EDITORIAL

Cuban Refugee Claims Must Be Addressed

Wednesday, July 21, 2004

There have been many instances throughout world history where the media has published news articles of which its government has disapproved because they caused embarrassment to those in power. 

In some instances, the publishing of these stories have brought dramatic results; stories of the realities of the war in Vietnam made that conflict very unpopular in the United States, leading to the ultimate withdrawal of American troops, and articles about the Watergate Hotel break-in led to the resignation of American President Richard Nixon.

In the above examples, if the US Military, or Richard Nixon had their choice, none of those media reports would have ever been published. In many authoritarian countries around the world, the public would have never heard such reports. One of the main differences between democracies and totalitarian forms of government always has been the freedom of the press.

The Cayman Islands is and has been a democratic society, but that democracy has not necessarily been very advanced. Freedom of the press here in the Cayman Islands has historically often meant in practice only the freedom of publishing what the government approved of seeing published. 

It is only in more recent history, as the country’s financial industry took a worldwide spotlight, did Cayman’s democracy begin progressing as well, and only in very recent history, has that advancement meant increased freedom of the press.

Still, some stalwarts of Cayman’s bygone days, when much of what the government did went unreported, have resisted press freedoms through a number of methods that have included refusal to give information, intimidation and even economic starvation attempts.

It comes as little surprise, then, that some in our government are very upset that Cayman Net News reported that an article appeared in the Washington Post reporting that Cuban refugees allegedly paid bribes to buy their way out of prison here. 

Certainly, such a story, if true, is embarrassing to the Cayman Islands. Even if it is not true, the Washington Post article has now also appeared on-line in newspapers in Ohio, New Mexico, Arizona, the state of Washington and elsewhere in the world.

We here at Cayman Net News believe the people of this country have a right to know what is being said about the Cayman Islands overseas. We also believe that the Washington Post report merits a prompt and thorough investigation conducted by the proper authorities to determine if the report is accurate or not. 

What we fear, however, is that with the Government’s brief statement last week that it was aware of the Washington Post article and that it is “looking into the matter”, will be the last thing we officially hear about the issue. 

While this might seem cynical on our part, we have seen time and again situations where inquiries that we have made have gone ignored by various government departments or statutory authorities, save for the “we’re looking into it” response. 

The “sweep-it-under-the-carpet” philosophy, which might have worked well when the Cayman Islands was an insignificant little Caribbean country in the world’s eyes, will no longer work now that it is the fifth largest financial centre on the planet. These old philosophies are third-world behaviour, and we are not a third-world country.

Keeping the residents of the country ignorant to the facts is one thing, but if Cayman does not respond to the Cuban refugee bribe allegations, the rest of world will probably assume two things: one, that the allegations are true, and two, that our government is not interested in transparency or justice. Only through a proactive response can this country ultimately save face showing that its democracy has indeed advanced past that of some of our Caribbean neighbours.

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