Today marks election day for Americans – the opportunity to exercise your democratic right and determine America’s future. At the same time, in my home, the Falkland Islands, we will be making the final preparations for our citizens to exercise the same right through a referendum, by which we will determine, definitively, our political status.
The Falklands themselves may not be familiar to most Americans, but our history dates back about as long as your own. Around the same time that the United States were fighting for independence, a small group of hardy people were settling down on our rugged archipelago in the South Atlantic. Prior to this settlement by our ancestors, the Falklands had no indigenous population – the Islands were uninhabited. Our Islands may be isolated from the rest of the world, but over the course of nine generations they have become our home.
We are a small population with only three thousand people, and yet our Islands enjoy one of the most direct and accountable democracies anywhere in the world. Our eight elected representatives are readily accessible to everyone on the islands. Where else does the public have the opportunity, once a month at a public meeting, to put questions directly to their entire elected government?
I am a sixth generation Islander. Neither I, nor my family, nor our ancestors have ever questioned our identity as Falkland Islanders and, by extension, as British citizens. Yet our upcoming referendum marks a significant event in the history of our islands; we have never before asserted so clearly, through the ballot box, how we wish to live and be governed.
We have America to thank for establishing our right of self-determination. In 1776, the Thirteen Colonies paved the way for modern democracy to protect the rights of peoples to determine their own political, economic, social, and cultural status. This right of self-determination is now enshrined for all peoples in the UN Charter. We, the people of the Falkland Islands are entitled to have our rights as a people fully respected and recognized by everyone across the world.
Yet unlike America, our home is not recognized - nor even respected - by our closest neighbor, the Republic of Argentina, whose government attempts to force the matter of sovereignty over my home through economic and political intimidation. Argentina claims that our home forms part of the province of Tierra del Fuego – an area that was not defined until after two generations of Falkland Islanders had been born and raised in our Islands. Nearly two hundred years after our families made the Islands their home, the Argentine government continues to ignore the rights and wishes of this generation of Falkland Islanders. Under the Argentine Constitution, they will accept nothing less than full sovereignty and control of our home, and have already dismissed our referendum, whatever its outcome, before it has even been held. We Falkland Islanders are a people of three thousand facing a nation of forty million; this is simply an unacceptable denial of our rights.
With this referendum, we want to send a clear message to the world about how we wish to live our lives. It is our opportunity to stand as a people and announce with one voice that we will not be bullied nor intimidated. That we, and only we, will determine our future.
Today, we will watch from afar as you exercise your democratic right to vote – we will await the results and support the results of free and fair elections. And when our turn comes in March 2013, I ask that you take a moment to reflect on our Islands far away. We are a small place with a big future, and have one simple request: join us in supporting our right of self-determination and our decision to determine the political status of our small, but treasured land.
The Honorable Jan Cheek is a Member of the Legislative Assembly of the Falkland Islands.
Photo: Kate McKenna (cc).
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Americans: Remember the Falkland Islands
November 6, 2012
Today marks election day for Americans – the opportunity to exercise your democratic right and determine America’s future. At the same time, in my home, the Falkland Islands, we will be making the final preparations for our citizens to exercise the same right through a referendum, by which we will determine, definitively, our political status.
The Falklands themselves may not be familiar to most Americans, but our history dates back about as long as your own. Around the same time that the United States were fighting for independence, a small group of hardy people were settling down on our rugged archipelago in the South Atlantic. Prior to this settlement by our ancestors, the Falklands had no indigenous population – the Islands were uninhabited. Our Islands may be isolated from the rest of the world, but over the course of nine generations they have become our home.
We are a small population with only three thousand people, and yet our Islands enjoy one of the most direct and accountable democracies anywhere in the world. Our eight elected representatives are readily accessible to everyone on the islands. Where else does the public have the opportunity, once a month at a public meeting, to put questions directly to their entire elected government?
I am a sixth generation Islander. Neither I, nor my family, nor our ancestors have ever questioned our identity as Falkland Islanders and, by extension, as British citizens. Yet our upcoming referendum marks a significant event in the history of our islands; we have never before asserted so clearly, through the ballot box, how we wish to live and be governed.
We have America to thank for establishing our right of self-determination. In 1776, the Thirteen Colonies paved the way for modern democracy to protect the rights of peoples to determine their own political, economic, social, and cultural status. This right of self-determination is now enshrined for all peoples in the UN Charter. We, the people of the Falkland Islands are entitled to have our rights as a people fully respected and recognized by everyone across the world.
Yet unlike America, our home is not recognized - nor even respected - by our closest neighbor, the Republic of Argentina, whose government attempts to force the matter of sovereignty over my home through economic and political intimidation. Argentina claims that our home forms part of the province of Tierra del Fuego – an area that was not defined until after two generations of Falkland Islanders had been born and raised in our Islands. Nearly two hundred years after our families made the Islands their home, the Argentine government continues to ignore the rights and wishes of this generation of Falkland Islanders. Under the Argentine Constitution, they will accept nothing less than full sovereignty and control of our home, and have already dismissed our referendum, whatever its outcome, before it has even been held. We Falkland Islanders are a people of three thousand facing a nation of forty million; this is simply an unacceptable denial of our rights.
With this referendum, we want to send a clear message to the world about how we wish to live our lives. It is our opportunity to stand as a people and announce with one voice that we will not be bullied nor intimidated. That we, and only we, will determine our future.
Today, we will watch from afar as you exercise your democratic right to vote – we will await the results and support the results of free and fair elections. And when our turn comes in March 2013, I ask that you take a moment to reflect on our Islands far away. We are a small place with a big future, and have one simple request: join us in supporting our right of self-determination and our decision to determine the political status of our small, but treasured land.
The Honorable Jan Cheek is a Member of the Legislative Assembly of the Falkland Islands.
Photo: Kate McKenna (cc).
