Respected Virgin Islands’ (VI) Queen’s Counsel (QC) and member of the Inner Bar, Mr Gerard St. C. Farara, says the territory ought to be focusing on rebuilding, rather than on constitution reform since one has more priority than the other. Photo: VINO/File

Speaking as a guest on the show, ‘Honestly Speaking’ with host Cromwell Smith aka 'Edju En Ka' filling in for Mr Claude O. Skelton-Cline, Mr Farara implored that while it is the right time to revisit constitutional reform, the territory has much more important issues. Photo: Facebook

Speaking as a guest on the show, ‘Honestly Speaking’ with host Cromwell Smith aka 'Edju En Ka' filling in for Mr Claude O. Skelton-Cline, Mr Farara implored that while it is the right time to revisit constitutional reform, the territory has much more important issues. 

Revisiting Constitution Reform

“The question of constitutional review and constitutional reform came up prior to the natural disasters and it was felt at the time, it seemed that ten years having elapsed since the last constitution, that it was an appropriate time to revisit constitution reform in the British Virgin Islands,” Mr Farara told Maduro on the Tuesday, April 29, 2019, edition of the show on ZBVI 780am.

Further, he said, “There’s no hard and fast rule of thumb that after 10 years there must be constitutional reform, in some instances you have constitutional change. It doesn’t necessarily lead to a complete reform or to great changes and improvement to the then existing constitution.”

The Queen’s Counsel implored that rather than dabbling in the process of having the Virgin Islands (VI) constitution reformed, energies should instead be projected towards the full recovery of the territory.

“In the aftermath of the Hurricanes and natural disasters, I think our emphasis can and ought to be on getting us back to full recovery, as a country both physically and in the other respects. It doesn’t mean that constitutional reform should be put on the backburner, it just means that in terms of priorities, I think our priority ought to be to restore the country back to where it was and in an improved status.”

Rebuild Greener

He said that the territory should be focusing on rebuilding using green technologies and alternative sources of generating power rather than fossil fuel.

“There are many many major issues, infrastructure issues and otherwise which we are still grappling with as a country. We have an approved plan which is to be implemented subject to any tweaking in terms of the restoration of the country.”

Further, he says that not much in relation to the plan has been done and achieved with a majority of the projects yet to be embarked upon.

“There are many issues of great substance and important at this present time, which of course have to be given priority.”