant recall of the mindless terror that was unleashed against the society the last time the ALP was in opposition.

Fortunately, however, our police force, today, is better trained, better equipped, better motivated and more professional than it was five years ago. The country is assured of the necessary protection.

On the wider question of justice, I am convinced that the majority of the Antiguan and Barbudan people share the view that when power leads politicians to arrogance, the people ultimately humble them; and that when power corrupts, Justice must respect no transgressor.

This will be a central issue in the coming General Election.

In the same way that March 23, 2004 was Judgment Day for those who had transgressed against the people, the day we go to the polls this year, will be Justice Day for the people of Antigua and Barbuda.

Those accused of betraying the public trust must be given no opportunity to drop the charges they are now defending. As has been famously said, those who did the crime must do the time.

Within the framework of the General Election, I find the Leader of the ALP’s utterings about election observers a matter of amusement. In my Address to the CARICOM Summit, here in Antigua, at the opening of July, fully six months ago, I place a call for election observers on public record in these terms:

“Elections in Antigua and Barbuda are constitutionally due in the first half of 2009. With all assembled here as my witnesses, I guarantee that Antigua and Barbuda’s General Election will be a model in fairness no matter how vigorous the contest. Indeed, I take this opportunity to now advise CARICOM and the Organisation of American States and the Commonwealth Secretariat to expect early invitations from the Government of Antigua and Barbuda for observer teams to be ready to be early on the ground to monitor the preparations for our elections, as well as for the conduct of our elections.”

Fellow Antiguans and Barbudans;

Residents and Friends of Antigua and Barbuda:

Upon avdising the Governor General of the Dissolution of Parliament and the date for a poll to be taken, I shall immediately dispatch official invitations to the Secretaries General of CARICOM, the Organisation of American States, the Commonwealth Secretariat and the Free and Fair Elections League to monitor the systems and preparations for the General Election and for the conduct of the Election.

As a former Prime Minister, Mr. Lester Bird is well aware that CARICOM, the OAS and the Commonwealth Secretarial will only mount observer groups in response to the Government’s invitation. His talk about calling on those organizations to become involved in the impending General Election is therefore nothing more than posturing.

The Antiguan and Barbudan people have more substantial concerns to deal with.
Whatever the challenge, no matter the crisis in the months and years ahead, I trust the character, the resiliency and the resourcefulness of the Antiguan and Barbudan people, working in productive partnership with their government, to keep Antigua and Barbuda moving forward on the right track; and in the right direction.

With God’s continuing blessings, we will achieve this goal.

May God bless you and your loved ones.

May God always bless our beloved Antigua and Barbuda.

Happy New Year.