MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Falklands: Back to the future, why the 'new approach' from Argentina is completely missing the point

“We are not a commodity to be traded between two nations; we are a people, we have a home, and we have the universally-recognised human right to determine our own political future”.

By the Honourable Mike Summers, OBE (*) - Over the weekend of the 6th and 7th February, the press in Argentina reported that the Government of Argentina (GoA) was going to change its approach to its treatment of the Falkland Islands, its relationship with the United Kingdom and how it intends to “resolve the Falklands question”

What the GoA is proposing, according to news sources, is ‘….a return to the original negotiations [...] between 1966 and 1982’. The coverage goes on to mention the notion of ‘lease-back’ agreements whereby Britain could cede the Falklands to Argentina, but continue to “rent” them for a set period of years, or a condominium arrangement whereby the UK and Argentina shared sovereignty of the Falkland Islands.

These are not new suggestions. These ideas did not work in the 1970s, when the United Kingdom did exercise overall control of the Islands. It didn’t work then, and it would not work now. As the respected editor of Clarín observes, these ideas are obsolete, and it is time to start thinking of new ways to get on, avoiding the risk of self-delusion.

The Government of Argentina clearly has changed tack since the Kirchner regime came to an end in December, and whilst it is heartening that it has moved towards a better bilateral relationship with the United Kingdom which focuses on business and trade rather than being dominated by the sovereignty issue, as things stand, the claim to the Falkland Islands has not changed. And until it does change Argentina is missing the point – missing the point that people matter, missing the point that the basic human rights of people must be respected, and missing the point that you cannot just whitewash history and go back to the days before it made a massive error of judgement in invading the Falkland Islands.

In 2016, the Falkland Islands are thriving, self sufficient, self-governing democracy. The colonial situation that existed in the late 1970s has gone, and with it should go the notion that Argentina can discuss the future of the people of the Falklands with the UK alone, as a bilateral issue.

We are not a commodity to be traded between two nations; we are a people, we have a home, and we have the universally-recognised human right to determine our own political future. Any decision about the sovereignty of the Islands absolutely must include Falkland Islanders. Anything else smacks of a return to colonialism. The 2013 Referendum made it very clear that the people of the Falkland Islands value their relationship with the UK, and wish to retain it for the foreseeable future.

The United Nations Charter enshrines the right for all peoples to choose their future and their allegiance, so instead of looking at the Islands through the prism of Argentina vs England, and colonialism vs modernity, it is time to recognise the so-called ‘Falklands Question’ for what it truly is – a question of basic human rights. A question of allowing the people who have lived and worked in these Islands for nine generations to choose their futures. A question of listening to the people whose voices surely must resonate loudest.

If these press reports are accurate, thirty-five years on Argentina has run out of fresh ideas and, rather than focussing on the core issue at the heart of the question, it is going over old ground, just hoping for change. As Benjamin Franklin purportedly said, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different outcome.”

(*) The Honourable Mike Summers, OBE
Chair of the Legislative Assembly of the Falkland Islands
9th February 2016