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William B. McCleary Out! John S. Duncan In! as VI Governor
No to Independence
The Virgin Islands (VI) is still a colony of Great Britain therefore Governors are appointed and not elected like most progressive countries. Recent public opinion in the VI shows that many residents have zero interest in independence at least not now under a National Democratic Party (NDP) government.
The public is afraid of continued victimization of public officers, the continued politicization of the education system, the censorship of the press, the blatant lies by many elected officials, the new divisive politics post the 2011 general elections, the use of the House of Assembly (HoA) to insult and ridicule ordinary residents where politicians can get away with it in the HoA under immunity from law suits, and the big one; corruption.
So at least for the next 10 to 20 years or so the VI can expect more Governors to be sent from the “mother country” the UK.
McCleary poor legacy-said he is no racist!
Many public officers and private citizens who spoke to this news site off the record confirmed that the outgoing Governor William B. McCleary was one of the worst Governors ever and have taking the country backwards in terms of upholding of laws, rights of Pubic Officers and being fair and objective.
When pressed for them to cite examples they came up with some 10 plus, mostly legal matters. They site for example the ongoing Bob Hodge case where Governor William B. McCleary violated the rights of the five men in the Exterdiction Case. He used the wrong law to instruct the Magistrate to start the procedure for sending the five men [Earl Delville Hodge known as 'Bob Hodge'; Former Customs Officer, Roberto Harrigan known as 'Tico'; Chad Skelton; Carlston Beazer; and Juan Valdez], to the United States of America for alleged drugs conspiracy.
The court judgement of the use by the Governor of the wrong law and violation of rights were handed down by Justice Albert Redhead. While the Crown dropped all local charges against the five men they still remained in prison since August 2011.
Once advised of his violation of the men’s rights on the issuing of the Extradition directive the Governor issued a new order under the correct law for the men to be sent to the USA, while many in the legal system cried foul and double jeopardy. The matter is now up for Judicial Review by the court as the five men remain behind bars with no local charges against them.
They also cited some three police cases in which the Governor surrendered his power under law to his pal David Morris the Commission of Police, another UK national. Mr. Morris then used that power to deny some officers promotion, interdict others for alleged wrong doing and place others before the Police Service Commission for discipline.
Many police officers saw it as blatant abuse of power by Morris that resulted in the moral of the Royal Virgin Islands Police Force being at an all time low with many police leaks along with crime on the rise.
The critics of Morris also claimed that the UK police officers get special treatment and make much more money than other officers actually doing the work. However, the police officers speaking to this news site said they cannot go to the Governor for remedy or to find justice on these matters so they have to spend huge sums of monies on lawyers in the courts they can least afford.
Another of the many failures of Governor McCleary is the illegal firing of a Permanent Secretary (PS) following the Governor’s violation of the constitution of the Virgin Islands.
The PS was sent on leave after it was alleged he had a person working for one of his group of companies without a work permit. The Labour Department found that the officer had all of his work permits in order and placed same in writing.
The Officer went to court and was successful about the violation of his rights and the illegal act of sending him on leave without due process. The Public Service Commission conducted its own investigation on the matter and found no evidence of wrong doing and voted unanimously for the officer to return to work.
Governor McCleary then violated the constitution by interfering and instructed the PSC an independent constitutional body after the decision to reinstall the officer was sent to him according to documents obtained by this news site.
With the backing of some elements in the NDP Cabinet the officer was then terminated without due cause, however it’s unclear the status of the matter at this time.
Janet Williams a long time observer of VI politics said this governor had a chance to stand up for public officers when they were being pushed around and out by the NDP following the 2011 general elections but “he did nothing, he did not fight for officers he stood in silence…it’s a shame; it’s a bad legacy”!..The service is now a political body which it is not supposed to be…” she continued.
The Opposition has also been critical of the Governor as they brought many weighty matters to his attention including the alleged violation of civil servants, the termination of others and many being forced to retire over politics however nothing was done.
Recently, the Opposition led Public Accounts Committee Chaired by Honourable Ralph T. O’Neal OBE asked the Governor to appoint a Commission of Inquiry to further investigate the Port Development Project after two investigative reports found conflict of interest, corruption and no one looking out for tax payers. He has not.
Governor McCleary told a local radio Morning Ride talk show that he is not a racist! To give him credit he did stand up to the NDP Censor Bill passed in the HoA to shut down press freedom and place journalists in jail. He refused to sign the bill following pressure from the FCO, the international community and press freedom advocates both locally and regionally.
He demanded that a clause be placed in the bill to allow the press to report facts on any government that is in the public interest. However it’s left to be seen who decides and how it’s determined what is in the public interest.
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31 Responses to “William B. McCleary Out! John S. Duncan In! as VI Governor”
For the record the past Governor of the Cayman Islands was Duncan Taylor (January 15, 2010 – August 7, 2013) NOT Mr John S. Duncan. Please get your facts straight....
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Governor_of_the_Cayman_Islands for verification!
How many who come here are qualified for the job of governor? Guess he was here on a long vacation.
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