fp Turks and Caicos

The Progressive National Party’s National General Council has passed a resolution vowing that — if it wins power in the next elections — the party will seek a national referendum for independence of the Turks and Caicos Islands from the U.K.

The resolution that was passed Oct. 24 says the PNP will launch a programme to education the public on the responsibilities of citizenship in an independent country and to hold a national referendum on independence.

The call for independence is the first official move by a political party to call for independence in many years. If the PNP takes power and holds an independence referendum, it would be the first national referendum in TCI history.

“As the leader of the Progressive National Party, I say to you all that the question can no longer be whether there will be or whether there should be independence,” said PNP Leader Clayton Greene. “The question must now be when. Let us together and with confidence embrace our future.”

Talk of independence has been growing slowly since the U.K. suspended parts of the TCI Constitution and the elected government in 2009 amid allegations of government corruption and with government finances in peril.

Since the U.K.’s original date in 2011 for returning local government control was postponed — now expected near the end of 2012 — local support for the U.K. takeover has waned while the idea of independence is gaining supporters.

The British have said they would increase their presence in the TCI and would not allow a repeat of problems with corruption and government finances. However, the U.K. is not opposed to independence, as Foreign Minister Henry Bellingham reiterated in September during a speech in Bermuda:

“Let me be quite clear on the question of independence. Successive British governments have said that it is for the territories themselves to decide whether they wish to remain connected to the United Kingdom but that any decision to cut that link should be on the basis of the clearly expressed wish of the majority of the people of the territory in question. This government also supports that approach.”

In addition to the TCI, the nearby countries that are still Overseas Territories include Anguilla, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands and Montserrat.

The most recent calls for independence have come in Bermuda and Anguilla, but they haven’t gained much traction. Recent polls in Bermuda show that 73 percent of its people are against independence.

A 2005 discussion paper prepared for the Bermuda Independence Commission (BIC) concluded that “independence is a meticulous, time-consuming and serious business. A business to be undertaken by a serious, meticulous, intelligent, mature and patient population.”

If the TCI followed an independence plan like the one envisioned by Bermuda, it would have to draft a new Constitution that not only defined powers and rights, but what kind of new government would rule:

• Constitutional monarchy such as the Bahamas that still has connections to the U.K. as a member of the Commonwealth
• Executive presidential republic like Guyana and the U.S.
• Non-executive presidential republic like Trinidad and Tobago

Those decisions would be reached in an Independence Conference that would include members of both parties and the U.K. Foreign and Commonwealth Office, which would work out the complicated legal mechanics of independence.

Upon independence, the TCI government would be responsible for everything, including matters reserved under the present Constitution for the U.K., including international affairs, defence, internal security and police.

The Cayman Islands and Montserrat currently appear content with their territory status, the latter because of much needed U.K. financial support since the 1995 eruption of the Soufrière Hills Volcano that forced the evacuation of two-thirds of the island’s 12,000 residents.

The following Caribbean countries have gained independence from the U.K. but remain Commonwealth nations:

• Jamaica, 1962
• Barbados, 1966
• Bahamas, 1973
• Dominica, 1978
• Saint Lucia, 1979
• Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, 1979
• Antigua and Barbuda, 1981
• Saint Kitts and Nevis, 1983

Former British territories that are independent but not members of the Commonwealth are Trinidad and Tobago (1962) and Guyana (1966).