fp Turks and Caicos

We give God thanks for bringing us to this point in our lives, to see the dawning of a new day, and a new year. As we look back on the year 2011, a small footprint in this journey of life, we must take stock of what we have accomplished and what good we have contributed to mankind and humanity.

However, the road that we have travelled thus far to bring us to this place, even though it may have been paved with thorns of discouragement, feelings of hopelessness, fear and bitterness, we need to forge ahead and pave the streets of our journey with hope, love, passion, patriotism, pride, kindness and unity.

My fellow civil servants, we have accomplished much together as an association during the past year. We have endeavored to gain the respect of the administration to see us as equal and capable partners in the development and shaping of policies for the betterment of the civil service and country. Much work is however left to be done.

The many measures that have already been enacted by the British and those which will inevitably come will continue to have severe and negative impact on the well-being of civil servants past, present and future. Many of these issues were late in implementation due to our efforts, but their ratification is predestined in this year 2012, lest we stand strongly against them.

The interim government has managed the affairs of this country in a manner that is far from fiscally prudent and is devoid of social conscience, and this incompetence has suffocated any opportunities for productivity and efficiency within the civil service and for economic recovery on a national level.

The year 2011 was the year that we fought against the reduction of our salaries, the diminution of our pensions, and the unjust removal of our gratuities and allowances. It was the year that we fought for our brothers and sisters who could not fight or who were afraid to fight. It was the year that the interim administration abandoned their professed path of objectively and transparency and made clear their true intentions to make civil servants and Turks and Caicos Islanders citizens of the lowest class in their beloved country.

That was the year 2011. My brothers and sisters, we are now in the dawn of a new year, 2012. The Civil Service Association (CSA) wishes God’s richest blessings upon you all and upon your families. We pray for happiness, health, unity and strength as we cross the threshold into this New Year.

We know that the Lord will be our light and our salvation, and we shall have no one to fear. Fear is a tranquilizer that paralyzes the mind, body and spirit and a toxin that inhibits the progress towards justice and goodness. So let us rid ourselves of this element — fear — and march forward boldly and proudly with God as our shield.

The international publication, The Time Magazine, selected “The Protester” as their “Person of the Year”. This is truly a recognition that empires, regimes and unjust dictatorships all eventually must succumb to the will of the people of any nation. Many of you as civil servants are both as individuals and as a collective our “Person of the Year” as you rallied around the CSA and protested openly and covertly against the retrogressive and unjust policies of the interim administration. Many Turks and Caicos Islanders and residents of the TCI are also “Persons of the Year” as you too protested against injustice in our beloved country.

I am honoured to have been named the Turks and Caicos Weekly News and TCI Post’s person of the year for my efforts in organizing the CSA and motivating persons to stand up, speak up, speak out and to fight for their rights. I am humbled in the recognition that such efforts and accomplishments did not come without the support of the members of the CSA’s Management Council, Trustees and Working Group and the dedicated members who recognized that strength comes with unity.

To all of my colleagues I say these words of encouragement: At times the hurdle seems insurmountable, the road gets lonely and one feels weary, but along the way join hands with a fellow Turks and Caicos Islander, a resident, a senior citizen, a family member, someone will be there to hold your hand and say “let’s fight on together, for the casualties of this battle are worth every bit of our sacrifice.”

Turks and Caicos Islanders and fellow residents of this our country, unshackle yourselves from your chains of fear, follow your heart, insulate yourselves from the propaganda, deception and divisive tactics of the interim administration and its agents. Be knowledgeable about the issues impacting our country and participate constructively in the development of solutions.

Let no man foreign to our soil decide what is wrong or right, or what is or is not in the best interest of the majority of our people. Let no man foreign to this soil determine your children’s future. I urge you to, stand with your fellow man in the struggle against injustice. I urge you to stay the course, to keep within focus our common goal, and in all of this let God be your light, your strength and your shield.

May the good Lord bless our country and us all with a happy, healthy and prosperous 2012.

Dr. Rufus Ewing is director of Health Services within the Ministry of Health and Human Services and the president of the Civil Service Association.