THE PAN-AFRIKAN LIBERATOR

Following the inaugural meeting of the Chief Ministers of the Dependent Territories in Montserrat on the 17th of November last year, where we looked at the British Policy on Management paper on the Dependent Territories, we made some proposals to the British government with respect to our views, our perspectives on that particular policy paper and the implications it will have for us and also our dissatisfaction on their approach and the manner in which it was handled.

Now the principal reason why we got together is that since 1991 November, we've been talking of bringing together a Chief Ministers' Forum so that we can deal with common issues, not only as they relate to the British government but as they relate to the Dependent Territories. So, at that inaugural meeting, we took the opportunity to discuss the British Policy paper.

We wrote to the British government in December pointing out our concerns and the consensus coming out of the Chief Ministers' meeting. Within a relatively short period of time, the Minister, Mark Lennox-Boyd, responded sharing a willingness to meet with the Chief Ministers in Barbados in early January.

We therefore took the opportunity to go down and piggy-back on a governor's conference, which they were also holding in Barbados, to discuss and share our concerns.

Coming out of it, we recognized, and they recognized, the need to change it from a Board of Management because we did not see the Dependencies being managed from the United Kingdom in that the political electorate of the Dependent Territories has a mandate in terms of management of their own territories.

As such, there's a reformulation, so there's now a Ministerial Committee on Dependent Territories which meets in the United Kingdom and a committee dealing principally with aid allocation for the Dependent Territories which will be based in Barbados.

What has happened before is that the British Development Division .... their officers who cover the entire Caribbean also dealt with the Dependent Territories.

We felt that was rather unsatisfactory and therefore the four officers would now be dealing with the six dependent territories in the region: six including Cayman Islands and Bermuda, who do not obtain aide allocation from the British government.

So, in effect, what we are looking at is the aide administration for the four dependent territories which are still under the particular purview of the British government.

We feel that we made significant progress in terms of those discussions. We were not able to obtain all of the things which we had hoped to obtain but at least the British government finally stood up and recognized that when four Chief Ministers speak to them with one concerted voice, it is time for them to stand up and acknowledge us, and I think that recognition was indeed very useful coming out of the meeting so far.

Of course, we have indicated to them that we will maintain the pressure on the British government for them to recognize our needs, recognize our concerns, and when we're talking of aide allocation, for example, where the overall premise for aide allocation is on the basis of economic evaluation and economic justification, we're now indicating to them that we need to look at the social considerations more so than the economic considerations.

One example which we always use, if we're building a mile of road in Montserrat, it will service a thousand people, it will cost a million dollars. If you're to build a mile of road in Jamaica, it will service thousands of people and it's still costing the same million dollars.

So, it's easier to justify a road in a larger territory than in a small territory like Montserrat or Anguilla. At the same time, however, we need to have roads and these are things we need to be able to consider.

For example, building a school in Montserrat servicing a hundred students cannot be as economically viable as building a school in Jamaica which services 1200 students and these are some of the considerations which we want them to bring to bear in their discussions.

We're hoping to have follow-up meetings and later on when I go to the U.K., we'll have follow-up consultations with Mark Lennox-Boyd in the United Kingdom together with other members of the Foreign Office.

Q.Mr. Meade, one of the concerns was that there were to be, on the previous board, before its name was changed, that there were no representatives from the British Dependent Territories on the Board. Has this been resolved?

A.No. That has not been resolved as yet because the recommendation which we had made is that at each meeting in the United Kingdom or elsewhere of the Ministerial Committee on the Dependent Territories, that at least one Chief Minister be present at all times on a rotational basis.

That, so far, has not been accepted. But we are still, and we have indicated to the Minister that we are still pushing to have this as one of the aspects of the Committee which must be taken into account.

Q.Mr. Chief Minister, what is the significance of the name change?

A.The main significance is that the Dependent Territories are not being managed by the United Kingdom so therefore, a Board of Management gives the impression that we're looking at the management of the Dependent Territories and as we call it on the streets, recolonization.

So what we're looking at is to be in a position to have other Ministers and other Ministries in the British government coming together to deal with some common concerns as they relate to us but they are not making decisions on our behalf.

If we need something discussed, for example, when we look at pensions being paid to U.K., Montserratians who worked for years in the United Kingdom ... when we negotiated with them on having the pensions adjusted, we had to meet with the Depart- ment of Social Security, we had to meet with the Home Office, we had to meet the Foreign Office, all in different meetings.

Now, what is likely to happen when matters of that nature come up, then all participants will be in one meeting through Ministerial or senior official representation.

