Open Letter to: The Rt. Hon. Gordon Brown, UK Prime Minister

Re: Inquiry into good governance in the Turks and Caicos Islands

On behalf of the people of the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI), I commend your government for conducting such a thorough inquiry into good governance in our UK Overseas Territory.

Of course, I am mindful that your Foreign Affairs Committee (FAC) is conducting this inquiry pursuant to a pro forma audit of all 14 Overseas Territories. Nevertheless, it is noteworthy that the TCI has earned a dubious distinction in this respect.

After all, I doubt Sir John Stanley was being arbitrary and facetious (during FAC’s examination of witnesses on December 3, 2007) when he asked TCI Premier Dr. Michael Misick to explain what could have provoked the people he governs to submit about one third of all complaints the Committee received from the Territories. Moreover, I suspect our Premier’s reply only gave credence to those complaints:

[W]e categorically deny that there is any corruption at government level in the Turks and Caicos… [T]he Turks and Caicos government are a transparent government…. It is easy, particularly for opposition activists who are still sore about losing the election, to claim that there is corruption.

All the same, we did not need the specter of an FAC inquiry to express concerns about our government’s shortcomings in all of the key areas of good governance, namely: transparency, accountability, efficiency, effectiveness, and above all, respect for the rule of law. After all, some of us have been pleading for years for the UK to hold the TCI government accountable for its failures and abuses. Therefore, we hope this inquiry will finally lead to a bill of particulars indicting it accordingly.

Meanwhile, our national plight has become so dire that even his erstwhile supporters are expressing grave concerns about our Premier’s incompetent, autocratic and kleptocratic rule. For example:

We have grave concerns about our Premier’s trustworthiness because he threw a $500,000 party to announce the construction of two “fully funded state-of-the-art” hospitals at a cost of $50 million. Then, only months later, he announced, without explanation, not only that the cost had risen to $125 million, but also that he intends to levy new taxes on us to pay for them.

(I am reliably informed that, just this week, the bank financing these hospitals registered a lien of $235 million on the property….)

We have grave concerns about our Premier’s budgeting priorities because he has slashed funding for, amongst other things:

1) The supply of water and electricity, in the nation’s capital of Grand Turk no less, which has compromised ports of call by cruise ships and jeopardized the desperately needed tourism revenues they generate;

2) Education, which has compelled schools in the US and UK to threaten to expel TCI students on government scholarships for chronic delinquencies in the payment of their tuition and fees; and

3) Infrastructure development and repair, which has exacerbated the blight of unpaved roads and led to ill-equipped ferries carrying passengers with no place to sit except on propane tanks.

Meanwhile, he has allocated over $10 million dollars to build a grand prix racetrack that will generate no sustainable revenues and will have little or no public use.

(Not to mention our suspicions about the documents he published on the eve of elections a year ago, which purportedly showed that his government was running a budget surplus in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Whereas, we now know that the Premier has amassed so much bad debt since taking office in 2003 that creditors – who provide necessities like food and medicine – are refusing to ship products to the TCI (and, when they do, are refusing to release them) because our government’s bills are in terminal arrears.)

We have grave concerns about our Premier’s judgment because he and the members of his kitchen cabinet blithely flaunt their millionaire lifestyles. Especially since there is widespread (reasonable) suspicion that they acquired their sudden wealth from unethical, if not illegal, insider dealings in Crown Lands and the embezzlement of public funds.

We have many more grave concerns about the way Premier Misick is governing our country, but I see no merit in citing any more of them in this letter. Besides, I have no doubt that your FAC has already compiled evidence (from forensic investigation of bank records, land registry, tax returns, etc.) that make our concerns seem petty by comparison.

Nevertheless, I entreat the members of the FAC to appreciate that there is virtually no impartiality in the rendering of government services in the TCI. And this pertains to everything from the administration of justice in our courts to the provision of medical services in our clinics.

It is also imperative for them to be cognizant of the fact that, even though voluminous, the submissions they received from TCIslanders represent only a small percentage of those who have complaints about their lives of quiet desperation. However, the rational fear of reprisals inhibits their speaking out against our government’s enterprise of corruption and abuse.

Indeed, our Premier has publicly condemned as “traitors” those of us who dared to cooperate with the FAC. Alas, this not only betrays his perverse concept of good governance, but also gives some insight into the fear he incites in the people he governs.

(Apropos fear, I urge you Prime Minister to have the FAC prevail upon Premier Misick to allow public service announcements on his state-run TV and radio stations informing TCIslanders about upcoming interviews and assuring them that your government will protect them against any reprisal for meeting with the FAC delegation.)

At any rate, I shall close by expressing the hope we all have that our long nightmare will soon be over. We are especially encouraged because we believe that, as a former Chancellor of the Exchequer, HM Treasury, you have a professional regard for the British government’s fiduciary obligations to the TCI that seemed to elude your predecessor.

Still, I feel obliged to express my profound dismay that constitutional checks and balances (most notably, the duties and responsibilities vested in the Governor) have done nothing to prevent, or even curb, corruption in the TCI. Therefore, the Premier now touting new anti-corruption legislation is rather like a fox locking the door to the hen house after he has eaten all of the hens.

Accordingly, we thank you not only for championing the principles of open and accountable government, but also for your apparent determination to ensure that all British citizens – even those of us in Overseas Territories – are governed by those principles.

Yours sincerely,

Anthony L. Hall, Esq.

P.S. The correct answer to Sir John’s question about the number of submissions is that the vast majority of TCIslanders are people of good moral character who can no longer abide this Premier’s serial abuse of power and gross betrayal of public trust. And I assure you that we have men and women who are honest, competent and ready to lead once he and his cohorts are held to account for their misdeeds.

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