In the spirit of transparency and accountability, I should begin by acknowledging that I was amongst the most plaintive callers for British intervention in the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI). And, despite some disappointment with the way direct rule is unfolding, I remain as convinced as ever that this intervention was absolutely necessary.
That said, I have refrained from commenting on the conduct of the interim government of HE Governor Gordon Wetherell since it took over three months ago (i.e., with the notable exception of a recent commentary on the belated dismissal of rape allegations against former Premier Michael Misick). I did so because I felt this new government deserved a transitional period free of presumptuous advice, gratuitous praise or overzealous criticism.
Over this period, however, I have watched in dismay as burgeoning public opposition to a new National Health Insurance Plan (NHIP) has rendered all other government initiatives practically irrelevant.
Frankly, criticisms about the propriety, cost and provisions of this NHIP have become so defiant that one could be forgiven the impression that it is actually a Trojan Horse for the imposition of a British dictatorship. Indeed, it’s a testament to this irrational distrust that the most influential members of both political parties in the TCI are now condemning Governor Wetherell as a (malevolent) dictator.
Of course nothing could be further from the truth. Yet I fear that instructions the Governor is receiving from his bosses at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in London are feeding into patently contrived efforts to undermine this Interim Government.
Specifically, I have no doubt that the FCO has instructed the Governor to implement the NHIP, as is, despite untenable flaws. And, as any sensible Governor in his position would, he is trying dutifully to comply. (This, incidentally, makes the condemnation of Wetherell referenced above as uninformed as it is mean-spirited.)
Nevertheless, there’s no denying that the implementation of this NHIP has been marked by adhesive decrees, stupefying obfuscation, and brazen contradictions, all of which have made a mockery of the Governor’s pledge to run a transparent and accountable government. Not to mention that material terms and provisions in the contract for this NHIP seem borne of either corrupt intent or rank incompetence.
But, alas, we should not be surprised. After all, the Governor is being instructed by the same ilk of bureaucrats at the FCO whose salutary neglect enabled the Misick government to turn our country into the Zimbabwe of the Caribbean.
The only question now is: What recourse do we have, short of calling for another British intervention, to compel the FCO to reconsider implementing this NHIP; especially given all of the prohibitive concerns informed people, including investigative journalists, medical practitioners, civil servants and citizen activists, have expressed?
Clearly, online petitions have not worked. And individual, disparate threats to boycott the NHIP simply do not convey the critical mass of opposition that would compel not only the FCO but also the company contracted to implement this plan, Interhealth Canada, to take heed.
Therefore, I propose the following:
This Thursday, November 19, everyone employed in the TCI should hand deliver a cease-and-desist letter instructing his/her employer to refrain from deducting NHIP contributions to the National Insurance Board (NIB) from your paycheck. Self-employed individuals and unemployed permanent residents should deliver similar letters directly to the NIB on their own behalf.
For your information, this letter could read simply as follows:
November 19, 2009
Dear [Sir/Madam]
Please be advised that I have conscientious objections to being enlisted in the NHIP – as currently drafted and mandated.
Therefore, I hereby instruct you to refrain from deducting any portion of my paycheck for NHIP contribution to the NIB until further notice.
Sincerely,
[Sign then print name]
In turn, I admonish all employers to be no less willing to help us execute this nonviolent civil boycott than you were to help the government impose this unconscionable plan upon us.
But, my fellow TCIslanders, please be mindful that if only a few people take this principled stand, the government could easily impose fines and dismiss us as uninformed and misguided troublemakers. If we all participate, however, the government and Interhealth Canada will have no choice but to modify the NHIP contract on terms that better serve our physical and financial well being: Together we stand, divided we fall….
If these actions are taken, I have no doubt that this crisis will be resolved with relatively little consequential or collateral damage. And, trust me, not even a Misick government would countenance denying anyone healthcare services in retaliation for his/her participation in this boycott.
But who would’ve thought that the Governor’s attempt to implement healthcare reform in the TCI would precipitate a greater national crisis here than President Obama’s efforts to do the same in the US has precipitated there…?
At any rate, I find our current state of affairs particularly ominous because the defiance being expressed could have the collateral effect of so hardening public opinion against this Interim Government that attempts to implement far more contentious, but equally important, constitutional reforms in due course will prove virtually impossible.
Therefore, no matter the legal and purported financial consequences, it behooves the Governor to cite this national boycott as a veritable force majeure which necessitates immediate modification of this NHIP contract. If Interhealth Canada refuses to renegotiate, then he can seek judicial declaration that the contract is void as against public policy.
As a practicing attorney, I have an abiding regard for the sanctity of contracts. But I also know that it is a long-settled principle of English common law that contracts can be declared void on moral, equitable and practical grounds.
Meanwhile, it feels like “déjà vu all over again.” In fact, the FCO has allowed this one policy to cause such disillusionment with the Interim Government to fester that the BBC’s Mike Thompson began a report last week on the simmering crisis it has wrought as follows:
Looking out across the sparkling turquoise waters that lap these golden palm-treed sands all seems well in the beautiful Turks and Caicos Islands. But storm clouds have been gathering ever since the British government dissolved the local Parliament here and restored direct rule from London following claims of high level corruption and misrule. And three months on, the smell of mutiny hangs heavily in the air.
Granted, Thompson may be guilty of “sexing up” his report for dramatic effect. But only an FCO bureaucrat – who comes to our shores only to plant his head firmly in our “palm-treed sand” – could fail to notice the restive national mood he depicts.
Accordingly, I shall end with this plea to the Foreign Affairs Committee (FAC) – upon whose members it finally fell to rescue us from the open and notorious reign of corruption and misrule that members of the FCO simply refused to see:
Please prevail upon the FCO to do whatever is necessary to empower Governor Wetherell to resolve this crisis without further delay. Because we are fast approaching a tipping point where public confidence in and support for this Interim Government will be irretrievably lost.
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