“Independence would be disastrous” – NGO

Dennie Warren Jr, 
President of the People for
Referendum

Monday,  October 24, 2005

Recent reports in a Bermuda Newspaper that the Cayman Islands sees its UK dependent status as an important factor in the Islands’ financial success has been echoed by people here campaigning for a reform of the constitution.

A leading official of a local non-governmental organization (NGO) says if the Cayman Islands was to become independent with its present constitution it would be disastrous.

President of the People for Referendum, Dennie Warren Jr., said without the appropriate checks and balances in the constitution independence would be useless. 

“Under the present constitution, independence would be disastrous based on lack of checks and balances in our constitution, and simply not what the people want,” he said.

He was responding to an article appearing in The Royal Bermuda, which quoted the Bermuda International Business Association (BIBA) as saying that Cayman was seeking a competitive edge by remaining a colony of Britain. 

“Rival offshore jurisdiction the Cayman Islands was promoting the fact it has no intention of going independent which was being used to gain a competitive edge over Bermuda,” the newspaper reported in its 14 October edition. 

Mr Warren, whose committee is part of the Cayman Islands Non-Governmental Organisation Constitutional Working Group, believes more autonomy is the answer. 

“I believe the current status needs improvements with a well crafted constitution. We should have more autonomy based on national consensus,” he recommended. 

He also said that the Cayman Constitution was antiquated giving rise to lack of openness and transparency. 

“The Cayman Constitution is the most antiquated of the Overseas Territories. We don’t have the openness, transparency and democracy that we should have in Government,” he said.

He called for a referendum to effect constitutional changes and educational programmes on the status options available to the islanders. 

The NGO leader added, “There is a strong feeling that Free Association is the best option but I have no way of knowing or not.” 

According to him, there are four options open to Caymanians - the Status Quo, Free Association, Integration and Independence. 

His organization also wants to see the passage of a bill of rights, a freedom of information law, and the rewriting of the constitution to clarify some of its ambiguous language.

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