Call For UN Presence In Anguilla

Retired Methodist Minister, Reverend John A. Gumbs, has called for a United Nations presence in Anguilla and other islands if it wants to succeed in bridging the gap between non-self-governing territories and the administering powers.

The outspoken Anguillian made the call while posing a question to St. Croix-born Dr. Carlyle Corbin, a regional expert on political development in small island states and an adviser to the Anguilla Constitutional and Reform Electoral Committee. The occasion was a forum on May 16 at the House of Chandeliers a few days ahead of the Caribbean Regional Seminar of the United Nations Special Committee of 24 on Decolonisation.

Reverend Gumbs noted that churches in the Caribbean, for example the Methodist, Anglican and Presbyterian, had evolved over the years into indigenous and autonomous bodies from the parent churches. In contrast he was of the view that the United Nations Special Committee on Decolonisation had failed in performing its role between the administering powers and the subjugated territories.

“I would like to suggest that the difference between the success and independence of the Caribbean church against the failure of the Decolonisation Committee of the United Nations has to do with the fact that the parent church had a similar agenda as the missionary church,” Reverend Gumbs went on. “We out here in the West Indies had the same thought as the mother church in England and because we worked together, a real partnership for progress, we succeeded. Dr. Corbin, I think that the questions one can ask are ‘Do the administering powers share the same ideals as their colonies or do they have different agendas?’ If their agendas are the same, why cannot power be transferred from the administering power to a local power?’

“The church had no difficulty in asking me, for example, to be Chairman of the Leeward Islands District. If you think of it the Leeward Islands District is made up of many different nationalities – far more people than Anguilla; far more money invested and involved than Anguilla and yet the Methodist Church had no difficulty asking any of us to administer the affairs of the church.”

Reverend Gumbs asked why the Foreign and Commonwealth Office could not ask an Anguillian to be Governor. “Obviously they cannot ask a local because their agenda is a different one from what the aspirations of the people are here,” he declared. “And so we can go beating around the bush…In the past they have failed and will fail again unless we can bring them to the point to recognise the aspirations of the people and they have not had an open book with the people. At the moment there is no transparency and if there is no transparency you will not achieve anything.”

He said something was achieved by the UN Special Committee by way of the seminar in Anguilla but observed: “Dr. Corbin, I am suggesting if you really want to succeed you need to have a presence of United Nations in every island. You did an excellent thing for us because you enabled us to have observer status in ECLAC so we have a presence there, but we need to have a local presence in the subjugate territory so that information can flow from the United Nations through you to us…

“Our little voice, say against the Rifkin Letter, meant absolutely nothing but if it were brought formally to the United Nations, could England stand up in the light of the globalisation of the world today and agree to such a letter? The point I am getting at, Sir, is that we are going to move in circles with plenty of talk, but little action, that is going to be meaningless unless we can bring all those administering powers around the table. They must know that their agenda must be clean, pure and upright and can stand the light of scrutiny; and therefore they should not be afraid to invest that kind of power, [including] -that greater power of Governors, to locals…The church was prepared to take risks and as far as I know whether it is the Anglican Church, Methodist or Presbyterian Church it did not fail.” He added that there was a need for the non-self-governing territories to chart their own destiny.

Replying, Dr. Corbin said he was not a representative of the United Nations Committee, but suggested that one of the problems was that over the years many of the islands had not expressed any interest in independence. He added that while the Committee was spending time and energy on them, there was no mechanism for the islands to hear the voice of the Committee, hence the introduction of a plan of action including the seminars now taking place annually.

He was of the view that Reverend Gumbs’ call for a UN presence in Anguilla should be included in the recommendations contained in the NGOs discussion paper for the seminar in Anguilla. He was not certain however whether such a matter would work in view of the UN’s limited resources, but thought it was possible for there to be some variation of that proposal.

Rev John A. Gumbs posing questions at forum