Freedom of the Press - It Can Backfire on a Country

Freedom of the press is a privilege that the world would be remiss to take for granted. It is a protected right in democratically free and evolved countries and is a protected right under the United State's First Amendment to the constitution.

Because access to information is the very essence of transparency, I encourage the world and Turks and Caicos to speak out and I wish to provide a nascent voice against UK political force and its agenda in Turks and Caicos.

It is common knowledge that the UK took Turks and Caicos' right to self determination six months ago in a governmental take over, but is the how and why common knowledge? The UK has indicated repeatedly that its promise to allow elections in 2011 will be taken unless the UK can select its leader, using the guise of "good governance." This is undoubtedly a buzz word for proxy leader.

For many in Turks and Caicos, it is crystal clear what is happening while they watch helplessly. But for some others, it is difficult to see the truth amidst the misinformation and manipulation of facts by the UK.

Does anyone in Turks and Caicos wonder why the UK corruption enquiry last year relied upon speculative and uncorroborated allegations? The Procedural irregularities are glaring, including but not limited to unsworn witness statements, anonymous witnesses and the UK's indifference toward witness bias.

Upon UK's take over in August, it immediately suspended the constitution, judiciary and trials by jury. In an atmosphere of fear and self preservation, local leaders felt compelled to turn on each other. The UK's divide and conquer strategy created a level of mistrust between the local government and local population. What's more is the people did not vote on this take over and are not allowed to share in any government decisions. The UK diverted the people away from unity and goals towards self determination (every man for himself policy). This has created a behavior by Belongers to turn away from government and it divided loyalties. Many Turks and Caicos Islanders have not yet been able to see this result as being the UK's doing. The UK had worked for over one year prior to the take over, setting up local leaders with the help of a local news outlet.

The net result of UK's divide and conquer tactic is a make-up of varying factions in Turks and Caicos all fighting each other. The focus has been blurred away from the UK's long arm. Expatriates are demanding to be afforded civil rights to vote while Belongers are trying to drive foreigners from the country. This is the most destructive clash of ideals that a country can have. But to be honest, this is low hanging fruit. The alternative to sorting out this manufactured argument, is a UK-selected leader acting as a proxy for UK's political agenda in Turks and Caicos. Residents vs. Belongers vs. foreign workers? How does nearby Puerto Rico or Jamaica handle these matters? They both have tourism, a local population, a foreign population and foreign workers. This has been done before.

Perhaps long-time residents of Turks and Caicos should have a voice and maybe Belongers feel too entitled to sole citizenship or perhaps Belongers have more entitlement to a vote because they do not have a choice of going home to another land. However, this is something Turks and Caicos should address as a country with democratic voting process and not UK force. It does not take much to see that the UK is using expatriates to create a voting surplus to bolster UK's place in Turks and Caicos; they just don't see it yet. Because the UK manufactured this crisis, there is a possibility of dangerous civil unrest between the two groups.

The focus of the people might be better served by asking the right questions. How do we work together as a team by striking a fair compromise so that government can be restored and the people can get back to living their lives?

How did the UK insert itself into the public and local government in Turks and Caicos in the first place? It might be no surprise to learn that the TCI Journal has been the UK's voice for quite some time. This tactic is also nothing new to the UK's political strategy, using local media to do its bidding in other parts of the world. In fact, the folks at TCI Journal will shortly learn that they are just pawns for UK's political agenda. Sir Robin Auld, the man who oversaw the corruption inquiry, came to the islands with a clear goal, the plausible findings of corruption. The plan was for the people to turn against their own and seek refuge from the UK.

Upon its arrival, the UK assured the people of Turks and Caicos that they would continue to employ and support local islanders to make government decisions. However, this did not happen. Key islanders in government were suddenly and mysteriously dismissed for one reason or another and replaced by UK hires. The UK quickly turned its back on Turks and Caicos Islanders. It is now proven that the so-called local advisory council was a sham, the UK honors none of its recommendations.

To demonstrate and to prove my point about UK's reputation for using media to manipulate, Sir Robin Auld has a history of recruiting media outlets, he has been quoted as follows, "The media, of course, can strongly influence peoples' perceptions of the world around them. Sometimes it can even persuade them not to believe the evidence of their own eyes. Put simply, when the prosecuting authority exercises its vocal chords, it is axiomatic that it must be telling the truth. This is a critical foundation of public trust."

TCI Journal and Shaun Malcolm: you're just a pawn to further UK's objective. Whether or not the UK makes good on a promise today will not guarantee that you will not be used in the end. Manipulating your people will surely backfire on you. The UK can turn its back whenever it wants, there is no turning back for the people of Turks and Caicos. You would be wise to heed the warnings of what history and present facts have proved about the UK agenda.

Just this week, the TCI Journal put out another dubious propaganda article entitled "Utterly Useless". The article starts by explaining how UK helped with local corruption: "Pleas to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, FCO, fell on deaf ears, and the distressed letters and calls only started getting traction due to the attention of the Foreign Affairs Committee, FAC, in 2007 and then, due to their actions, a Commission of Inquiry headed by Sir Robin Auld was announced in July of 2008." The truth is, we do not really know how the UK got started in Turks and Caicos. Maybe an UK operative approached Shaun Malcolm and gang first. We do not really know yet, do we. It is the chicken and egg dilemma, which came first. We do know that the corruption inquiry letters and witnesses were, at least, biased.

As the TCI Journal reported other UK-sided opinions and conclusions, it also stated: "Let us be clear, every unbiased and clear thinking person could see that the Interim Government and direct-rule was the only option available, if there was to be any hope of saving the Country." This conclusion is not only a bad opinion, it is patently false as no other means of interventions were offered, mitigated, explored or tried. This is one of the reasons why the UN condemned UK's actions, calling it colonialism.

The TCI Journal made other leading opinions and propagandized statements such as, "The Interim Government was necessary and essential." Again, this is completely false, unfounded and untested.

All of the conclusive opinions by the TCI Journal are more desperate attempts trying to convince us, to this day, of a truth that does not exist.

What is the truth? The UK arranged unfettered access to the islands by using a political opposition group. It then decided to bring an atmosphere of fear by accusing anyone it wanted of corruption. The UK got away with this by taking the constitution, the judiciary, trials by jury whereby giving themselves full access to the legal system without any democratic intervention or checks and balances. The UK used, and has been using, TCI Journal to manipulate the truth.

Moreover, the UK installed a special prosecutor allowing her authority to be "far reaching" by inviting members of the population to come forward with any information that might be useful for her agenda. Opposition members favoured by the UK have worked with the special prosecutor and have exploited their "special relationship" to intimidate and suppress dissent. This has created a police state in TCI. Shaun Malcolm has told me that he is going to have the special prosecutor come after me when I had a dissenting opinion. I can only imagine what he is telling the average citizen who is confined to the islands. TCI Journal and gang are reportedly using this same intimidation tactic on any and all dissenters. This is highly dangerous and undemocratic.

It will serve no purpose to address even one third of TCI Journal's article or any of their other of hundreds of articles like it, because like the title of the article, the information is "utterly useless" and more of the same. What I do feel it important is to address is the fact that the people of Turks and Caicos have come too far to be intimidated or manipulated by falsehoods. PDM leader, Doug Parnell, just learned the hard way that the UK will turn on anyone and use anyone to forward its agenda. The stakes are too high for the people to learn this lesson too late.

For more information:http://www.allvoices.com/users/TCIwatch