Sir Alden is new House Speaker

Former Premier Sir Alden Mclaughlin has been sworn in as the Speaker of the Parliament. In his acceptance speech, he said he came into this position after a time of “unprecedented political turmoil,” when an observer might think there had been a game of high stakes musical chairs taking place, when it came to the movement of MPs to and from political parties. The music, he said, had stopped again, with Cayman’s new Premier, new Ministers, repackaged Ministers, a rebranded Government and a new Speaker.

“My fervent prayer, and that I believe of most of the people of this country, is that that music will not be heard again until the next general elections which are constitutionally due by May 2025,” he said.

Sir Alden said it was time for a reset, to again give the country mature and stable government.

“In the last general elections voters “tried a ting” and elected an unprecedented number of independents and those independents themselves “tried a ting”,” he said. Now, the government has been rebranded as the UPM, with which he hoped unity would come.

He spoke about democracy being a “messy business,” and that it did not always deliver the results that voters thought they had voted for and that was increasingly the case in not only the rise in independents but also in the rise in small parties that force a coalition government all over the world.

“There are still many in this country that believe that party politics is a bad thing. Whether you call it a group, team, a movement, or a party, governing effectively requires a set of people who have coalesced around a broad set of policies and principles and agree collectively to pursue them,” he said. “That is the only way government can be held to account by voters.”

Voting for an individual who is not associated with the team that has articulated their position on a wide range of issues affecting the country really is like buying a number, he furthered.

“You might win and get what you want but most of the time you lose your money.”

Sir Alden urged the members of government to put behind them the events of the past two and a half years and work assiduously and peacefully to achieve as many of the goals they had set before the next election cycle rolled around. He had words of warning for newcomers to the scene:

“For those who are first timers here I should tell you, you have one year before the silly season begins in earnest,” he said.

Sir Alden said on his new role of Speaker, that he was honoured to become only the ninth Speaker of this Parliament and its predecessor, the Legislative Assembly.

Underscoring his clear vision of his new role, he said, “The Speaker belongs with the Parliament. The Speaker’s allegiance is to the Parliament. The Speaker’s role requires him or her to be objective and unbiased in presiding over Parliament. I commend the Honourable Premier for having the confidence and courage to ask me, a founding member and former leader of the Progressives and the current chairman of that beloved party to sit as Speaker, but I am certain that she has done so because she knows me and knows that I am deeply conscious of preserving both the independence and integrity of the office.”

“I promise I will conduct the affairs of this high office without fear or favour without regard for political affiliation,” he stated.

He spoke of his assurance that he had not left the Party; instead, he had assumed the independent role as Speaker for the same reason he first entered politics: for the love of country.

first loyalty always has been and always will be my country and my beloved people,” he confirmed.

Photos by Parliament of the Cayman Islands