Honour overdue

The Prime Minister of Barbados believes that a memorial commemorating the late Sir James Tudor is long overdue.

 

“I think that it is an injustice which has to be corrected,” The Right Hon. Freundel Stuart expressed to new members of the Democratic Labour Party during the 61st Anniversary Gala and Induction Ceremony on Wednesday night.

 

He said that Sir James, one of founding members of the DLP, was also the man responsible for choosing November 30, 1966 as the date for this country’s independence. 

 

He described Sir James’ contribution to the Party and also to Barbados as “massive and substantial and strategically very 

important”.

 

“He was Minister of Education at the time when free secondary education was introduced. He was also Minister of Education at the time when we introduced the school meals service. And he served as Barbados’ Foreign Minister and he served as Barbados’ Minister to Caribbean and Latin America Affairs. 

 

“It is interesting that 50 years after independence, the man who choose the date and the man who was so instrumental in getting the DLP off the ground in 1961… that there are no monuments anywhere across Barbados in tribute to James Cameron Tudor,” he lamented.

 

To the 200 strong who joined the Party, Stuart emphasised that joining a political Party is a very serious step. The Prime Minister also told the inductees that the Democratic Labour Party which they have joined was formed in 1965 on the basis of a philosophy.  

 

“We started with the objective of trying to create a just society in Barbados. We could have only taken that decision to create a just society if the society as we perceived it, was an unjust society…Very early we took the decision that you cannot set about trying to create a just society, you cannot set about crafting a serious vision for your society, if you are still taking instructions from people outside of your country. Power had to be vested in people who are running this society and therefore the DLP’s manifesto made it clear in 1961 that the road to destiny, is the road to independence”.

 

“In joining the DLP you are joining a past. What is that past? That this Party has established a record in Barbados, a record of service to the people of Barbados that is second to none…So when you are talking socially, politically or economically – the Democratic Labour Party has been there providing leadership for the people of Barbados,” he said.

 

Stuart further expressed that it is appropriate that the Party that took the country into independence should be in government at this time – during the 50th year.

 

“It would have been a very awkward situation for us in Barbados, if we were celebrating 50 years of independence and those celebrations were being led by a Party that was doubtful about independence.”

 

General Secretary George Pilgrim added that if left to the Opposition Party, Barbados would not have pursued the road to Independence.

 

“However, this Party under the late Rt. Excellent Errol Walton Barrow intervened and led us from a Colony to Nationhood. Barrow…we thank you.”

 

“I am calling on the Opposition during our 50 year of Independence to formally apologise to this generation of Barbadians born and living in a post-colonial Barbados and to admit they were dead wrong in opposing independence,” Pilgrim said. (TL)