Tiny Nevis Makes Big Plans: Nationhood

Shortly after this speck of land called Nevis passed a law authorizing secession from its only slightly larger neighbor St. Kitts, Pastor Eric Maynard gathered his flock in the island’s tiny Shiloh Baptist Church for a sermon on “The Day of Small Things.”

He quoted from Zechariah to explain how God chose Zerubbabel--”the smallest man”--to build the foundations of his temple. “And little David was the least likely to be used, but God used him” to slay the Philistine giant Goliath, the pastor proclaimed.

So it is, Maynard intoned from the pulpit, that this little island of just 9,000 souls should be on its own.

“I believe with all my heart,” he said, “that God is saying to us, ‘Now is the time to be free.’ ”

And so it is that this devout and peaceful Caribbean island of 47 churches and 36 square miles will probably vote sometime next year to become the newest republic on the globe.

The imminent break is driven by a history of disputes, allegations of neglect at the hands of its larger neighbor across two miles of narrows and the Nevisians’ sense that their culture has grown worlds apart from that of the 35,000 Kittsians.

Despite pockets of opposition, most prominent business-people, analysts, politicians and church leaders predict that Nevis will vote overwhelmingly to secede from a 115-year-old British-created federation that has already lost one of its three islands--a sandbar called Anguilla that separated from the other two, declaring its re-dependence on Britain in 1967.

Never mind such sticky issues as passports for the half of all Kittsians who were born in Nevis. What about trade? Ninety percent of Nevis’ consumer goods and most of its tourists now come through St. Kitts. And there’s a more fundamental question: Can a tiny piece of land in the remote Eastern Caribbean that survives solely on off-shore business and “niche” tourism for the rich make it as a nation-state in the globalized world of the next millennium?

Nevis’ parliament has no doubt. It already voted Oct. 31 to break away, authorizing a referendum, to be held sometime after May, that needs a two-thirds majority.

“Can Nevis afford it? The answer is yes,” said Malcolm Guishard, a senior minister in Nevis’ semiautonomous island administration, set up when the two-island federation won full independence from Britain in 1983.

But now, say many of Nevis’ wealthy and well-educated, the island cannot afford not to break away.

Under the St. Kitts and Nevis Constitution, the federation government, which is predominantly Kittsian, has power over all foreign policy, national taxation, security and defense for both islands. Nevis’ island administration, through its elected parliament and premier, is responsible for all other issues on the island.

The secessionists, who include the island’s leading offshore businesses and hoteliers, argue that St. Kitts has spent the lion’s share of federation income on itself, giving Nevis short shrift.

They and local police officials also say St. Kitts has emerged as a major narcotics transshipment point, complete with drug barons and violence, which threatens to taint Nevis’ largely drug-free image among tourists.

“All you have to do is visit St. Kitts and you know what’s behind secession; you can see how much neglect there has been over here,” said Kenneth Williams, editor and publisher of Nevis’ only newspaper, a scrappy, independent weekly named the Observer. “It’s blatant.”

‘Tired of Being Ignored, Dumped On’

St. Kitts is crisscrossed with modern streets and byways, while Nevis has a single, pitted road ringing the island. There’s a spanking new steel-and-glass international airport in the Kittsian capital of Basseterre, while Nevis has a two-room shack and an airstrip long enough for only two-engine planes.

Jobs are more abundant on St. Kitts. Its hospital is state of the art compared to the limited care available at Nevis Hospital. And Basseterre’s modern duty-free port complex can accommodate the world’s largest cruise ships, while Charlestown’s harbor can barely manage the 150-person ferry that crosses between the two islands each day.

“We’re tired of being ignored and dumped upon,” said Mark Brantley, 28, an Oxford-educated Nevisian lawyer who works in the island’s booming offshore trust and brokerage sector. “And we’re tired of being threatened with U.S. travel advisories over the drugs and violence next door.

“You must understand these are two vastly different societies with different values, different hopes and different aspirations. It’s a question of ethos.”

Nevis’ latest secessionist drive began after the local Pepsi distributor on St. Kitts emerged as a suspected cocaine baron in 1994, targeted by U.S. and British drug-enforcement officials.

Brian Reynolds, police commissioner for St. Kitts and Nevis, said investigators believe that Charles “Little Nut” Miller, a fugitive from federal cocaine-trafficking charges in Miami, is behind St. Kitts’ escalating drug violence.

Crime on Rise in Federation

“Drugs have begun to affect everybody in society here,” said Reynolds, a Scotland Yard detective who runs the federation’s Police Department. “You’ve got some people here who are a law unto themselves. The youngsters see their lifestyles and want to emulate them.”

