Present and prospective investors in Antigua and Barbuda must be cringing and having second thoughts after the decision of the Gaston Browne Government to rescind the solemn agreement between Sandals, its largest investor and the previous Baldwin Spencer Government.

The story in yesterday’s

Jamaica Observer newspaper under the headline ‘Sandals responds to defamatory allegations by Antiguan PM’, comes as no surprise to me, or other readers who have been watching the anti-Jamaican trend among certain Caribbean countries.

In fact, similar anti-Jamaican, anti-Sandals actions in the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) are still fresh in our minds. The Antigua and Barbuda Government is only the latest to attack Sandals, but it is worse than the TCI. Because it has reneged on their Host Country Agreement, sends a dangerous signal to investors on a whole that any agreement signed an Antiguan Government is not worth the paper on which it is written.

Even the blind can see the deep impact that Sandals has had on the economic and social development of Antigua since it started operations there in 1992, but that has not stopped the prime minister or his Government from maligning the resort chain, without providing any justification for its action.

No one can convince me that it is not jealousy that is feeding this attack on Sandals. We Jamaicans are not liked by our Caribbean neighbours. I reject the view that it is because of our behaviour in the main. It is a Jamaican vendetta. They envy us because we are the best, as recognised by the rest of the world.

Butch Stewart has been nothing but beneficial to Antigua being the biggest private sector earner of foreign exchange, the biggest taxpayer, the biggest employer outside of Government, and the most supportive corporate citizen. Still, with all he and Sandals have done, they can’t accept him because he is Jamaican.

The open attack by a prime minister on the biggest private sector contributor to the economy of the country is unprecedented. Prime Minister Browne misled his countrymen that Sandals is not paying any taxes. He presented no supporting evidence, apparently because there is none. Sandals is well known in Antigua and the rest of the Caribbean as being the most prompt taxpayer and has never been accused of being delinquent.

We have a problem in the Caribbean. It is always easier to treat outsiders better than our own. One would have thought that as members of the Caribbean Community (Caricom) we would have the protection of a family of governments. No such luck. This is further proof that Caricom means little or nothing to the region.

Sandals Antigua is the flagship hotel of the country. It is the beacon by which Antigua is known globally. The internationally recognised brand has brought millions of tourists from across the world to these tiny islands of the Caribbean. What more can they want of Mr Stewart?

The question must also be asked: What have Jamaicans done to deserve this treatment in various Caribbean islands? Jamaicans have been the greatest example of the spirit of Caribbean entrepreneurism, as exemplified by the Sandals brand which has transformed the economy of all the islands in which it operates.

If the Gaston Browne Administration can do this to Sandals, imagine what it will do to lesser investors.