Rumors of the sun setting on the British Empire have been slightly exaggerated. The dominion Britain still exercises over the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI), my mother country, attests to this.
As it happened, I was in the vanguard of TCIslanders who called on the British Government in 2008 to assert its dominion by suspending the TCI Constitution. In my analysis of the Commission of Inquiry corruption investigation, I argued that outrage alone was insufficient to hold TCI government officials accountable for their corrupt practices. We needed the British to honor their constitutional obligations by convening a commission of inquiry to investigate allegations and recover misappropriated public funds.
I reinforced this call in several subsequent commentaries, including my analysis of the case for an interim government and my open letter on the TCI Commission of Inquiry. These pieces highlighted how local leaders betrayed “clear signs of political amorality, immaturity and of general administrative incompetence.” This fostered a culture of systematic corruption – highlighted by Misick using the tourism budget to fund his Hollywood lifestyle.
It speaks volumes that the Commission of Inquiry Report we sought reads like an indictment against a notorious crime syndicate.
British intervention and return to self-rule
In August 2009, the British suspended the TCI Constitution, stripped local leaders of all political powers, and resumed direct rule. A UK Special Investigation and Prosecution Team (SIPT) duly arrested Misick, four members of his official cabinet, and five members of his “kitchen cabinet,” and charged them with multiple counts of fraud, corruption, and money laundering.
The defendants paid millions (using ill-gotten gains, presumably) for lawyers to file frivolous motions to delay the inevitable. In fact, their trial finally got underway just weeks ago (on December 7).
Only God knows how long proceedings will last (estimates range from six to nine months). The evidence is such, however, that it will take a miracle for any of them to be acquitted on all counts.
In any event, the British returned self-rule to the TCI in November 2012, after local elections for a new government. I pledged at the time to eschew commenting on politics there from my perch here in Washington, DC.
The VAT controversy emerges
But then came the Value Added Tax (VAT). Specifically, local leaders opposed efforts to implement it with the same kind of anti-British rhetoric with which they opposed calls to suspend the TCI Constitution five years earlier.
I felt obliged to break my pledge. In my commentary on TCI’s opposition to VAT implementation, I warned that our newly elected leaders were manifesting the same kind of political immaturity and administrative incompetence that doomed their predecessors.
The new government’s misguided appeal to CARICOM to prevent the British from implementing VAT mirrored Misick’s failed strategy to prevent constitutional suspension. Like the old government, our new government willfully mischaracterized the British Government’s constitutional duty to ensure good governance as a neo-colonial conspiracy to “keep us subjugated.”
As I had challenged Misick years earlier in my analysis of TCI’s path to independence, I urged him to stop scapegoating the British and hold a referendum on independence. After all, he made quite a show of promising to do so, and the British have always promised to facilitate it.
Ironically, if he had honored his promise, Misick would not be on trial, facing decades in prison, today.
The Case for VAT
The British Government proposed VAT as the fairest way to generate reliable revenue streams to fund government programs. Our new government opposed it while acting as if defeating VAT would automatically generate similar revenue streams.
Intelligent minds can differ on whether VAT is good for the TCI. But it’s demonstrably specious for local leaders to insist that VAT will destroy our economy. This is especially true given that VAT is providing fair and sustainable revenues in regional countries like Antigua, Barbados, and Jamaica.
As Barbados’ former Prime Minister and eminent Caribbean Statesman, Owen Arthur, noted: “Value-added tax (VAT) is the best option for the Caribbean region in the age of trade liberalization.” I agree.
A minister’s regret
Unfortunately, the British deferred to local leaders on VAT. No doubt they were exceedingly sensitive to complaints about imposing their “neo-colonial” will. They had just returned the TCI to self-rule under a new Constitution, after all.
However, I knew it was only a matter of time before local leaders became hoisted by their own petard. Confirmation came over the Christmas holidays in the form of a refreshingly honest admission by no less a person than the TCI minister of finance.
Minister of Finance Hon. Washington Misick is beginning to regret his decision to side with opponents of the British-piloted Value Added Tax proposal…
He hinted that those who opposed the VAT did so because of personal interest and not that of the country…
‘I think we, at that particular point, allowed the messenger, who was the wrong messenger, perhaps at that time in our history to influence us together with the persons who want to keep their books closed.’
(Turks and Caicos Sun, December 18-25, 2015)
Incidentally, Minister Misick is the older brother of the disgraced former premier now sitting in the dock. His admission suggests that his younger brother is capable of some contrition … someday.
But the Minister is being a little disingenuous. I recall all too well how his brother scapegoated British politicians for policies he implemented as premier, which had him bankrupting the country to live in his version of a gangsta’s paradise. Now he’s scapegoating expatriate businessmen for policies he implemented as finance minister, which have him taxing poor TCIslanders to the gills to justify his decision to oppose VAT.
I just hope he appreciates how much this admission impeaches his professional judgment. The congressional Committee on Ways and Means writes the U.S. tax code. This admission is rather like the chairman of that committee admitting that lobbyists for gun manufacturers influenced him to have their profits exempted from taxation.
The cost of opposition
Still, to be fair, the Minister has just cause to regret relying on a Blue Ribbon Commission on taxation to vindicate his opposition. After all, the so-called experts on this commission “misled” him to believe they could either devise viable alternatives to VAT or, with time, structure a way to “properly implement” it.
They’ve had over two and a half years to deliver. Yet, evidently, the only thing he has to show for their expert advice is regret that his government did not heed our advice to implement VAT, as the British proposed, in the first place.
The prevailing point is that local leaders stoked anti-British resentment to oppose suspension of the Constitution in 2009 and implementation of VAT in 2013. Much of what passes for political debate in TCI still reeks of such ignorant, impudent, and self-defeating resentment.
Interestingly enough, their visceral antipathy is such that I have often analogized the relationship our leaders have with the British to that which Republicans have with President Obama. In each case, even if the latter proposed foolproof measures to reduce violent crime, guarantee full employment, and sustain economic growth, the former would oppose them.
Meanwhile, since demanding premature return to self-rule, local leaders have done little more than turn our country from a tranquil tax haven for foreigners into a crime-ridden tax trap for TCIslanders.
Hope springs eternal that they will develop a mature and constructive relationship with the British. Or, perhaps they will finally find the courage to put their money where their mouth is and petition for independence.
Their record of administrative incompetence is such, however, that I hope local leaders pursue the former – with due humility and respect. The fate of the long-suffering people of the TCI depends on them doing so.
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