“That I believe is a remarkable inventory of success over the course of two terms and prior to her being appointed to minister she had no legislative experience … She has done a remarkable job as minister and the country will miss her contribution.”
Premier Alden McLaughlin
(CMR) Tara Rivers held a press conference this afternoon to confirm that she will not be seeking re-election in the April 2021 general election leaving many to wonder why that was even necessary. This appears to be the first time in Cayman history that a press conference was called by an incumbent not seeking re-election.
CMR shared over a week ago that Rivers was retiring from public office after securing a sweetheart deal with a local law firm for future employment. At the time Rivers did not respond to direct questions sent to her from Cayman Marl Road.
The conference appeared to be hastily organized as local media received notification via email this morning shortly after 9:00 a.m. During the press conference, Alden McLaughlin did the majority of talking and praised Rivers claiming that she did a brilliant job as a politician for West Bay South as he listed out a long list of her political accomplishments.
She made very few comments and then said she wanted her constituents to get the message “live and direct.”
Rivers refused to answer any questions about her professional future. The question of whether or not she had been offered the top job in the UK that has now been made vacant by Ande Ebanks who will be running for her vacated seat.
Refusing to answer the question she said she did not want to “engage in speculation”. However, McLaughlin interjected and answered the question for her stating that he can categorically say that she was not being offered that job.
She also refused to acknowledge any other job opportunities sharing:
“There are lots of opportunities … first thing on my agenda is to get some rest”
When asked directly about working for Walkers law firm she noted “there are many options as I’m highly qualified.”
Rivers also refused to acknowledge any real reasons for her decision except that she didn’t intend to stay in politics the rest of her life and did not want to “become a career politician”.
Rivers refused to acknowledge that she was endorsing anyone and simply replied “stay tuned” to that question.
When pressed about the McKeeva Bush issues she said that
“there’s one thing I learned in this life of politics is that there are times you speak your truth and there are times when your truth should speak for itself.”
She then went onto say she does not condone violence against women in any form and that is her truth.
However, refusing to address the McKeeva Bush situation directly claiming that is it a moot point because parliament has been dissolved she was pressed even further how she would have footed but refused to answer the question. Instead, Alden jumped in to respond on her behalf stating that McKeeva Bush was no longer speaker because he called an early election.