Wikipedia’s definition of “Colonialism’ is: “the policy of a polity seeking to extend or retain its authority over other people or territories, generally with the aim of developing or exploiting them to the benefit of the colonizing country and of helping the colonies modernize in terms defined by the colonizers, especially in economics, religion and health.”

Collins English Dictionary defines colonialism as “the policy and practice of a power in extending control over weaker peoples or areas”. Webster’s Encyclopedic Dictionary defines colonialism as “the system or policy of a nation seeking to extend or retain its authority over other people or territories.” The Merriam-Webster Dictionary offers four definitions, including “something characteristic of a colony” and “control by one power over a dependent area or people.”

The 2006 Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy “uses the term ‘colonialism’ to describe the process of European settlement and political control over the rest of the world, including the Americas, Australia, and parts of Africa and Asia”. It discusses the distinction between colonialism and imperialism and states that “given the difficulty of consistently distinguishing between the two terms, this entry will use colonialism as a broad concept that refers to the project of European political domination from the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries that ended with the national liberation movements of the 1960s.”

In his preface to Jürgen Osterhammel’s Colonialism: A Theoretical Overview, Roger Tignor says, “For Osterhammel, the essence of colonialism is the existence of colonies, which are by definition governed differently from other territories such as protectorates or informal spheres of influence.” In the book, Osterhammel asks, “How can ‘colonialism’ be defined independently from ‘colony?'” He settles on a three-sentence definition:

Colonialism is a relationship between an indigenous (or forcibly imported) majority and a minority of foreign invaders. The fundamental decisions affecting the lives of the colonized people are made and implemented by the colonial rulers in pursuit of interests that are often defined in a distant metropolis. Rejecting cultural compromises with the colonized population, the colonizers are convinced of their own superiority and their ordained mandate to rule.

The Cayman Islands is a colony of the United Kingdom.

On the plus side, Cayman by being a colony, provides us with a level of political and economic stability that when it comes to off-shore financial centres, competing jurisdictions like Belize or Panama cannot offer.

See our article published today “The Cayman conundrum: why is one tiny archipelago the largest financial centre in Latin America and the Caribbean?”.

On the down side, the United Kingdom can apply its will on us whenever if feels like it.

And this happened on May 1st when a weak UK Tory government and an even weaker Prime Minister, Teresa May, accepted an amendment to the Sanctions and Anti Money Laundering Bill in the House of Commons.”

This amendment now requires the British Overseas Territories, but not the Crown Dependencies, to establish public registers of beneficial ownership information by no later than 31 December 2020.

Cayman Islands Premier, Alden McLaughlin, said in a press release: “Imposition of legislation, through powers that date back to the colonial era, over and above the wishes of the democratically elected legislative bodies of the Overseas Territories represents a gross affront to the constitutional relationship we currently have with the United Kingdom. Further, imposing such an obligation on the Overseas Territories while exempting the Crown Dependencies discriminates unfairly against the Overseas Territories. This amendment is based solely on prejudice and a wilful misunderstanding of our current regulatory framework.”

The Minister for Financial Services, the Hon. Tara Rivers, added: “Even more unfortunate, today’s actions indicate that, for political expediency, the UK has chosen to ignore Cayman’s high level of ongoing cooperation which is embedded in our laws and international agreements. Over 100 tax authorities globally, including HMRC, and UK crime agencies already have access to information which states who owns what and how much in relation to Cayman companies. Indeed, verified beneficial ownership information on Cayman structures has been available to the UK’s legal, regulatory and tax authorities for more than 15 years, and our agreement on the sharing of information with the United Kingdom authorities is of such strength that we have committed to reporting within 24 hours, or within 1 hour in the case of a truly emergent situation. ”

In a rare sign of unity, Cayman’s Opposition members expressed solidarity with the Government to challenge the UK’s decision on creating public beneficial ownership registries here.

Cayman Islands’ UK representative, Eric Bush, said he and representatives from other Overseas Territories, including Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Gibraltar and Turks and Caicos met with Overseas Territories Minister Lord Ahmad and his team in London on the issue of forcing Cayman and other Overseas Territories to create public beneficial ownership registries.

The Cayman Islands Governor’s Office issued a brief statement on the issue saying, “The UK will use its best endeavours, diplomatically and with international partners, including through multilateral fora (such as the G20, FATA and the OECD), to promote public registers of company beneficial ownership as the global standard.”

That was not what we wanted to hear but no matter what Governor Anwar Choudhury privately feels he has to give a diplomatic answer. That’s his job and he is skilled in it.

Anti-tax haven campaigner, Richard Murphy, believes this is the real beginning of the end for tax havens (see iNews Cayman story published May 2 2018 at: http://www.ieyenews.com/wordpress/the-real-beginning-of-the-end-for-tax-havens-has-begun/)

He writes:
The world will be fairer.
And more equal.
More taxes owing will be paid.
The rule of law will be upheld.
Democracy will be reinforced.
And crime will be harder to perpetrate.

That simplistic view is shared by many who look at a picture from the front and never look what’s behind it.

No matter what Cayman does to make itself transparent and abide by all the rules, the overseas press will never stop labelling the Cayman Islands as “NOTORIOUS”.

Murphy, in another article of his we published last Wednesday (at: http://www.ieyenews.com/wordpress/cayman-and-bermuda-havent-a-legal-leg-to-stand-on/) states Cayman hasn’t a legal leg to stand on if it takes, as it is threatening along with Bermuda, legal action in an attempt to stop the UK making the overseas territory open up its company ownership registers to public scrutiny.

I’m no legal expert but if you don’t try, you’re not going to succeed.

I am sure McLaughlin isn’t going to cave in as Teresa May has. She will never get the title of “The Iron Lady”.

We have the Windrush debacle that she instigated, but another minister took the heat and resigned. Now she is imposing her will on the Overseas Territories just so she can keep her job.

May is certainly championing everything that was wrong in the old days of the meaning of Colonialism.