Oswald Skippings

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Oswald O'Neil Skippings (born 1953) is a politician from the Turks and Caicos Islands. He served as the island territory's Chief Minister from 19 June 1980 to November 1980 and again from 3 March 1988 to April 1991.

Oswald O’Neil Skippings became the youngest member of a Caribbean government ever when he was first elected to the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) legislature in 1976 at the age of 22. He later became the youngest leader of a Caribbean government ever when he became Chief Minister in 1980 at the age of 26. Skippings was Chief Minister of the TCI between June and November, 1980 and again between March, 1988 and April 1991.

Skippings is often acclaimed in TCI newspapers as having been an elected legislative council member at all times since 1976. However, that is not quite true. The UK government had suspended constitutional government in its colony between July 24, 1986 and February 25, 1988. Accordingly, there were no elected legislative council members during that period. The UK government’s drastic action was caused substantially by the actions of Skippings.

In March, 1985, while Skippings and his People’s Democratic Movement (PDM) political party were in Opposition, the Chief Minister of the TCI, Norman Saunders, and two other government ministers were convicted in Florida of drug smuggling offences. The Chief Minister was subsequently imprisoned in the US.

An election was called in November 1985 after Saunders and the two other Progressive National Party (PNP) government ministers resigned. Perhaps surprisingly under the circumstances, TCI voters rejected Skippings and his PDM party and instead returned Saunders’ PNP party to power. The subsequent actions of Skippings and other TCI politicians were a direct pre-cursor to the UK government’s suspension of the TCI Constitution.

To set the stage, the PDM party had come to power back in 1976 after a spate of unresolved but apparently politically-motivated arsons. In February 1985 the District Commissioner's office in South Caicos was set on fire. Arson was suspected but no charges were brought. On December 18 1985, there was a fire at the house next door to the house of the Minister of Health. Arson was suspected. Again, no charges could be brought. And then Bascombe House, a government owned building on Grand Turk, was burned to the ground on New Year's Eve 1985. This led directly to a 1986 UK government Commission of Inquiry.

That Commission of Inquiry was instituted by the UK government’s Foreign Office and was conducted by Louis Blom-Cooper, QC. According to a London Times article of July 22, 1986, the Commission of Inquiry was set up by the Foreign Office after local investigations into a fire at a government building in Grand Turk on New Year's Eve, 1985 "revealed evidence not only of arson but also of a possible conspiracy to commit that and other offences."

In what must be seen as an almost complete breakdown of governance in the TCI, the Commission of Inquiry found three PNP ministers of government, "...guilty of unconstitutional behavior and of ministerial malpractices which rendered them unfit to exercise ministerial responsibilities.” Additionally, two members of the Opposition PDM party were found, according to Blom-Cooper's report that was submitted to the Foreign Office on July 4, 1986, "guilty of the most reprehensible conduct." One of those was Skippings. According to a Times article on July 26, 1986, the Blom-Cooper report found the two Opposition members "had been involved in a conspiracy to commit public order offences in order to overthrow [the] government." Blom-Cooper stated in his report that Skippings' conduct was "intolerable" and that Skippings was "unfit to hold public office."

Although Blom-Cooper could reach no conclusion for prosecutorial purposes as to the identities of the arsonists of Bascombe House, he formed an opinion as to the likely cause of the arson. Blom-Cooper concluded that two or more unknown low-level supporters of the PDM committed the arson either at the instruction of their political masters or thinking that their arson would at least draw praise and patronage from the PDM hierarchy. Skippings was the leader of the PDM party at that time. Blom-Cooper also concluded that the success of arson in bringing the PDM to power in 1976 was likely in the minds of the Bascombe House arsonists.

The evidence of criminal wrongdoing against Skippings at the commission hearings was overwhelming. He had been “stung” by an undercover PNP operative, Luis Gravely, with a voice-activated tape recorder. The sting occurred in Skipping's car at North Base, Grand Turk on the evening of December 16 1985. In the transcript of that tape, which was agreed upon at the commission hearings by Skippings and his lawyer, Skippings can be heard clearly inciting the murder of the then 73-year old PNP Chief Minister, Norman Francis, and other members of the PNP government. The methods of murder discussed were by dynamite and by a handgun with a silencer. There was also police evidence of a later speech given by Skippings in which he advocated the violent overthrow of the TCI government using the then recent overthrow of the Philippines government as a guide.

