News from the Turks & Caicos
Islands as of
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Commentary: There arose a king in Israel who knew not Joseph
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| Published on Wednesday, August 19, 2009 | Email To Friend Print Version
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By Royal S Robinson
Now that the Order in Council has come into force, there are a number of things that have begun to take place! First, there has been the total disrespect at the highest level in this country, that being – at the House of Assembly. Up to now Gordon Wetherell has not yet shown the courtesy or given the respect to inform the Speaker of Parliament formally, and before he did it, that he was disbanding Parliament. Say what you may about the individual Members, but there should at the very least be some deference made to the institution of the Speaker!
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Royal S. Robinson MBE
is the former Deputy Premier of the Turks and Caiicos Islands and Minister with responsibility for Finance and Health |
That bit of common courtesy was totally far from any thought that that man had. That action brings to the very fore his blatant and total disregard and arrogance. But if he thinks that the people of this country are going to forever roll over and play dead in the face of his shenanigans, then he has a next guess coming to him. Yes, the people might be inherently peaceful and apparently docile, but never take them for granted. Many a man has come a cropper believing that.
With the suspension of the Constitution, you Jane and John Public have no elected representative to assist you in navigating the halls of government to obtain any assistance that is duly yours; however, either you do not have the knowledge of how or the wherewithal to possess it. You would now have to go to Waterloo and bow down to one man that was never elected to represent you or equally important, listen to your plea. Sometimes all you want is a sympathetic ear to listen to your cries, because in the fullness of time, you know that nothing could be done about it, but you have ‘gotten it off your chest!’
There is no more Public Service Commission to be there in any form or fashion to champion the cause of the Public Service and all those persons that work for the government in pensionable positions. You would not be able to bend the ear of any of the Commissioners to your plight. The Complaints’ Commissioner too has ‘gone to hell in a hand basket.’ So all of those who would have had an avenue to address any wrong wreaked on you - member of the government service, or any other member of the public, you do not have any avenue now open to you to have your situation redressed.
Now you in the public service have in the person of Martin Stanley, your autocratic leader! You cannot any longer harass Hugh Fulford for anything as you did in the past, and you would not have access to Martin to bother him. You have now been reduced to “pick a number and I will get back to you!” You are no longer a face and a name with a family history. Even if all your “I’s” are dotted and “T’s” crossed - you still may not have as much chance as a snow ball’s chance in hell to get through!
The right to trial by a jury of your peers is now out the window; you will be tried by a judge alone. Don’t listen to the false platitude of what used to be “Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition” when they wrongly say that this would only apply to cases where persons of the stripe of Michael ‘Iron Mike’ Misick would be tried. That is total hogwash! This is going to be the law of the land for one and all. Lest you do forget, let me remind you of the kangaroo courts of the recent past.
Lloyd Rodney and Courteney Barnett are two lawyers that are still with us and can attest to the series of injustices meted out to them personally as well as to the clients that they represented. It was only after the international legal spotlight was focused on their situation then some semblance of fairness was obtained! There was found to be a total collusion to pervert the course of real justice in this country. So do not for one moment feel that you would be immune from it.
When Colin Roberts, Director of the Overseas Territory was recently here, and said that he had his plan “B” and was assured that “Mike’s” case would go nowhere he was right. When Lord Justice Smith had agreed to an October date to hear the case and went on vacation, look what happened. There was an application by the Secretary of State to hear the case in an expedited manner during the Court’s normal vacation time. So a replacement had to be made for Smith. So lo and behold the one person that had the time to hear the case, was one of the same persons that rejected the first appeal out of hand, Lord Justice Laws. So go figure!
Turks and Caicos Islanders many of you have advocated for and now have in place your knight in shining armour in the person of Mr Wetherell. While I did not condone some of the actions that were exposed owing to the Commission of Inquiry, this does not mean that there was a need to dispense with the duly elected representatives of the people and replace them by one man.
What this means now is that one man can come here in this country, and in less then one year access and determine what is good and best for us. He has no appreciation for the struggles we have been through to reach where we are today, and really and truly, he does not care, because they do not matter to him.
He can now appoint 22 persons in secret and foist them on to us. Of course the system had its flaws, but it is certainly better than one man calling all of the shots! At the very least, the previously elected representative would have gone through the crucible of the election process and have all of their dirty linen exposed to the light of public opinion. Nothing of the sort will obtain by this process.
What must be importantly remembered is that whatever advice the two Wetherell bodies give him; he needs not take that advice. So when the advice is given and not taken - what checks and balances are there to prevent a runaway train from wrecking the system? As US President Obama likes to say, the United States, after two hundred years of taking their independence by force of arms from England, are still striving for ‘a more perfect union’.
What this means is that there is the ideal, but also the practical. Our Elections Ordinance was in need of an overhaul and in the last session of the House of Assembly, that Private Member’s Bill was intended to do just that! Most of the requisite institutions that would allow us to keep on the path of nation building are in place, and those that were not, were being addressed. But by the coming into force of the suspension of our Constitution, a number of them are now being dispensed with as if they have had no relevance whatsoever. Under this regime, there would be no more “vox populi, vox dae”, the voice of the people being the voice of God. Check it out; all of the institutions for redress in whatever form or fashion have been dispensed with.
Who is the Governor trying to fool? When you have removed the duly elected representatives of the people, other than that by way of an election, you have succeeded in taking over the reins of government by a coup. I do not see any Indians or Russians trying to run the government. It is the British and they must now take full responsibility for their actions. They cannot try to camouflage their actions and dress them up nicely in semantics! It is what it is and you cannot hide from what you have done!
There seems to be a total disregard for the rank and file of the Turks and Caicos people by some of these so called experts who have done nothing more than push pencil from a cubbyhole! That arrogance is going to bite a number of you who have come with the preconceived notion that all Turks and Caicos Islanders who have made it to the top, did so by corrupt means. If your circumstances allowed many of you (The British), to only be able to live in a flat for the rest of your lives, well - then that’s your problem!
Many of us have risen from the positions of living in thatch houses with our parents, to being able to live in lavish housing. I was fortunate enough that when I was born, all of my grandparents lived in “zinc-roofed” homes and that was a singular achievement!
I was the first member of my family to have had the opportunity to go abroad and get a college education. All of my children would have done so. The undertone of what is happening here now is to turn back the hand of time and opportunity in this country!
As a boy growing up in North Caicos and Grand Turk, I had the opportunity to see my grandfather as a representative from Kew. Never in my wildest dream did I ever envision that the day would come in this country that that particular and important right would be snatched from me. The unmitigated gall in all of this - is that the British always had responsibility for good governance and the tools in our previous constitution were there to correct any impending ills. Did they use them effectively? The answer must be a resounding NO!
They had their ‘Man Friday’ in place that lived high on the hog, having a condo to live in on Providenciales as well as his mansion at Waterloo - all at our expense! So now they have come to throw the baby out with the bath water; and in addition to that, completely absolve their representative from any culpability in the process.
Check to see whose name and signature was on any piece of government document, save in a few instances when Cabinet gave clear instructions for a waiver! Governor, you have asked for it and you now got it! But just remember the saying: ‘uneasy lies the head that wears the crown!” | | | | Reads : 1653 | | | |
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