Observer Replies to Government’s response to our White Paper Editorial

The late Winston Derrick, one of Antigua and Barbuda’s most respected broadcasters, once dismissed a persistent nuisance caller to his legendary Voice of the People programme with a line that has endured through the years, “Never mess with a man who buys ink by the barrel.”

It is a remarkable coincidence that the nuisance caller on that occasion was Maurice Merchant, the very man whose name now appears beneath the government’s response to Observer Media’s concerns over its White Paper on third-country nationals.

Mr. Merchant would do well to remember Winston Derrick’s advice. A government that abandons facts in favour of political spin and chooses to attack the messenger instead of answering legitimate questions should never underestimate the resolve of those whose business is to pursue the truth.

There is something profoundly insulting about the government’s latest response to Observer Media, not simply because it attempts to dismiss legitimate national concerns but because it once again reveals an administration that seems convinced the people of Antigua and Barbuda are incapable of independent thought and can be manipulated with carefully crafted political deception masquerading as intellectual argument.

The government is unable to defend the obvious contradictions now exposed before the nation. It cannot explain why the public was deliberately left in the dark for months. Nor can it reconcile the widening gap between what was being said publicly and what was quietly happening behind closed diplomatic doors. So it has resorted to its oldest and most predictable weapon, attacking the messenger and hoping blind political loyalty drowns out reason.

As per usual, they accused Observer of partisanship. That’s how you know our first response struck exactly where it was intended to strike.

Let’s not mince words. Political affiliation isn’t the point here. This has nothing to do with UPP or ABLP. And it certainly isn’t about chasing cheap political points. This is about a government that spent months allowing an entire nation to believe Antigua and Barbuda had firmly rejected any arrangement involving third-country deportees, while quietly negotiating an agreement with the United States behind the backs of the very people whose future may ultimately be affected by those decisions.

Now suddenly we learn there was a Memorandum of Understanding signed since December 2025. Negotiations, it turns out, had been ongoing for months. Discussions had already advanced to numbers, legal frameworks, operational conditions and reciprocal arrangements. And after all of that, they want the country to calmly accept this because the agreement was supposedly “non-binding.”

What extraordinary arrogance. The question remains exactly where it has always been. There was supposedly no agreement. The Prime Minister repeatedly projected resistance publicly, and the country was led to believe Antigua and Barbuda had effectively said no. So why was an MOU signed in the first place?

No amount of carefully manufactured language changes the central truth now staring this country directly in the face. The public was not told the truth. Their own response now confirms exactly what Observer warned the country about from the very beginning. Discussions were taking place privately while an entirely different narrative was being sold publicly.

Then comes perhaps the single most astonishing line in their entire statement. The government openly admits the public was not informed because they were engaged in what they describe as sensitive diplomatic exchanges while matters were still unfolding.

Pause there for a moment, because that single sentence unravels their entire defence. It’s a confession, plain and simple. For months, this country was kept deliberately in the dark while negotiations quietly continued behind closed doors. And now, having been caught, they expect the public to applaud, as if secrecy were suddenly a virtue, rebranded overnight as responsible diplomacy.

Sorry, Sir. That is not diplomacy. Just so you know, sovereignty does not belong to ministers sitting comfortably inside Cabinet deciding what citizens are mature enough to know. Sovereignty belongs to the people. Then comes their laughable attempt to argue that Parliament is exactly where this matter belongs because Parliament is the highest representative institution of the nation. That may be technically correct. It is also politically dishonest. Everybody in Antigua and Barbuda knows exactly what happens next. This government controls an overwhelming supermajority. The outcome is already predetermined before debate even begins. Let us ask the question they desperately want to avoid.

When this same government wanted to convince the country about replacing the Privy Council with the Caribbean Court of Justice, they suddenly believed town hall meetings and nationwide consultation were essential. They travelled across the country to make their case. They insisted the people deserved direct engagement. So what changed?

Now, when national security, immigration policy, sovereignty, legal liability, financial obligations, international obligations and public safety are all directly implicated, Parliament alone is suddenly sufficient. Why? Because this government is fully aware the public is deeply uncomfortable. Parliament has become the perfect shield, a place to force through predetermined approval while pretending consultation has taken place.

Then comes another breathtaking contradiction. The government accuses Observer of fearmongering by raising concerns surrounding asylum claims, non-refoulement obligations, statelessness, indefinite legal obligations and long-term liability. Yet buried inside their own White Paper are admissions acknowledging every single one of those exact dangers. Read that carefully. The same dangers they accuse Observer of exaggerating are dangers their own official document now confirms are entirely legitimate.

Apparently, asking questions about dangers the government itself acknowledges now qualifies as partisanship. The absurdity would be laughable if the issue were not so serious.

Perhaps the most dangerous sentence in the entire government response lies hidden behind two deceptively simple words. Reciprocal benefit. That phrase alone should send chills through every citizen paying attention.

The government has now effectively admitted that Antigua and Barbuda is actively negotiating what compensation it should receive in exchange for accepting people another country no longer wishes to keep on its own soil. Naturally, the people deserve answers. What exactly are we receiving in exchange? Financial compensation? Visa concessions? Foreign aid? Debt relief? Political favours? Development funding? What exactly is the government negotiating behind closed doors in exchange for placing this burden on Antigua and Barbuda?

Perhaps the greatest insult of all is this repeated and desperate attempt to portray every legitimate question as partisan hysteria. We know this pattern well. Whenever serious national questions arise, this government follows the same tired script. Attack the critic. Discredit the messenger. Distract the public. Manufacture division. Hope tribal political loyalty triumphs over independent thinking.

Antigua and Barbuda deserves better. Let us say plainly what no amount of White Papers or political spin can now erase. The issue was never diplomacy. It was deception. Secrecy. A government quietly negotiating the transfer of foreign deportees onto Antiguan soil while deliberately letting the people of this country believe no such arrangement existed. And now that those facts have emerged, the government hasn’t met them with accountability, humility, or honesty. But with insult.

They appear convinced the people of Antigua and Barbuda are too intellectually weak to recognize deception when it is standing directly in front of them. They are mistaken. No amount of legal language nor political attack against Observer Media and accusation of partisanship changes the one brutal truth now confronting this nation. For months this country was led to believe one thing. Today the government’s own documents prove something entirely different.

What frightens this government most is that the people are finally beginning to understand exactly how much has been hidden from them all along.

Winston Derrick understood something every government eventually learns. Ink has a longer memory than power. Those who buy it by the barrel intend to use it.