Calling for British Heads to Roll in TCI - Turks and Caicos

Written by: Anthony L. Hall on August 10, 2009 http://www.theipinionsjournal.com/

I received a surprising number of e-mails over the weekend from people accusing me, among other things, of being a “British stooge [for] giving Governor Tauwhare and other British officials a pass while calling for our Premier and his government ministers to be prosecuted.”

Evidently they derived fodder for their accusations from two commentaries that were published on Friday: one under the nom de plume “The Torch“ at The TCI Journal and the other by former international reporter Candy Herwin at Turks and Caicos Net News.

For example, The Torch accused Chief Justice Gordon Ward and Governor Gordon Wetherell of engaging in a conspiracy to pervert the course of justice for the purportedly coveted FCO perk of a “Harrods account”; while Ms Herwin argued that former Governor Richard Tauwhare was just as responsible as former Premier Michael Misick for the high crimes and misdemeanors documented in the Final Report of the Commission of Inquiry into Governmental Corruption in the TCI.

Before I proceed, however, I feel obliged to clarify that I’m on record declaring my disregard for any commentary published under a pseudonym; especially if that commentary is rife with insulting, incendiary and/or defamatory accusations.

Indeed, with people like Shaun Malcolm, Richard Berke and my siblings living for years under clear and present danger of reprisals, I have never been impressed by those who throw firebombs into our public debate from behind the shield of anonymity.

This is why, with all due respect to those he/she incites, I do not think The Torch’s contributions are worthy of any further comment.

Alternatively, I appreciate Ms Herwin’s commentaries. And, despite our disagreements, I’ve always respected and admired her advocacy.

In fact, I agree with much of what she proffered in the commentary at issue about Tauwhare. For here’s what I wrote about his responsibility in a column almost two years ago:

I have focused exclusively on the Premier’s dereliction of duties because I believe that we are, in fact, not only “mature” enough to take responsibility for the mess he’s gotten us into, but also intelligent enough to figure out how to clean it up.

But it would be tantamount to ignoring the big white elephant in the room if I did not acknowledge HE Governor Richard Tauwhare’s dereliction of duties that have contributed to our national woes. After all, it would have required his complicity or tacit approval for the Premier to commit many of these alleged political and fiduciary crimes.

[Alas, throwing Premier Misick overboard is necessary to save the TCI, TIJ, October 5, 2007]

And here’s what I wrote about the responsibility of the British in general over a year ago:

I’ve been criticizing the UK government almost as much as I’ve been criticizing the TCI government for the mismanagement and corruption that have undermined the benefits of investing in our country. In fact, the British must accept contingent liability for all of the foreseeable losses (in tourism receipts and foreign investments) that stem from their failure to ensure good governance in the TCI…

Premier Misick implicates the British government in his misdeeds every time he blithely asserts that there’s no corruption in the TCI because the British governor [Tauwhare] signed off on everything…

It behooves the British to appreciate that investigating all allegations of corruption against this TCI government, in a transparent manner, is not only in our national interest but in theirs as well.

[Britain has a legal (or superior) responsibility to fix the TCI, TIJ, June 19, 2008]

Where I differ from Ms Herwin and others is that I see no point in waxing indignant about the salutary neglect of the British at this point — when we’re relying on them to hold our leaders accountable for their alleged theft and to clean up their mess.

More to the point, it smacks of moral relativism (ad absurdum) to assert that Tauwhare should be standing in the same “firing line” as Misick. After all, there’s not one scintilla of evidence to suggest that Tauwhare (or any British official) ever took a bribe or embezzled a single penny of public funds.

By contrast, there’s overwhelming evidence to suggest that Misick and his ministers took millions in bribes and embezzled millions more from public funds - in a carnival of corruption that makes African kleptomaniacs seem like choir boys.

And the evidence clearly shows that they used every canard, including anti-colonial diatribes and the race card, to prevail upon a weak and out-of-his-depth Governor Tauwhare to sign off on all of their schemes.

[The Final Report of the Commission of Inquiry] makes it plain for all to see why the British government, which retains responsibility for good governance in the TCI, had no choice but to take this extraordinary step.

