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!
Related commentaries:
Ms Herwin’s commentary
Alas, throwing Premier Misick overboard is necessary
Britain has a legal (or superior) responsibility
Britain suspends TCI Constitution … again
* This commentary is being published today at Turks and Caicos Net News and The TCI Journal
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