Questions for Anthony Hylton

By Rev Devon Dick

In the June 2 edition of The Sunday Gleaner, Anthony Hylton, minister of industry, investment and commerce, admitted that he owed US$120,000 to Metry Seaga, deputy president of the Jamaica Manufacturers' Association (JMA). He said he intended to pay by "next week", meaning around June 9. It is now June 20 and we need answers as to whether he has honoured his obligations and why it took so long.

If Hylton was in a business and it went sour and a debt is outstanding, that is a different matter and we could understand his plight. Business is risky and, with good intentions and practice, a business can go belly up because of a downturn in the market or bad government policies or unscrupulous partners. However, Hylton's debts seem to be akin to rent owed for living in a place for three years while awaiting the vendor's mortgage. A father should pay rent or mortgage first to save the family from embarrassment.

If he has not paid it, he has to answer the question of whether he is bankrupt, which is why he has not settled the debt. If he is not bankrupt and did not pay for six years, then the question is, why six years? Seaga claims Hylton failed repeatedly to honour agreements. This is an issue of integrity, of honouring agreements. Why did he not even pay $100,000 per month since he left the house? Whether he was going to sell another property or sell a car or cow or goat to settle the debt is irrelevant to the creditor. If the other property took another four years to be resolved, would Seaga not get paid for 10 years? There needs to be a better explanation from Hylton, a noted attorney-at-law.

Hylton knows he cannot be an MP for Western St Andrew if he is bankrupt. And if he had the money and did not pay, then he needs to reassess his position as Cabinet minister. When he makes decisions which affect Seaga or the JMA, it will either appear harsh, as people will say it is because Seaga has filed a lawsuit against him, or it will appear that he is soft on Seaga and the JMA because he has to be appeasing Seaga. It is best that Hylton be reassigned to another ministry.

INTEGRITY UNDERMINED

Hylton has to say also whether he told the People's National Party's Integrity Commission about this debt. The Integrity Commission was established to determine whether candidates were fit and proper persons for the 2011 general election. If Hylton did not inform the commission about this debt of US$120,000, then, as an officer of the party, he would be undermining the integrity of the PNP's commission and he would have no alternative but to resign as deputy chairman. If Hylton informed the commission and the commissioners did not see that a four-year debt of this magnitude was significant, then the members of the commission have some explaining to do.

Did Hylton tell his fellow Cabinet ministers that he owed a debt he could not pay? And did he give them the reasons? Perhaps he could have borrowed a million dollars from 12 Cabinet ministers and paid off the debt!

This lawsuit brought by Seaga further complicates matters because Hylton faces a charge of breaching the Parliament (Integrity Members) Act. He is before the court, having been accused of failing to submit information on his assets to the Integrity Commission for the year 2010. Did he declare to the Parliamentary Integrity Commission in 2010 that he owed US$120, 000?

And will he declare his assets to show that he really could not have paid this debt over the last six years?

We need answers from Hylton.

Rev Devon Dick, PhD, is pastor of the Boulevard Baptist Church in St Andrew. Send comments to columns@gleanerjm.com.