“The Political Achievement of the People”

A Confidential 1978 Government Document Reveals the True Spirit of the Constitutional Awakening in the Turks and Caicos Islands

There are moments in the life of a nation when history ceases to whisper. Moments when ordinary people begin to realise that the future of their country should belong not only to those who exercise authority, but also to the people themselves.

For the Turks and Caicos Islands, one of those defining moments came on 30th August 1976, when the new Constitution came into operation. The Constitution did not itself place the first ministers into office. It created the constitutional framework through which the country could move into Ministerial Government.

The Constitution had to come first. Then the people had to vote. Then a government had to be formed. That sequence is essential to understanding the political achievement of 1976.

A Country Was Changing

The constitutional changes came at a time of considerable social and economic change. The decline of the salt industry had shaken families across Grand Turk, Salt Cay and South Caicos. Unemployment, migration, economic hardship and separation affected homes throughout the Islands. At the same time, political consciousness was growing.

People were questioning leadership, opportunity, fairness, representation, dignity and the future direction of the Turks and Caicos Islands. A younger generation was becoming politically active. Among its most powerful voices was J.A.G.S. McCartney.

To many ordinary people, JAGS became more than a politician. He represented political awakening, self-belief and the idea that ordinary Turks and Caicos Islanders deserved a meaningful voice in determining the future of their country.

He spoke to struggling families, unemployed youths, working people, fishermen, labourers, civil servants and communities searching for opportunity and political dignity. But the movement for change was never carried by one man alone.

Around JAGS stood a much wider generation of people whose organising, discussions, activism, encouragement and quiet support helped create the atmosphere in which political change became possible.

Among those remembered within that wider awakening were Edward “Eddie” Seymour, Ronald “Ron” Higgs, Edward “Eddie” Swann, Carol Forbes-Durham, Dennis Durham, Rupert Robinson, Harold Robinson, William Robinson, Virginia Robinson, Leon Watkins, Janet Adams-Fulford, Earl Fulford, Audrey Taylor, Elaine Adams, Jean “Jenny” Williams, Albert “Abbey” Williams, Rupert “Spadyboy” Gardiner, Corleen Williams, Valeria Kennedy-Houseman, Beverly Ingham, Earl “Super C” Ingham, Kathleen “Katie” Williams, Lathia “MaDokie” Steel, Lillian “Ma Lil” Swann, Norman “Normy” Parker, Herbert Been, Marjorie Durham, Helena Jones Robinson, Sir Evan Wood, Mary Wood, Minnie Tatem, Arthur Tatem, Hubert James Jr., Nathaniel “Bops” Francis, Clement Lightbourne, Cille Penn, Harry Lightbourne, Charles Higgs, Biggie Ingham, Kenneth Carter, Alexander Carter, Moses Carter Sr., Beatrice Carter, Rosabelle Adams, Roy Adams, Mildred Garland Astwood, Lewis “Louie” Edwin Astwood, Emmanuel “Manny” Penn, Brenda Sturrup-Robinson, Edgar “Mobile” Forbes, Hyacinth Been, Leslie Musgrove, Verna Simmons-Musgrove, Ackee “Big Truck” Haven, Barrington Skippings, Raphael Graveley, Ariel Misick, Vernon “Codigi” Lightbourne, Douglas “Doggie” Prospere, Carlos Simons and many others.

Not all played the same role, and not all appeared in official records.

But collectively they remind us that political transformation takes place not only inside government chambers, but in homes, neighbourhoods, workplaces, churches, meetings and conversations among ordinary people.

A Confidential Document Surfaces

Nearly half a century later, a government document preserved among the papers of the late Hon. Lewis “Louie” Edwin Astwood provides a remarkable window into how the constitutional achievement was viewed during the earliest years of Ministerial Government.

Dated September 1978, stamped “CONFIDENTIAL” and identified as Executive Council Paper No. 78/58, the document states: “The present Constitution of the Turks and Caicos Islands came into operation on 30th August 1976.”

It further explains:

“An important feature of the Constitution was the introduction of the office of Chief Minister and Ministerial Government to the Islands.”

But perhaps its most powerful statement was its explanation of why Constitution Day deserved recognition:

“The observance of Constitution Day is an annual event that merits some form of recognition, as it marks the political achievement of the people of that particular territory.”

The political achievement of the people. Not simply the achievement of government. Not simply the achievement of politicians. The people. Those words provide an important key to understanding 1976. A Constitution may establish offices and distribute authority, but behind constitutional change are people who speak, organise, challenge, sacrifice and vote.

From Party to Movement

The change from the People's Democratic Party, PDP, to the People's Democratic Movement, PDM, also reflected the political mood of the period. To many involved, the word Movement represented something larger than electoral politics.

It represented youth activism, grassroots participation, political awakening, constitutional advancement, dignity and the growing belief that ordinary Islanders had a right to participate in shaping their homeland. But political struggle could also carry consequences. That is where Section 57 of the 1976 Constitution becomes particularly interesting.

Section 57: The Question of Pardon

Section 57 dealt with the Governor's powers of pardon and other forms of constitutional mercy. Read alone, it may appear to be simply a legal provision. But within the remembered history of the Movement, the question of pardon carried much greater significance.

The political struggle of the 1970s had included demonstrations, confrontations with authority, the Junkanoo Club struggle and the dramatic events of June 1975. People involved in political action could expose themselves to arrest, prosecution or punishment.

