LETTER: WHERE IS THE CABINET?

Dear Editor

Once again, Antigua and Barbuda is embroiled in a major national controversy, and once again I find myself asking a very simple question. Where is the Cabinet of Antigua and Barbuda?

The Prime Minister has spoken. He has made his position on sentencing and the judiciary abundantly clear. The Bar Association has responded. Regional judicial leaders have responded. Lawyers, commentators, members of the public and organisations across the Caribbean have entered the discussion.

But where are the Prime Minister’s Cabinet colleagues? Their silence is becoming far too familiar.
This is not the first major national issue on which members of Cabinet have seemingly gone missing when the discussion becomes difficult or politically uncomfortable.

From time to time, and in my view far too often, major issues arise that affect the governance, reputation and future direction of this country, and ministers who collectively govern Antigua and Barbuda suddenly have nothing to say.

So the question must now be asked plainly: Are they cowards?
Are they afraid to publicly state a position that may differ from that of the Prime Minister?
Or do they agree with him completely but prefer to remain silent while he alone takes the criticism?
Which is it?

Because Cabinet government cannot mean enjoying collective authority when things are going well and disappearing when difficult questions have to be answered.

The Constitution speaks about collective responsibility. Collective responsibility cannot mean collective silence.
If Cabinet supports the Prime Minister’s position concerning the judiciary, then say so.

If ministers believe he went too far, then they should have the courage to say that too.
But this constant political disappearing act whenever a serious controversy arises cannot be healthy for our democracy.

And nowhere is the silence more glaring than with the Attorney General.
The Attorney General is not simply another Cabinet minister. He is the principal legal adviser to the Government of Antigua and Barbuda.

The country has just witnessed an extraordinary public dispute involving the Prime Minister, a member of the judiciary, the Antigua and Barbuda Bar Association and senior judicial figures from across the Caribbean.

And yet the public is still left wondering: What is the Attorney General’s position?

Does he believe the Prime Minister was legally and constitutionally correct?
Does he support the suggestion that a judicial officer could face deportation or persona-non-grata treatment because of dissatisfaction with sentencing?

Did he advise against it?

Does he disagree with it?

Or does he simply have nothing to say?

No one is asking the Attorney General to reveal confidential legal advice given to Cabinet.

But surely the principal legal adviser to the Government can tell the country where the Government stands on a constitutional controversy of this magnitude.

The same applies to every member of Cabinet.

You cannot sit around a Cabinet table, participate in the government of this country, exercise enormous authority over the lives of its citizens, and then conveniently become invisible whenever the political temperature rises.

Leadership requires more than holding office.

It requires having a voice.

It requires having a position.

And sometimes it requires having the courage to disagree.

So I ask again:
Where is the Cabinet?

Do they support the Prime Minister?

Do they disagree with him?

Are they afraid to speak?

Or have we reached a stage where Cabinet ministers no longer believe the people of Antigua and Barbuda are entitled to know what they think about the major issues confronting their country?

The Prime Minister has never been shy about telling us where he stands.

Why are the people around his Cabinet table so often unwilling to do the same?

At some point, silence stops being neutrality.

It becomes a statement in itself.

Concerned Antiguan