Yet no prosecution was ever brought against Skippings for incitement to murder or sedition. He was not even arrested. Blom-Cooper recommends that no prosecution be brought because Skippings’ could not obtain “a fair hearing…by an independent and impartial court” under the TCI Constitution. Blom-Cooper gives two reasons why he considers this is so. “…there has been such an avalanche of written and spoken words over the last three months that no one (without any conceivable exception) could have failed to form a concluded view as to the individual’s guilt or innocence.”

The Turks and Caicos Islands Commission of Inquiry 1986 is Command Paper 21 of that year and is still available from Her Majesty’s Stationery Office in London. It was submitted to the UK government on July 4 1986. It was quietly published 6 months later.

Following shortly on the heels of the Blom-Cooper investigation came the 1986 TCI Constitutional Commission, headed by Sir Roy Marshall. That commission contemplated at page 8 of its report a disqualification for Skippings, preventing him from running for further political office. However, in the final analysis, the Commission, which fully agreed with Blom-Cooper's assessment of Skippings, stated, "...it would be wrong to recommend the imposition of a legal disqualification in the absence of a conviction by a court of law. This in no way indicates any doubt about the correctness of Mr. Blom-Cooper's findings of fact."

The Constitutional Commission ran from September 1986 through December 1986. The Constitutional Commission's report was submitted to the UK government in April 1987 and the current TCI Constitution came into effect in 1988. As an indication of the level of corruption in the TCI government, there was also a second Commission of Inquiry conducted by Blom-Cooper in 1986.

Skippings kept his legislative seat at the last general election in 2003. His constituency consists almost entirely of his large and extensive family and close family friends. To provide an idea of Skippings’ positions on important social issues, below are a few quotes, recorded during a night time PDM political rally on August 16 2001, at which Skippings announced the unlawful and unconstitutional deportation of foreign immigrant investors and property owners who had publicly criticized him and his government.

“And they got this talk with the United Nations and your human rights… How do (sic) United Nations figure that? The United Nations is not a country. The United Nations is an organization. So they can say what they want to say…"

"Our TCI people must get something out of the deal, something different from the scraps and the crumbs from the table. I say you got to give something back. There is a time for everything under the sun, a time for rain and a time for drought, a time for peace and a time for war, a time for love and a time for hate, a time for fearness (sic), a time for you and a time for me and this is the people’s time. The audacity of these people to threaten to shut our country down. That’s the reason I fight tooth and nail in the executive council to give our people the concessions that they require even if it means breaking the rules sometimes. If that’s the only way our people are going to get a fair chance to get a fair share of the pie, to truly partake in this development that is going on then break the rules and throw the pieces out of the window.”

"This is our country and we are going to rule it. And those of you who are legal and from a foreign (sic) you should want us to do it that way because you should be a part of us."

"...with the right intentions the investor would understand the government’s agenda and realise that the people should be benefiting and they would come together and find an alternative that would meet the peoples needs and that would meet their needs, in other words, a compromise. But that does not seem to be the issue, you see, as far as some of them is (sic) concerned, it is all about themselves and their investment and to Hell with the people. They have not yet come to say how to do this and how to raise the funds, they tell you how not to."

"You see, imagine this day and age when you have politicians who are willing to sell you up for their personal gain and to get power. See we’ve got to be doing something right as a government. You know, you know we should feel like champions tonight because we’re heralding the cause of our people..."

"Do you know that history has a habit? No, that’s wrong. History never repeats itself. People repeat history. Now you tell the philosopher who wrote that, he (sic) wrong. I say so."

"But that’s not going to affect you, just like it didn’t affect you before. But who it should effect is those (sic) bunch of people that got these expensive homes making a million dollars off them every year and not giving government a dime out of it. Somebody done let de dogs out. "

During the same night time political rally, Skippings openly incited physical violence against named law-abiding foreign investors who had criticised him. He told the crowd the names of these immigrant investors, where they lived and then screamed at the crowd, “Does anyone want to get physical?” The audiotape of this political rally is available from WIV Cable TV in the TCI.

In 2005, Skippings announced his retirement at the next general election, which must be held before August 2007. He attempted to hand pick his successor, but the new PDM party leaders advised him publicly that they would handle that task.

Preceded by J.A.G.S. McCartney	Chief Minister of the Turks and Caicos Islands 1980	Succeeded by Norman Saunders
Preceded by Advisory Council (interim)	Chief Minister of the Turks and Caicos Islands 1988–1991	Succeeded by Washington Misick