Q.I'm just curious to know, sir, are there any major points of difference that exist between the various Dependent Territories or are you more or less united on most issues?

A.There are some minor points of dif- ference, the most significant of which is coming from Tortola or the British Virgin Islands because they have reached a stage where they are no longer accessing U.K. aide and as such, they are in a position now to move to the next stage towards independence and I frankly feel that the British Virgin Islands should consider making that move at this particular stage because they are no longer under aide allocation.

They need now to finance most of their development from their own resources or through loan capital and therefore should be in a position to make that move.

Montserrat, of course, will eventually reach that stage and as we've always said, we have to make our move towards independence in a gradual manner and get the institutions in place and prepare ourselves for that time when we make that final step.

Q.What specifically are we doing to have a plan in place, educate people, whatever is necessary? What specific actions is our Government taking to help us move towards independence?

A.There's a basic education process which should start in 1993. Last year, we had approval from the Palace to have a national song, which is rather significant. Rather than standing up and singing, "God Save our Gracious Queen," or whatever it is, we now can have a national song accepted and played in place of the national anthem.

We need to be in a position to have discussions, broad-ranging discussions on the Constitution Order. What does the Constitution Order mean? What amendments do we need to make, as it relates to moving the stage from a dependent territory to an independent territory? So that has to be circulated. It must be discussed in schools.

It must be discussed in community organizations. And what we have done, we have requested most of these organizations to come to the office, to the Chief Minister's office, obtain copies of those documents and then be in a position to discuss them and make comments.

Of course, we are going to be going in terms of public forum where we would be in a position, at the public level, which again would be covered by Radio Montserrat and the rest of the media for public discussions and public dialogue. And we've actually started that level of public dialogue in Montserrat already.

Q.Mr. Meade, in a separate interview, I know you've welcomed the Secretariat that's going to be set up by the British government in Barbados, in April to look specifically at the Dependent Territories. What can you tell us about that particular secretariat?

A.The Secretariat starts operation as of the first of April, the beginning of the British financial year. It would be based in the British High Commission and accessing technical support from the British Development Division.

One of the good things is that their officers were transferred to that committee in Barbados who are very familiar and are friends of Montserrat. It means, when we are dealing with good government funds and other such allocations, rather than going through the Foreign Office in the United Kingdom, we just go to Barbados.

Once the officers are in a position to touch base, put their foot on the soil, it's easier to access funds.

It's easier to twist their arms somewhat and encourage them to provide an additional amount of assistance rather than going a few thousand miles away, ten thousand miles away in the United Kingdom, where they are under different pressures and also are not concentrating on the territory but are concentrating on say, the Commonwealth or many countries in the Commonwealth.

Q.What is the difference, or is there any similarity between the Secretariat and the Committee which was just recently formed?

A.The Secretariat in Barbados is basically the grouping of experts in the Caribbean who are dealing specifically with aide allocation.

As it stands currently, we operate through the British Development Division. Take for example, if we submit a project and the officer happens to be travelling to Jamaica to appraise a project in Jamaica, our documentation gets put on the bottom of the pile until he gets back from Jamaica and of course, once he gets back from Jamaica, he has to do his back to office report and his follow-up before he gets to our document.

When we have one officer dealing with it, we can always pick up the phone and call Miss X or Mr. Y and try to get an immediate response.

Q.So, therefore we can see a much easier flow of funds coming towards our way?

A.I would see a faster processing of documentation because one of the things which we must understand, all aide submissions are based on economic evaluation and until we can get away from providing the full justification on economic terms and all of the conditionalities of aide, we would not be able to get the funds any faster.

Let's take for example, our road programme in Montserrat which has been submitted. We still had to have discussions with them in terms of the justification. They had to come in. They did several traffic counts in Montserrat to determine how many vehicles were passing along a particular road, whether we needed a road 10 feet wide or 24 feet wide. Could we maintain those roads?

Could the Government of Montserrat provide the additional amount of money required to maintain roads of that nature over a particular period of time?

So these are some of the considerations which they still go into and what we are suggesting is rather than coming here and doing traffic counts to justify a road, our Public Works Department should be in a position, on the basis of the distribution of population, the quality of roads, the link between the roads and tourism development, to be in a position to determine, "look the road is going to cost a million dollars.

We will provide a million dollars to build a mile of road. Which is why I'm saying, we are still trying to get them to look at social considerations rather than strictly economic considerations.

Q.Is there any indication at this stage that the British government is willing to make more money available to its Dependent Territories?

A.It's one of the difficult issues as it relates to the British government because every time we talk to the British government, at least over the past year and a half, what they're saying is that when you look at our unemployment position in the United Kingdom, the level of layoffs which are made in the civil service in the United Kingdom, you guys are asking for more money.

