Although Bush’s replacement took place on 19 Dec, after a vote of no confidence that day by the Cayman Islands Legislative Assembly, the news received almost no coverage outside of the Cayman Islands, with no major UK newspapers or media organisations having reported it. The New York Times ran a brief story on its website on 19 Dec, and Bush’s Wikipedia page also mentions it.
In a statement on the Cayman Government’s website on 19 Dec, Cayman Islands governor Duncan Taylor said that rather than dissolving the Assembly, as he said Bush had suggested he do, he had decided to "revoke the appointment of the premier", and after consulting with a majority of Assembly members from the United Democratic Party, of which Bush is a member, decided to appoint O’Connor-Connolly in Bush’s place.
The week prior to his replacement, Bush had been arrested “in connection with a number of on-going police investigations”, according to official sources in the British Overseas territory, but since that time has never been formally charged, a fact which some Cayman sources say is regarded by many islanders as unusual.
As reported, according to a statement on the Royal Cayman Islands Police Force website in December, the charges against Bush involved the possible misuse of a Government credit card, possible breaches of “trust, abuse of office and conflict of interest”, in violation of anti-corruption laws, and the alleged importation of explosive materials without the appropriate licence.
Bush, who took office in May 2009, was arrested at his home around 7am on 11 Dec, and “placed on overnight police bail” following a series of interviews, the RCIPF statement added.
Because he has not been charged, Bush has never been given a detailed list of the allegations against him to formally comment on or deny.
Political intrigue
Sources in the Caymans say the news of Bush’s replacement may have been played down because the politics of the situation are unusual and opaque. Even though the election is less than five months away, it is not yet known whether Bush intends to run for a seat in the Legislative Assembly, nor has everyone else who may decide to run declared their intentions, sources say, although it is thought that Bush is planning to. Today is a public holiday in the Cayman Islands, making it difficult to reach those who would be best-placed to comment.
Anthony Travers, who has held a number of senior positions in the Cayman Islands legal and business community over the years, and who recently ended a six-year hiatus from law by becoming a senior partner of a firm there now known as TraversThorp Alberga, declined to comment on the details of the situation, but suggested that observers might “draw their own conclusions” from the facts as they are known.
Jack Irvine, a London-based public affairs and crisis management expert whose clients have included Cayman Finance and other Caymanian entities, said that tensions widely believed to exist in the relationship between Bush and the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office – as well as between the former premier and the island’s governor, Duncan Taylor – may be fuelling an impression among outsiders that the Cayman Islands’ politics have become complicated and difficult to understand.
But he stressed that political squabbles are nothing new in George Town, and thus the financial sector was unlikely to be affected by them – at least for now.
“The financial community will get on with its work in its customary highly professional and efficient manner,” he noted.
He noted, however, that the Cayman Islands government "should never take its [the financial community’s] presence for granted.”
A spokesman for Cayman Finance, which represents the Cayman Islands financial services industry, called attention to a statement issued by the organisation’s chairman Richard Coles, after Bush stepped aside last month, in which he noted that the industry "operates independently of the political arm of the legislature, and [thus] any potential criminal charges against an individual do not impact the ongoing effective functioning of the government or the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority".
Coles added that it was "only appropriate that Mr Bush step aside while these allegations are being investigated and resolved", and concluded: "The strength of Cayman’s law enforcement and anti-corruption systems and its intolerance for any unethical behaviour, regardless of the individual concerned, is what sets our jurisdiction apart from others and makes us a preferred country with which to do business.
"We hope these investigations are concluded swiftly."
Trailblazer
O’Connor-Connolly, now one month into her tenure as the Cayman Islands’ first woman premier, was also the territory’s first woman minister, after being selected in 1997 to fill a vacancy on the government’s Executive Council as the Minister of Community Affairs, Sports, Women, Youth and Culture.
Born and raised on Cayman Brac, one of the two smaller of the three main Cayman islands, she first pursued a career in teaching, but later received a law degree from the University of Liverpool and was a practicing attorney before entering politics, according to her biography on the Cayman Islands’ government website.
