A few ‘bad apples’ cannot be an indictment of entire VI- Former Speaker Willock
Mr Willock was at the time speaking during a May 19, 2022, interview on a talk show hosted by Dale Enoch, on Trinidad’s I99.5FM radio station.
Touching on the topic, including the CoI and the arrest of former VI Premier, Hon Andrew A. Fahie (R1), Willock added, “the International label that BVI is corrupt, it's a false narrative.”
Mistakes happen all over the world – Mr Willock
“I will be the first to say that there have been mistakes over the years by all governments, just like mistakes happen all over the world in Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, France, United Kingdom, South Africa, Belize, Belgium.”
He said while these issues happen all over the world, it does not mean that these entire jurisdictions are corrupt. “You have these issues that pop up from time to time of lack of accountability and lack of good governance,” even locally he added.
The former Speaker said; however, “The BVI remains well regulated, particularly in our financial services sector. And yes, there have been bad apples over the years, but that cannot be an indictment on the whole country,” he said.
Persons waiting to hear from Premier Fahie
Meanwhile, Mr Willock told listeners in Trinidad & Tobago that the CoI and the arrest of Hon Fahie remain two separate issues.
“There is the former Premier and his legal woes, and then there is a Commission of Inquiry. That’s two separate matters. It's unfortunate what the former premier Honourable Andrew Fahie got himself in whether you want to argue it was a sting operation,” he said.
The former Speaker added that while the drug and money laundering conspiracy allegations of Hon Fahie is shocking, sad, and damaging to the VI if accurate, there is the side of the former Premier to be told, “if there’s another side.”
Hon Willock noted that to date Hon Fahie has not issued a statement since being arrested, “I think he is still in lock-up… I'm not sure about his movement in terms of while in there, whether he has access to the media or whether he has access to make a statement,” he said.
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45 Responses to “A few ‘bad apples’ cannot be an indictment of entire VI- Former Speaker Willock ”
Even though I don't believe that your birth place is the BVI, you lived in the BVI long enough, and know that the BVI is festered corrupted overseas territory of the UK.
I am not accusing you of been a corrupted person. I have no definitive proof that you are, but I cannot nor would agreed with you or any other person or persons that that to convince others that in the BVI there are only a few bad apples. In fact in the BVI we are living a omg many badly corrupted apples, (people) criminally, socially, economically, and spiritually, facts
Crime go up in our country and no one have the balls to comfort the governor or commissioner on this serious issue
As such, every resident is entitled to due process and if fairly judge guilty by a jury of one’s peers, one should face the music, the consequences. Consequently, the BVI constitution should not be suspended to punish the many for the bad behaviour of an alleged few.
Moreover, the VI does have governing challenges. In my view, the VI failed because of its success, ie, the success of of individuals and the governing institution, transitioning from subsistence agriculture to services, ie, tourism and financial services. It paid little attention as to why it was successful. It focused on failure after it failed. However, failing is not a strange phenomenon; it is common place. More focus is paid to avoid failing, the stigma of failing, than on winning. Nonetheless, failure is not all bad. Individuals, institutions, organizations, etc, can learn from failure. The VI can and must learn and develop from its failure(s). It must capitalize on the return on failures. It also must focus on why it is successful.
Looking forward, the VI needs a “Skunk Work” and creative destruction project.