By Dana Malcolm
Staff Writer 

#TurksandCaicos, June 5, 2023 – Unity between Islanders, residents, work permit holders, and all who inhabit the Turks and Caicos archipelago is how JAGS McCartney can be honoured and the country built into one of the most enviable in the world, says Devon Cox.  He was speaking on JAGS DAY at the annual wreath laying and national hero’s memorial ceremony held in Grand Turk.

Cox, detailed how he believed residents could keep the spirit of their first Chief Minister alive.

“Our passion should be for these Turks and Caicos islands. We are one. We are not to be categorised by where we are from, we are all here now. We are not to be valued by our families surnames for we are all named Islanders. We are not to be sorted in symbols, by shells and bells, yellows and blues. We are all one,” Cox said passionately.

Held at the J.A.G.S. McCartney Memorial site in Grand Turk, the event began with a parade of uniformed groups from police officers in crisp formal outfits to young cadets in brilliant red.

Arielle Neely, CARICOM Youth Ambassador moderated the event at which Cox was the guest speaker.

Devon Cox, who was born in South Caicos, serves as Senior Vice President of Operations at FortisTCI. He first reminded residents that McCartney had set the foundation for the life they all currently enjoy.

“We must remind ourselves of the passion and the drive and the reason of JAGS and those who along with him struggled, fought, and sacrificed for what we now enjoy today, a booming economy, the envy of the Caribbean, a sought after destination, and the vision, he saw where local people would be in places of authority. We enjoy this on the work that he would have laid down for us.”

He stressed again that unity is the key to truly becoming the country which the TCI’s only national hero had, in the 1970s. envisioned.

“Achieving and maintaining unity requires effort just like electrical systems need to be properly maintained— communities also need to be nurtured and tended to to maintain unity. We  are one Turks and Caicos,” he maintained.

Mr. Cox warned that that spirit of unity had to be pervasive enough to penetrate even politics.

“If we are going to achieve success in this country we must always have unity and friendship even amongst our political parties.”

McCartney was a paragon of that kind of unity along with his fellow politicians of the 1970s Cox said:

“After a heated debate in the House [of Assembly] JAGS would come and embrace him [and say] my friend why you have to do me like this?”

Along with that anecdotal tales supplied to him by his own grandfather, Hon Norman Saunders, the speaker quoted McCartney’s famous, ‘Unity Speech’ stressing that it was absolutely relevant to the Turks and Caicos in present day TCI.

“If the need for political union is agreed by us, then the will to create it is born. Where there is disunity on the political activities of a nation, that nation is left at the mercy of the powerful foreign commercial interests which seek to exploit the situation by pouring a vast sum of money into various factions to ensure conflict among them and therefore security their position in society where they could wield their might and guarantee control over that nation.”

Both residents watching online and in person were roused by the passionate speech.

Devon Cox was speaking under the theme ‘Lest we forget: The Passion, The Drive, The Reason.’