Robberies and muggings--once a rarity on both islands--are almost daily occurrences in St. Kitts. Unlike in sleepy Nevis, many Kittsians said they are now afraid to go out at night. Although St. Kitts’ crime rates remain a fraction of those in most U.S. cities, Basseterre restaurants have posted armed, off-duty police as security guards. Within minutes of arriving at one of the island’s trendiest cafes one recent night, a stranger was offered crack cocaine, prostitutes and a limo by a bar patron.

“This is something we have been very worried about,” said Guishard, who also serves as Nevis’ tourism minister. “Nevis has an image to protect.”

Joseph Murphy, a Nevisian citizen who recently opened a $5-million pirate theme park and miniature golf course here, said he was drawn to the island seven years ago because it was virtually drug-free.

The Philadelphia-born lingerie mogul said he sold his apparel and romance-novel businesses for $250 million in the 1980s, looking for a future in the Caribbean.

He stopped first in the Bahamas, “but drugs chased me out,” he said.

“But when I came here in 1990, I was amazed at how sincere the Nevisian people were about keeping drugs out of here,” Murphy said. “But the problem over on St. Kitts is starting to affect us.”

Offshore Finance Law Struck a Nerve

The secession movement grew even stronger earlier this year, when the federation’s legislature passed a law sanctioning offshore financial centers on St. Kitts for the first time.

It alarmed Nevis’ offshore industry, which was created by its island administration 13 years ago and now provides Nevis with more than $1.5 million in independent annual revenue. Suddenly, Nevis’ second-largest money earner had a competitor next door.

Offshore experts on both islands said they believe that the two industries will be compatible, with St. Kitts offering offshore banking and gambling licenses and Nevis offering offshore trusts and brokerage firms. But they conceded that the new law struck a nerve.

“The industry is worried that Nevis, having built a very viable and healthy offshore industry, will be meddled with by people in St. Kitts,” said Robin Cotterell, who runs one of Nevis’ largest offshore trusts.

But the secessionist sentiment is by no means universal on Nevis.

Fisherman Carlton Tyson said he fears that, after independence, an angry St. Kitts will ban Nevis from its waters--the traditional Nevisian fishing ground. Fishermen also fear stiff tariffs on their catch, 80% of which is sold in St. Kitts.

“We’ll lose everything,” he said, explaining why the fishermen plan a “no” vote on secession.

Conrad Liburd, 32, a Rastafarian welder in Charlestown who unsuccessfully ran for Nevis’ autonomous parliament two years ago, said he and his mostly blue-collar supporters contend that the island’s heavy reliance on upscale tourism and offshore industry already has polarized its population into “an island of either bartenders or bankers.”

Secession, he said, would widen that gap.

“I personally look at the readiness of Nevis, of its economy and such things as the poor availability of health care. All our government ministers go to St. Kitts or abroad when they’re sick,” he said. “There’s a general lack of infrastructure here.

Although there is no income tax on either island, the cost of living in Nevis is among the highest in the Caribbean. That is partly because Nevis must import almost everything from St. Kitts, a short journey but one that increases most prices.

Nevis’ high-end tourism market also tends to drive up local prices, bringing in wealthier visitors with more to spend.

Government statistics show that Nevis’ 462 tourist beds generated $2.3 million last year, while the 1,000 beds in St. Kitts brought in $1.5 million. And of the 86,889 non-cruise-ship tourists who visited both islands last year, 36,640 were Americans, the majority of whom stayed on Nevis, according to Guishard, the tourism minister.

Cultural Differences

Guishard acknowledged that there is stiff opposition to independence, but he turned it aside.

“The island is stronger now than ever before, finally strong enough to stand on its own,” he said. “I believe secession will prevail.”

He added: “We are truly different cultures. Nevisians are a more quiet and more friendly people. Our priorities are different from those in St. Kitts. On Nevis, we value and boast of our cultural heritage, which is different from theirs.”

“With all due respect, that is a lot of crap,” replied Joseph Edmeade, chief secretary of the federation government in St. Kitts. “Our cultural heritage is the same.”

Edmeade also denied that his island has neglected Nevis. He insisted that St. Kitts’ new offshore law is not intended to take business from Nevis. And while admitting that St. Kitts has a drug problem, he said: “The entire Caribbean has a drug problem--even Nevis.”

Edmeade added that his government “will not stand in the way” of Nevis’ constitutional right to secede.

“We, however, have been making the point that, in the context of today’s globalized world . . . we don’t think it’s the wisest thing for them to pursue that road.”

But for ardent secessionists such as Pastor Maynard, independence is the only road.