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Dear Sir:

I was shocked when I read the response from Mrs. Lillian Misick regarding the canceled meeting at the GraceWay Sports Centre. First of all, the chairlady of the consultative forum should ask the people of the TCI for forgiveness instead of siding against us in this matter. Secondly Mrs Misick was blatantly reckless in her statement and woefully ill-informed of the true nature of what happened.

It is quite sad and discouraging that Mrs Misick is so busy trying to insult locals that she is unable to find time to come up with a comprehensive solution to empower Belongers and protect the indigenous population of these islands from government debt shackling.

The statement made by the chairlady underscores two characteristics that continue to be made manifest throughout her tenure in the interim administration. The chairlady has certainly lost her way, and this tirade proves that she is out of touch.

Lost Way

Since her appointment, Mrs Misick has never fully managed to put the good of this nation before her own self promotion. What has she done so far to help the people of the TCI? What has she done to elevate the standards of housing and healthcare and provide jobs for the people of these islands? What has she done to amplify the cry of the weak and helpless? What has she done for the poor and oppressed?

The majority of the faces of our indigenous people are marred with hopelessness and despair. Decent hard working TCI men have been reduced to hustling from odd job to odd job, begging for an opportunity to keep roofs over their family’s heads. Single mothers cry out in anguish as they must decide between lunch for their children or a jitney fare to get them to school. Every day scores of families are plunged into darkness because there is no money to pay the ever rising utility bills.

Let’s face it, if Madam Chair does not know, our people are broke, our pockets are empty and our standards of living are steadily declining. The ankles of the people of the TCI are shackled to despair. Our feet are being re-shackled to slavery, not physical slavery but financial and governmental slavery. Under the interim government, our people have lost their importance in society, and our children have lost their promise.

Out of Touch

The belligerent mob the chairlady spoke of included, a former ELECTED Speaker of the Legislative Council (the Council is now deceased), a former ELECTED Deputy Chief Minister and Minister of Education, teachers, accountants, business owners and a major contractor, among others. The group she called a mob represented a hardworking cross section of our society.

The chairlady has never held elected office; she has never served this country via the expressed will of the majority. She is a selected leader and has absolutely no moral authority to call distinguished former politicians belligerent; she has never enjoyed the authority that these men had. The very process of her appointment was tainted and goes against every democratic principal known to men.

The Way Forward

My position on the expansion of the franchise, which has been cleverly renamed Pathway to Citizenship, is that we, the Belongers, must be the ones and the only ones to chart the way forward. And that’s that.

Like the process of the chairlady’s appointment, the very process of Pathway to Citizenship is seriously flawed and dangerously tainted. The only proper way to determine the process of enlarging our franchise is via a referendum on citizenship. For far too long our people have been beating their gums in vain at the Sports Centre while the real decisions are being made in Grace Bay.

To my fellow Turks and Caicos islanders, especially those who stood with me on the night of January 26, 2012, I leave you with the encouragement found in Psalm 23, “Yea though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we fear no evil, for the Lord is with us.”

May God’s blessings ever flow and may our people ever know that He is God. Amen

Devon Williams

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