Anyone wanting to find tranquillity in Anguilla this weekend may have to go to St. Martin. You know those jokes we make about the mountains of Anguilla being in St. Martin and the sense of Anguillians travelling that once we reach St. Martin, we’re home, those are some of the ways in which we express and value the close relations enjoyed between our closest neighbours and ourselves and it is unlikely that any part of our quest for self-determination will change that.

In fact, that quest to fully exercise that principle in determining our future is one which St.Martin /St.Maarten and Anguilla have in common and it was with déjà vu that I listened to the various speakers at the Afrikan Liberation Day celebration in St. Martin last Saturday and realised that as Anguilla develops a strategy for keeping the self-determination momentum going until a further UN intervention comes along, this must include some dialogue with our closest neighbours to determine the best way forward for these Non-Self-Governing Territories (NSGT). These geo-political relations were mentioned in my presentation on Repatriation and in that of Mr. Alex Richards who addressed the matter of Change of Status at the Afrikan Liberation panel discussion in the Marigot market. Following are two excerpts: “In the Caribbean, it is the RastafarI Nation that has tended to keep alive the observation and the spirit of African Liberation Day but it struck me as I sat in the recently concluded Seminar of the United Nations Decolonisation Committee in Anguilla and indeed here in another Non-Self-Governing Territory that is our closest neighbour and one which shares the very small land space with yet another NSGT, that our people on these islands are in that same boat and this is forty years after those thirty-two African leaders sat down determined to end colonialism and to forge African unity. However, this is an era is which what I an I would call Babylon is imploding and exploding on itself all at once and though the RastafarI Nation has spearheaded the quest for repatriation to our continental homeland, we now make this demand with urgency recognising that Sovereignty today cannot spare us from terrorism, the World Trade Organisation, the OECD and the imposition of alien norms from some of our administering powers. So as one of the African leaders said in 1963 and as Anguilla’s Chief Minister expressed at the start of the UN Committee’s Seminar, this is not the time for high-sounding resolutions and speeches about repatriation. This is the time for taking strategic action to secure repatriation as part of a reparations package.” (Ijahnya Christian, 24th May 2003)
Just in case you are thinking that I have gone beyond the here and now, this is what Mr. Richards had to say about St. Martin: “The island has been made to be part of the archipelago of Guadeloupe which comprises of Marie-Galante, the Saints islands in the South, Désirade, St Barths and St. Martin. Yet the geographical definition of an archipelago speaks of a maximal distance separating the two portions of land. When one observes the situation of St. Martin, the physical distance between the island of Guadeloupe and the island of St. Martin exceeds by far the maximal distance that should separate islands of the same archipelago - the islands of the same archipelago are surrounded by the same waters. Yet between St. Martin and Guadeloupe there are international waters and foreign countries and territories. The geographical sub-region that Guadeloupe and its surrounding islands belong to is by essence French speaking, whereas the one that our island belongs too is English speaking…
Now, from a political or institutional, social and cultural stand point, the differences and realities that the leaders of this country have had to manage on a daily basis were in no wise similar to that of a regular French administrative division. The various Mayors and other elected officials of this island, have each one, in his own way, underlined and stressed before the representatives of central government, the need for St. Martin to enjoy a special treatment, the need for this island to enjoy a status aparte, the need for this reality to be recognised for what it really is and calls for. The population of this island speaks English, thinks in English, eats “non French” foods and have “non-French” cultural traditions. The relationships and co-operation that we entertain are mainly with foreign countries (Anguilla, St. Maarten, the US and British Virgin Islands, the U.S., etc) and so the issues and constraints that developed from these realities were not foreseen by the legislators, were not taken into consideration by the State or Central Government and so, the Constitution has stated, for the past 45 years, that the Republic is “one and indivisible”, ignoring thereby any difference or particularity or local reality.
Today there is a wind of change that is blowing over France and the government has taken the initiative to revise the Constitution, introducing therein possibilities that did not exist. Now, the Government clearly understands that the Republic can be one while recognising the specificity of regions. This brings a ray of hope into our situation and a breath of fresh air in our longstanding battle for recognition. While for many years autonomy was not an option that the Government welcomed, while self-determination was a “No-No”, a curse word, a resolution not easily accepted, today because of the strong emphasis that it places on decentralising power and redistributing it to the regions and sub-regions and smaller administrative divisions; today because power has to be exercised closer to where people live, the new provisions of the Constitution make possible a new option for our island.” (Alex Richards, May 24th, 2003)
I recommend that the Constitutional Review and Electoral Reform Committee take this opportunity to re-invent itself (a la former New York Mayor Giuliani during 911) and once the Anguilla Day and Regatta festivities are over, perhaps on the historic June 10th, there should be a formal review of the UN Committee Seminar to create the national context in which the UN presence that has been invited, will be able to work. Education and public awareness have been identified as high priorities for future action and the people of Anguilla must now take this period as an opportunity to develop our own Agenda, including dialogue with our neighbours from whose experience we can learn much more that what is readily observable. The matter of self-determination today needs the same kind of spirit and resolve taken thirty-six years ago. We showed we were serious then and we need to be even more serious now. So, Happy Anguilla Day! But when the fun and games are over, we’ve got to decide what next.

Ijahnya Christian

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