fp Turks and Caicos

A delegation from the Turks and Caicos Islands will be heading to the U.K. next month to meet face to face with Minister for the Overseas Territories Henry Bellingham to discuss proposed changes to the March 4 draft Constitution.

The invitation comes after many residents vocalized their desire to speak directly with the minister during consultation meetings May 16-20 on six islands. Bellingham sent a team to the TCI to gather the views of residents and discuss questions and concerns raised by island citizens.

The group, which consisted of Foreign and Commonwealth Office Deputy Director of Overseas Territories Helen Nellthorp, Constitutional Advisor Ian Hendry and Legal Counsellor Susan Dickson, asked residents for their feedback and promised to convey it to Bellingham in the U.K.

It became painfully obvious during the first meeting, which took place on Providenciales, that residents would not be satisfied with sharing their views only with the team, and many demanded their views be heard directly by Bellingham.

This is also the message that the two political parties have been sending to the U.K. for months. Both the Progressive National Party and the People’s Democratic Movement refused to participate in the constitutional consultation process headed by advisor Kate Sullivan, instead creating their own All-Party Commission to draft recommendations for the Constitution and other matters.

Nellthorp and the team assured residents at each meeting that they would be reporting back to Bellingham the feedback they received. But this was of no relief to residents whose anger often boiled over, and who shouted their concerns at the team members.

On May 20, the team released a statement assuring the people that they had clearly heard their views and inviting a representative delegation to London in June to meet with Bellingham directly.

“We have been very clear that we came to TCI to take note of your views on the draft constitution,” the team said in a statement. “We heard the people of Providenciales when they called for a public meeting. And we have now heard and heeded the calls of so many people in the islands who want to speak directly to the minister about this important issue.”

The team invited one representative from the Consultative Forum, the Advisory Council, the political parties and the churches. On May 26, the governor's office announced that Consultative Forum Chairwoman Lillian Misick, Youth Ambassador Trevon Farrington and Chair of the All-Party Commission on the Constitution and Electoral Reform Wendal Swann would be among those attending June 15.16.

PNP Leader Clayton Greene was the first to respond, publicly accepting the invitation but objecting to members of the Advisory Council and Consultative Forum attending.

“We are on record as challenging the legitimacy of the Consultative Forum and the Advisory Council and are of the view that, as neither of these two bodies have the consent of the people of the Turks and Caicos Islands to represent their interest in this or any other matter, they ought not be permitted to attend any meetings between United Kingdom and Turks and Caicos Islands politicians, and we object to the attendance of the governor’s Consultative Forum and Advisory Council at such a meeting,” the PNP said in a statement May 20.

Doug Parnell, leader of the PDM, said he welcomed the decision to recognize political parties and extend the invitation to meet and discuss the draft Constitution.

“This has been a call we have been making from the beginning,” Parnell told the fp. He also noted that it was good that the representatives were in the TCI to realise what his party had been reporting to the U.K. on “how our people feel, they have now realized for themselves.”

Parnell said he plans to represent the views of all the people to the best of his abilities. “This must be a meeting were the power of argument on behalf of the people should prevail over any other agenda that may surface,” he said.

Details are still unavailable on which representatives from the other invited groups will be attending. The team was specific during a call-in show held May 20 that it would not pick the representatives, but left it unclear how they will be selected.

It also remains to be seen if the meeting will in fact result in changes to the draft Constitution. Major objections include increasing the power of the governor, changing the way to obtain Belongership, and altering the method of electing members to the House of Assembly.

Click HERE to read the 2006 Constitution.

Click HERE to read the March 4 draft Constitution under consideration.

Click HERE to read the All-Party Commission’s full report on the Constitution.

Photo: Overseas Territories Minister Henry Bellingham