GEORGE TOWN, Grand Cayman (CNS) -- Falling short of denying or admitting his part in the election petition against Tara Rivers, Opposition Leader McKeeva Bush took aim at Gordon Hewitt, his wife Velma Hewitt, who is a former member of the UDP, and their lawyers on his Facebook page Thursday without ever mentioning anyone’s name.
He did, however, single out Cayman News Service and its commenters when he described this online news source as a place that exists to “denigrate and allow those who hate with a passion to spill out their venom without identifying who they are”, as he deflected the allegations made against him.
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One such issue that is currently ongoing is the bankruptcy of Hewitt as a result of a more than $200,000 cost award against him won by the education minister, Tara Rivers after she successfully withstood the election challenge and subsequent appeal over her qualifications to be elected. Gordon Hewitt has claimed in sworn court documents that not only did Bush instigate the challenge but assured him that his party, the UDP, and Renard Moxam, a former member, would be footing the bill.
But Bush, who has just returned from London, where he represented Cayman at a Commonwealth Parliamentary Association conference, vented his anger at the situation on his own Facebook page today, after ignoring requests for comment from CNS regarding the recent news coverage of allegations by the Hewitts in court.
The opposition leader does not admit that he played any part but takes offence that people are blaming him for not helping. Under a Facebook post entitled, “JUST SAYING!”, Bush said that when any colleague “past or present or their consorts or those who have tried to unseat me as an elected official and fail, write outright lies, trying to make me look like the worst, I most times, as I do now, only say that their hate their jealousy their prejudices their outright meanness will just get the better of them”.
The UDP (a.k.a. CDP) leader said that when “they do something they should stand up and take the blame or the credit”, adding that “they wanted it they tried it they went through the processes to do it. They would have counted the fallout if any !! And if they had gotten what they wanted then all would have been good and dandy!!”
Without mentioning the individuals or the case he was speaking about, he said that the people involved were now trying to blame him because “he is a good target to always blame and accuse”, as he spoke about himself in the third person.
The opposition leader also had a dig at the lawyers, saying that in “a legal and constitutional matter they would have gone to and discussed” matters with the lawyer and taken his advice. But Bush asks, “And if the lawyer is a poor lawyer? Well then?”
He then declared that by the time the truth is published, he would have “gotten some damage”, as he accused people of doing evil. “I must say that when I do good and the person receiving that, but didn’t get all they wanted or still want, and as a lawyer or politician (whatever they are trying to be at the time) is so desperate they know I know, as the good people in the country knows, they will self-destruct,” the opposition leader stated cryptically.
Bush has not commented directly on the challenge or his role in it.
According to the documents filed in the bankruptcy case, the Hewitts and local attorney Steve McField claim that Bush had first raised the idea of a challenge with Velma Hewitt, who ran on the UDP ticket and came in fifth. She told the party leader she did not want to make the challenge because it would make her look like a bad loser but she said she would discuss the issues with her husband.
In further meetings with the Hewitts and members of the UDP hierarchy, the Hewitts and McField, who was the instructed attorney on the case, all claim that Bush was leading the charge, persuading Gordon Hewitt to press ahead on the basis that Renard Moxam would pay. Bush’s involvement is underscored by the Hewitts’ and McField’s claims of more meetings and dinners with the opposition leader, who they insist took the lead on the whole idea to challenge Rivers’ election.