History was made early last Sunday morning when Filipino boxing super star Manny Pacquiao was knocked down and knocked out of a boxing bout with Mexican Manuel Marquez.
In a post-fight interview, Freddy Roach, the world?s most sought after boxing trainer, who is also Pacquiao?s coach, said that if there was anyone to blame for Pacquiao?s defeat it would be ?Mr Roach?. But this quickly turned out not to be the case.
?Yes, Pacman has been confident lately and has been speaking for himself more. He was overconfident that he walked into a straight right,? he said.
This week, Premier McKeeva Bush may have also walked into a straight right. Arrested on Tuesday in an unprecedented move for a leader of the Cayman Islands, he was questioned by the RCIPS for two days and is in fact, now on police bail until February next year.
It seems that along with the premier, the governor or the police commissioner may have also walked into a straight right. Although the police have quoted the law to show grounds for arresting the premier, the police seem to have gone against their own policy of not identifying anyone arrested until they were arraigned in a court of law, though the current case may be understandable noting that they are dealing with the premier of the Cayman Islands.
So when does the scenario change? Is it when you are arresting McKeeva the Premier, the MLA or the Caymanian who is a husband and a father? And with the announcement of his arrest, can the investigation be termed robust, fair and comprehensive?
Whereas a crime is always a crime regardless of who commits it, there should be a common standard in how arrests are handled.
So would we be wrong in saying that there are two sets of procedures used by the RCIPS, one in which common criminals are not named and another where government officials are named even before they are charged? This is the third time that the RCIPS appears to have said one thing in terms of its policy and acted in a manner contrary to the same; they did it in the case of one Dwayne Seymour, the Minister of Education Rolston Anglin and now the Premier.
In arresting the most highly placed person in a country, one would think that the police would have clear and incontrovertible grounds on which to proceed to charge the individual, particularly as in this case, we have known that the premier was under three investigations for some time now.
As for Mr Bush it was clear that he had been having a love-hate relationship with the governor and tensions with the FCO, on substantive governance issues, even with the police investigations hanging over his head. Knowing the capacity of the powers he has been up against, did he allow himself to walk into a straight right?
The police must quickly and effectively bring this matter to its next logical conclusion; otherwise they may well find themselves up against a backlash from Caymanians and UK conspiracy theorists.
Students of Cayman?s political history may recall the impasse between Ormond Panton and Commissioner Jack Rose in the 1960s. In 1963 Jack Rose, the then commissioner (the present day status of governor) appointed someone else to lead the government in spite of the fact that Ormond Panton?s party had won. In this case in 1963 Ormond Panton, who was known for his strident nationalism, walked into a straight right with a commissioner who was diametrically opposed to his position.
Then in more recent history, the PPM wanted Governor Stuart Jack censured over the fiasco of Operations Tempura and Cealt. Surprisingly, the UDP regime defended the outgoing governor against censure in 2009.
Today, the UDP might want to censure the current governor but with PPM looking forward to taking power in a few short months, one may conclude that Mr Taylor will not walk into that straight right!