You must understand our concerns. Now, what we've indicated to them also is, yes, we understand your concerns but that we also have concerns down here.

Since we are Dependent Territories, in any aide allocation which is done on the global level, that we must get our fair share of that aide allocation in the Dependent Territories.

That has been clearly understood and a commitment has been made that any cuts in overall aide allocation, the aide allocation to the Dependent Territories will always get priority over the rest of the others.

Q.Having said that though, is it fair to assume that there's any pressure, whether directly or indirectly on the part of the British government on the Dependent Territories to more or less streamline operations in the islands, whether in the civil service or otherwise?

A.It's a condition of most of the aide allocation which are made. It's not only by the British Government, but any aide donor also insists on that.

For example, if we're dealing with a world bank loan or a CDB loan, they have conditionalities and if we are dealing with, for example, building roads, we're negotiating with the Caribbean Development Bank for building roads.

What they are saying, you must have certain things in place which are very much similar to what the British government is also doing. So what we're focusing on is also trying to do our own justification, trying to establish government in a manner that we're responsive not only to the economic considerations but also to the social considerations and the plight of our people in Montserrat.

And, that is our principal concern in spite of the difficult economic conditions which have been predicted for 1993 in certain parts of the world.

Q.Would you agree that with or without the British plan that Montserrat's capital development really is dependent on decisions made at these centers outside of Montserrat? Any kind of development in Montserrat is really still dependent on the decisions made by these foreign agents. I mean in the absence of a plan, the plan is not anything new, per se.

A.We'll cut that because it gets into an extremely long discussion.

Tortola or the British Virgin Islands, because they have reached a stage where they are no longer accessing U.K. aide and as such, they are in a position now to move to the next stage towards independence and I frankly feel that the British Virgin Islands should consider making that move at this particular stage because they are no longer under aide allocation.

They now finance most of their development from their own resources or through loan capital and therefore should be in a position to make that move.

Montserrat, of course, will eventually reach that stage and as we've always said, we have to make our move towards independence and prepare ourselves for that time when we make that final step.

There's a basic education process which should start in 1993. We need to be in a position to have discussions on the Constitution Order. What does the Constitution Order mean? What amendments do we need to make, as it relates to moving the stage from a dependent territory to an independent territory? We've actually started that level of public dialogue in Montserrat already.

Economic Independence should be the next goal for Montserrat and a vibrant industrial sector is necessary for such independence.

Brandt's comments after his return from the USA.

We have had very positive talks and it is clear to me that Montserrat can achieve economic independence before the end of this Government's term.

I am coming back. It was all a plot to destroy me because I stand up to them and tell them we are second class citizens without a nationality and they don't like it.

The white people in Gibraltar have a nationality the white people on the Falkland Islands have a nationality but we have no nationality.

When I asked Tim Edgar, the Minister responsible for the colonies under the Thatcher government how they could justify giving 1100 people in the Falklands £5,000,000 a year and giving 11,000 people in Montserrat one and one half million pounds a year?

He told me you cannot compare yourselves with the people of Gibraltar and the Falklands.

I'm going to do everything possible to kick the British out of Montserrat.

Montserrat, despite its problems would be better off independent but I don't see the possibility of getting independence without a fight with the British.

The recent decision given by the jury on the case of the british government against John Osborne and Noel Tuitt brought a huge sigh of relief from the majority of the Montserrat public.

Why was this reaction unanimous?

Montserratians, at the conscious and subconscious level have come to realize that because it's british, does not necessarily mean that it is right.

Montserratians have come to realize that trends, policies and directives coming from England are not necessarily in the best interest of the local community.

The decision given by the jury was not a political victory for a fallen politician or a vindication from abuse of power while in office.

The decision was a national victory for the entire island. It is an indication of the awakening national spirit of the entire island and a message to the british that the minds and mentality of the country can no longer be easily be manipulated.

Nationalism, Independence, rejection of the theory of superiority are the reasons for that huge sigh of relief.

Independence will now become the central theme that will forge the unification of Montserrat. It will not be a bi-partisan issue. It is and will continue to be a national issue.

All Montserratians must now realize that what goes on in the country can not and should not be reduced to how a particular party or leader views an issue.

If the issue has national implications, then leadership from all parties must cross party lines and show a unified front in the best interest of the country.

If would-be leaders are not willing to unify on matters of national interest then they clearly show the public that they are willing to lie and mislead them for personal gain.

The decision given by the jury was a decision in the best interest of the country. A national decision.

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