Most residents of the TCI are not happy with the way the country is being governed. The nonchalant manner in how the present administration engages the public has caused them to lose any goodwill that the public had for them. Their practice of preaching one thing and doing another must stop – transparency is also expected from them! However, like Captain Ramsey in the movie Crimson Tide, they appear to feel as if they are only “…here to preserve democracy, not practice it.” And this sentiment appears to be shared by others in the British Government.
For example, instead of presenting an action plan to the British Parliament with measurable objectives/milestones tied to target dates for returning the TCI to democratic rule, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Henry Bellingham MP, on the 10th December 2010, gave 8 vaguely defined “milestones” – with only one having a defined target date – that he stated are “…the minimum preconditions before the Turks and Caicos Islands can return to elected government”. Instead of requesting that he report back to Parliament with a clearly defined target date for his team to achieve the milestones, his colleagues in Parliament ignored the plight of the people of the TCI and approved his request to suspend the TCI Constitution indefinitely. (Note: The Turks and Caicos Islands Constitution (Interim Amendment) (Amendment) Order 2010 suspending the TCI Constitution indefinitely was approved on the 15th December 2010 and is currently waiting for the Governor to bring it into force).
Rather than treating Turks and Caicos Islanders as partners in the rebuilding of the country, the British Government has taken the position that the only way to fix the problems is to take away privileges, create more rules, and implement detailed procedures to ensure that going forward persons will have no choice but to do the “right thing.” However, as I stated in a previous article titled “The case against suspension of the TCI Constitution” published in the Free Press April 3rd, 2009 edition, “…rules and regulations, no matter how stringent they are, will never fully stop someone who is intent on breaking them. What this country requires is a new set of ideals.” Barry Schwartz and Kenneth Sharpe also makes this case in their new book “Practical Wisdom: The Right Way to Do the Right Thing”, Riverhead 30th December 2010, stating that “…What we desperately need, beyond, or along with, better rules…is we need virtue, we need character, we need people who want to do the right thing. And in particular, the virtue that we need most of all is the virtue that Aristotle called practical wisdom. Practical wisdom is the moral will to do the right thing and the moral skill to figure out what the right thing is.” Although they were referring to problems in the United States, those words are equally applicable to the Turks & Caicos Islands.
In crafting the rules and regulations for the new TCI, we must keep in mind that governing a country requires a flexibility that no set of rules can encompass. This is not to say that there should be no rules, but “rules and incentives are no substitutes for wisdom.” And wisdom tells us that great leaders do not only possess the intellectual ability to do the right thing, but also the will and desire to do so. Like Barry Schwartz further stated in one of his speeches, “… there is no set of rules, no matter how detailed, no matter how specific, no matter how carefully monitored and enforced, there is no set of rules that will get us what we need.”
What we need along with the right set of rules are leaders who are prepared to lead for others and not themselves. And we have that! However, the one way this country will not get back on track is through the indefinite suspension of its constitution. As such, I am publicly calling on the Prime Minister of Britain and Leader of its Conservative Party, Rt Hon David Cameron MP; the Prime Minister of Canada and Leader of its Conservative Party, Rt Hon Stephen Harper MP; and all the world leaders who believe in democracy to look into this distributing issue and help the people of the TCI stop this open-ended Order from going into force.
Thank you.
EJ Saunders