First and foremost, this intervention means that the British have committed to do for us what we simply could not do for ourselves; namely, to save the TCI from a state of dysfunction, destitution and dictatorship the likes of which the Commonwealth has never seen … except in Zimbabwe.

[Britain suspends TCI Constitution ... again, TIJ, March 17, 2009]

But, frankly, I fear that Ms Herwin fatally compromised her commentary, if not her reputation, by parroting Misick’s oxymoronic reasoning that we have more to lose from the British Inquiry into corruption in the TCI than from his alleged criminal enterprise masquerading as our government.

Not to mention her unwitting folly of complaining, not about what a British official said about imposing taxes upon us to compensate for the documented misdeeds of Misick and his cohorts, but about the way he said it…. We TCIslanders are not that thin-skinned Ms Herwin!

Meanwhile, to be hurling insults at and casting blame on our current governor, HE Gordon Wetherell, in this context, is so patently ignorant that I won’t even dignify this mischief with a comment.

My fellow TCIslanders, please, let us get a proper perspective on this national crisis, and stay focused on what needs to be done to repair the damage done to our country!

Governor of Turks and Caicos apologizes to land developers for being named in Michael Misick corruption report

August 1, 2009 published BY CMC
Originally published: July 23, 2009 02:11:00 PM
http://www.suntci.com/index.php?p=story&id=264

PROVIDENCIALES, Turks and Caicos Islands, CMC - Shrinking revenues have forced the government of this British Overseas Territory to terminate the services of political appointees, Premier Galmore Williams has announced.

Williams said Thursday that the decision taken on the advice of the Ministry of Finance will result in the discontinuation of the services of all political appointees, effective September 30, 2009.He said the move has become necessary to “better enable government to work within the constraints of its ever shrinking revenue intake which has gone from an average of approximately USD$18 million per month last year to approximately some USD$9 million per month this year”.Williams said regrets having to take such action, having wrestled long and hard with the issue. However, he expected the move to provide the government with room to implement measures to stimulate the economy, which has been slowing in recent months.“Coupled with the other measures that we have put in place and others yet to be implemented, this course of action will assure us of the opportunity to turn around our economy in the quickest possible time, while lessening the impact that the current worldwide recession will otherwise have on our wider community,” he said.The Premier also said efforts were being made to ensure that as many of the affected individuals as possible are given other job opportunities before the end of September.The Turks and Caicos government faces an uncertain future, with the British government preparing to suspend the territory’s constitution and implement direct rule after a Commission of Inquiry probing widespread allegations of corruption under the watch of former Premier Michael Misick said it had found "clear signs of political amorality and immaturity and of general administrative incompetence".


http://www.suntci.com/index.php?p=story&id=264

UK's direct rule over Turks and Caicos?

BY Trudy Simpson "Is Colonialism Really Dead?"

Trudy Simpson asks whether Britain’s plan to restore direct rule over Turks and Caicos Islands amounts to ‘modern-day colonialism’ THE TURKS and Caicos Islands (TCI) face losing the right to govern key areas if Britain goes ahead with its plan to suspend the Caribbean territory’s constitution and take direct control of day-to-day government operations.

UK government ministers, Foreign Office officials and the TCI’s governor are now considering the final report of a UK-led Commission of Inquiry, which found a high probability of ‘systemic corruption’ and misuse of public funds in the British dependency.

But current TCI Premier Galmo Williams, and his predecessor, Michael Misick, have accused Britain of exerting ‘the strong arm of modern-day colonialism.’

Galmo has been fighting against the takeover, taking a last ditch appeal to the UK’s High Court. The UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has rejected the colonialism accusations. ‘This would not be a shift to indefinite direct rule (but) would be an act of constitutional significance in order to restore the principles of good governance.

‘It would be for an interim period which would last no longer than it takes for the necessary reforms to be implemented, and to take effect,” the FCO told The Voice. It added: ‘The Governor would consult with Turks and Caicos Islanders throughout this period, including through the bodies which would be put in place to replace the Cabinet and House of Assembly, ie the Consultative Forum and the Advisory Council. ‘The Forum is intended to ensure that the voice of the people will continue to be heard.’ But in the minds of some, thoughts of colonialism may still linger, harking back to the decades when Caribbean territories lived under the colonial yoke of the British Empire.

