ROAD TOWN, Tortola, 4th March 2011 - The word “Wikileaks” became a house hold name, as we were all glued to online news and our televisions to see and learn more about a number of confidential documents being made public that included letters and cables sent to Prime Ministers, Presidents and Foreign Ministers around the world.
Well, the Virgin Islands’ (VI) Government of Premier Ralph T. O’Neal OBE, has now experienced its own Wikileaks of a diplomatic letter sent to the elected Head of Government.
The Virgin Islands is still an Overseas Territory with its colonial power being the United Kingdom of Great Britain. Therefore, all diplomatic correspondences coming from the colonial country will be sent via a ‘diplomatic pouch’ and send directly to the none elected United Kingdom (UK) Governor who represents the Queen and Government of the UK.
It was a letter dated November 11, 2010 addressed to Honourable Ralph T. O’Neal about the subject of Biwater. The letter was sent by the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office directly to the Governor’s Office for distribution as is the practice.
Premier O’Neal told the public recently, that he could not answer a question on the letter subject posed by the Leader of the Opposition Dr. the Honourable D. Orlando Smith in the VI Parliament because at the time he was not in receipt of the letter, since he later learnt that Governor William Boyd McCleary had sent the letter to his Permanent Secretary Mrs. Rosalie Adams, for her to get it to him in a timely manner.
However, before the letter reached to the Premier’s desk, it seems that someone intercepted the letter and made copies of the letter and immediately circulated it on the streets of the Virgin Islands. The Opposition, Biwater critics and the talk show chattering class, all had copies of the letter circulating and even gave this news site a copy.
How could this be? As letters from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) are usually regarded as confidential. The letter circulated had no ‘in stamp’ as received by the Premier’s Office therefore, speculations continue as to who leaked the letter.
His Excellency, the Governor has been asked by Cabinet to launch an inquiry into the leakage of the letter which according to the letter being circulated was signed by the FCO’s Director Colin Roberts on the Biwater contingent liability topic.
What is even more interesting is that the Premier reported that he was not in the country when the letter would have arrived via diplomatic mail.
Not surprising to most residents as the political temperature rises was that the Nation’s leader O’Neal implicated National Democratic Party (NDP) member and fourth district candidate Mark Vanterpool in the circulation of the letter.
With election around the corner, such incident of leakage can become more prevalent.
“My information was that Mark Vanterpool was one of these people with the letter so I telephoned him on Tuesday, 15th February and told him that I understand that he had a copy of a letter in his IPAD showing persons. Mr. Vanterpool denied categorically, that he had a copy of the letter showing to anyone and that, if he had got hold of such a letter, he would have gone straight to the Leader of the Opposition to enquire what it was all about,” said the Premier.
Now if Mr. Vanterpool had the letter would he admit that he did? The idea of Wikileaks is to have anonymous sources.
According to the Premier, Governor McCleary acknowledged that the Premier was not in the Territory at the time the letter came to the Governor’s Office. However, the Leader of Government business told his radio listeners on Monday February 28, 2011, that the Governor told him he sent the letter from the FCO to his Permanent Secretary asking her to get it to him before he saw a Henry Bellingham while in the UK.
Some critics of the Public Service claimed that the senior brass of the service including the Deputy Governor, some Permanent Secretaries, and Heads of Departments are sympathizers of the opposition NDP. However, they have not produced the evidence to support this hypothesis.
Honourable O’Neal noted that his Administration has been faced with the issue of confidentiality for some time. “This is a problem we have been struggling with a long time ago……but we will have to continue to struggle and we must prevail,” he said on his political party radio programme.
We all will be waiting to see the results of the investigation of the leak of this classified government document and we would not be surprised as we get closer to the general elections that these types of incidents will become more common. Wikileaks maybe here to stay.
Article taken from Virgin Islands News Online - http://www.virginislandsnewsonline.com
British Virgin Islands News