Who is a Virgin Islander? asks Douglas Wheatley
Wheatley added that “If we had had this discussion twenty, thirty years ago, I think we would have been in a better position.” He felt the reason for this was that at that time the people of the BVI were in a majority and had an opportunity to “create an identity for themselves and for the Territory.”
He noted that they also had the ability to decide what was “the essence of a British Virgin Islander and the national characteristics of our people.”
“Anyone who was coming to live here after that period,” he continued “would have understood what we stood for, what our national characteristics were, what was the essence of being a Virgin Islander and also the importance and uniqueness of our identity.”
The host believed that at that time, statistics would show that the expat population was more or less equal to the local population while at this point Virgin Islanders are a minority in their country.
This fact he suggested would negate the ability for locals to sway things in the favour of Independence, since a democracy [which is the country's current system of government] requires a majority decision for laws to be carried as ancestral Virgin Islanders.
The Constitution, Wheatley noted, requires the subject of Independence to be taken through a referendum which would require the use of the voter’s list; something which would reflect that ancestral Virgin Islanders are outnumbered.
The question of who will be eligible to vote and how the list were to be used would essentially have to be decided and this he felt was the proverbial “elephant in the [living] room”.
“We have to deal with that elephant, long before we get into the substantive matters about Independence,” he asserted.
The veteran broadcaster and political commentator then went on to quote excerpts of the Constitution that were applicable to the issue of belonging to the Virgin Islands under the current statutes of the democracy.
Quoting from Ch:2 of the Constitution, the host said, “For the purposes of this Constitution, a person belongs to the Virgin Islands if that person...” He noted that it proceeds to offer a long list but does not state essentially who is a Virgin Islander.
“We never did, in this whole document that is our Constitution,” Wheatley remarked, “say who a Virgin Islander is.”
“It is something that we have to confront,” he continued, “because that is the essence of what Independence is all about.”
“British Virgin Islanders have an ancestral connection to the Virgin Islands and I think it should be in the Constitution.”
“Here we are [with someone being] a third generation Virgin Islander,” he lamented “and you don’t really have claim to your country, as such.”
“How did this happen?” he questioned. “We need to change these things!”
“In twenty-five years,” Wheatley continued, “we probably will be hard pressed to find the names of Ancestral Virgin Islanders in the Legislative Council of the House of Assembly.” “How could we have allowed that to happen?”
"This needs to be revisited," he urged.
One caller on the programme felt that “we should wait until our numbers grow” over a number of years before any action could be taken.
Another caller noted that "practice makes perfect," suggesting that it takes the ability to walk the walk before one can achieve Independence. "We need to clothe ourselves... start feeding ourselves.... get up out of that wheelchair," he demanded.
"We most certainly need a conversation on the preliminary steps," the host concluded. "We have to become more self-sustainable in every way".
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