According to accounts preserved from people close to the political struggle, McCartney regarded the question of pardon as part of his wider concern for members of the Movement.

Political advancement could not simply mean obtaining constitutional change and ministerial office while forgetting those who had stood in the struggle.

The written Constitution establishes the power of pardon. It does not, by itself, record every discussion surrounding McCartney's motives or constitutional strategy. That part of the story must continue to be reconstructed through private papers, oral histories, recollections of participants and surviving records of the negotiations.

But the accounts matter because they place Section 57 within the human story of the Movement.

Then the People Voted

With the Constitution in force, Turks and Caicos Islanders went to the polls on 29th September 1976. The result was close. The PDM won five seats. The PNO won four.

Two Independents were elected: Daniel Anthony Williams, representing Bottle Creek, North Caicos, and Charles William “Liam” McGuire, representing South Caicos South.

The five successful PDM candidates included J.A.G.S. McCartney, Oswald O'Neal Skippings, Lewis Edwin Astwood, Henry Leon Wilson and Walter Ebenezer Cox, who won the Providenciales constituency.

The result left neither political party with an outright majority of the eleven elected seats.

For a brief but decisive period, the formation of the first Ministerial Government could have gone either way. The two Independents held the balance. Negotiations followed between 29th September and 1st October 1976. This was not a minor footnote.

The Constitution had been established. The people had voted. But the question of who would form the first Ministerial Government remained unsettled. Ultimately, both Independents joined the governmental arrangement.

The First Ministerial Government

On 1st October 1976, the country's first Ministerial Government took office. J.A.G.S. McCartney became the first Chief Minister of the Turks and Caicos Islands, with responsibility for Home Affairs and Communications.

Serving as the three other Ministers were:

·      Lewis “Louie” Edwin Astwood, responsible for Public Works, Utilities and Labour;

·      Oswald O'Neal Skippings, responsible for Health, Education, Welfare and Local Government; and

·      Charles William “Liam” McGuire, responsible for Tourism, Development of Industries and Resources.

The new governmental structure also included two Parliamentary Secretaries: Daniel Anthony Williams and Henry Leon Wilson.

McGuire's position was particularly significant. He had been elected as an Independent, yet following the negotiations he entered the first Ministerial Government as one of its three Ministers.

Williams, the other Independent, became a Parliamentary Secretary.

The sequence therefore deserves to be remembered clearly: 30th August 1976: the Constitution came into operation. 29th September 1976: the people voted, producing a result of PDM 5, PNO 4 and Independents 2. 29th September–1st October: negotiations followed because neither party held an outright majority. 1st October 1976: the first Ministerial Government took office. The Constitution created the framework. The people voted.

The election left the balance of power undecided. The negotiations determined who would govern. And Ministerial Government became a functioning reality.

A Generation Was Losing Its Fear

But constitutions cannot be understood through dates and offices alone. The deeper story of the 1970s was the changing political consciousness of the people. A younger generation was awakening. Fear was beginning to break. Ordinary people were beginning to believe that their voices mattered.

JAGS did not create that awakening alone, but he became one of its strongest voices. He is remembered not simply because he became the first Chief Minister, but because many ordinary people believed he fought for their dignity, representation, opportunity and right to participate in determining the future of their own country.

The people came first. Yet honouring McCartney should never erase the generation around him. Some marched. Some organised. Some spoke publicly. Some opened their homes. Some provided transportation or assistance. Some challenged authority. Some participated quietly. Some voted. And many found the courage to believe that political change was possible.

'Their names may not all appear in constitutional documents, but their presence remains woven into the political memory of the Turks and Caicos Islands.

Fifty Years Later

As the Turks and Caicos Islands commemorate fifty years since the Constitution of 1976 and the establishment of Ministerial Government, the story should be remembered in its proper sequence. The Constitution came first. Then the people voted. The election produced no outright party majority. The Independents held the balance.Negotiations followed.

And on 1st October 1976, the country's first Ministerial Government took office. But perhaps the deepest meaning of that constitutional journey was captured only two years later in the confidential Executive Council paper: “The political achievement of the people.”

Those words still speak across half a century. Because the Constitution of 1976 was never only about government. It was never only about ministers. And it was never only about JAGS. It was about people beginning to recognise the power of their own political voice.

It was about ordinary Islanders beginning to believe that they had a right to help shape the future of their homeland. The Constitution opened the door. The people walked through it. And on 1st October 1976, Ministerial Government became a reality. It was the people's political achievement.

About the Author

Joan Astwood-Sutton, LLB (Hons.), Master's in Publishing, and Certificate in Youth & Community Studies, is an author, publisher, cultural heritage researcher, museum founder, storyteller, and historical preservation advocate in the Turks and Caicos Islands. She is the Founder and Director of the Hon. Lewis Edwin Astwood Research Library, Museum and Learning Facility, dedicated to preserving the political, cultural, and historical legacy of the Turks and Caicos Islands.

She is the daughter of the late Hon. Lewis Edwin Astwood, who served in the first Ministerial Government established under the 1976 Constitution, and the late Mildred Garland Astwood, both closely connected to the political and community movements of the 1970s. Through decades of archival preservation, oral history documentation, and historical research, she has worked to preserve the memory and identity of the Turks and Caicos Islands for future generations.