Under colonialism, Caribbeans were dependent on and had no say in critical decisions which impacted on their daily lives. These were decided by foreigners in London. After the 1950s, many Caribbean countries opted for independence, but territories such as the Turks and Caicos, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands and several Dutch and French-speaking Caribbean countries were forced or opted to remain overseas dependent territories.

That direct dependency has had harsh consequences for some. For example, in the 1960s, Britain evicted the inhabitants of its dependent territory, Diego Garcia, so Britain could honour a deal with the Americans to build a military base on the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean. In 2001, 35 years later, the people and their descendants, trapped in poverty in Mauritian slums, took the UK to court to try to go back to their homeland. While the UK’s treatment of its dependencies has changed a lot since then, the TCI’s case – the second time the UK has intervened in the country’s operations since the mid-1980s – does bring up the question of whether Britain’s action is a form of modern-day colonialism.

Dr Peter Clegg, a senior lecturer in politics at West of England University, told The Voice that although colonialism is not dead, Britain’s actions regarding the TCI should not be confused with modern colonialism. “I can understand the argument that this is neo-colonialism or a new form of colonialism, but the issues are so fundamental to the island that the British government did not have much choice but to react in the way they are doing,” Clegg said.

The Foreign Office also dismissed claims that it is hypocritical to intervene in the TCI when many of the UK’s MPs have also been caught misspending taxpayer money. It said: ‘The expenses crisis in no way affects the UK's strong stance internationally on the importance of democratic politics, accountable government and anti-corruption. What you see in the UK is a political system that has recognised that something is wrong, and is working to deal with it.’ Clegg agreed, adding: “I think the TCI accusations are so serious and so fundamental to the operation of the islands and the government that an external power, in this case the UK, has to step in to deal with the underlying issues.”

Clegg, who is part of a Caribbean Politics Specialist Group, said Britain’s overall control, enshrined in the TCI’s constitution, is rarely used. “It’s their right to do it but this use of British power is very rare and they do this very reluctantly. The UK has a legal and financial responsibility for the territories, and an obligation to ensure that operations run properly in its dependent territories.” Patrick Bryan, Professor of history at the University of the West Indies (UWI) in Kingston, Jamaica, said the TCI agreed to this by remaining a ‘colony’ of Britain. “If they are a colony of Britain, how can they decide that Britain isn’t going to do this to them? It seems to me that the people in the Turks and Caicos cannot behave independently and still be a colony. They are not independent. Colonialism never died in the Turks and Caicos and this is one of the consequences of it,” he told The Voice. Clegg explained that the TCI – which has a small and close-knit population of 32,000 – need outside intervention because any reforms undertaken by the government, with its lack of proper division between the executive and the legislature, could be later questioned. He added that the UK faces difficulty because the nature of governance between the UK and its territories is “not very clear cut in reality.”

Clegg said this was illustrated recently when the UK chided Bermuda for not consulting Britain over the island’s acceptance of four former Guantanamo Bay prisoners. Bermuda, which controls immigration, accepted the former terror suspects on those grounds. But the UK said it should have been consulted because this was also a matter of security, which the UK controls. “…You have a clash and some uncertainty as to where the lines of power and authority rests,” Clegg explained. Both Bryan and Clegg said colonialism is still alive in the modern Caribbean. Bryan said this colonialism spreads beyond the existence of dependent territories like the TCI to encompass forms of neo-colonialism, where trade and other agreements with industrialised countries and former colonial masters keep sovereign Caribbean countries such as Jamaica as dependent as they were pre-1960s.

“Our economies are as dependent on the industrialised world as they have been under colonialism. It’s simply a continuation of the old economic controls,” Bryan said. Both men said that the only way forward in the fight against neo-colonialism is regional integration, which faces major obstacles.

“There would need to be far more cooperation and dialogue so that we don’t always find ourselves subject to the divide and rule pattern that we have seen all these years. If each nation or each group of nations seek a solution in its own right, there won’t be a solution in the long term,” Bryan said. Direct link to the original story: http://www.voice-online.co.uk/content.php?show=15790