Move to a Republic a step in the right direction

THE Caribbean Movement for Peace and Integration is in favour of Government’s move to remove the Queen as Head of State and to have the nation of Barbados become a Republic by November 30 this year.

On Monday of this week, Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley announced that Barbados will become a Parliamentary Republic with a non-executive president, on Independence Day later this year.

Whilst outlining details of an upcoming celebration for Emancipation Day, which will be held at the Bussa Statue in Haggatt Hall, St. Michael on Sunday, August 1 from 8:00 a.m. ahead of the bank holiday observance on August 3, David Denny, General Secretary of the Caribbean Movement for Peace and Integration (CMPI), said such a move to Republican status has been long discussed and supported by pan africanists on the island.

“For us in the Caribbean Movement for Peace and Integration, we are very happy to know that the Government has agreed to take Barbados into a Republic on the 30th day of November. It is very important for us, because we have been struggling for a very long time for Barbados to become a Republic and we as pan africanists and socialists and progressive persons and also the Rastafari community, we came together in the 1990s and we set up something called The People’s Forum. In that forum, we were able to go around Barbados and then we were able to submit a document to the Henry Forde Commission and we want to stick to that position that we would have suggested in the 1990s, when the Henry Forde Commission submitted its report,” Denny revealed, whilst outlining that support was given to any move to become a Republic.

He meanwhile stressed, “A number of things have happened under this Government that we feel pleased with, in relation to the moving of Lord Nelson from our National Heroes Square, and Barbados becoming a Republic on the 30th of November this year. Then you have other issues like the public officers receiving a salary increase, something that they didn’t receive for over 10 years, they received it under this administration and I must say that I feel pleased to say that this administration has been doing things the right way.”

Denny is just one of many persons who have been having their say on the move. It was only on Monday of this week, during an event held in Jubilee Gardens in Bridgetown to commemorate the Day of National Significance, that Mottley gave details of the proposed move, noting that the Cabinet of Barbados accepted the recommendations of Forde’s Commission with minor modifications. As such, the Parliamentary Republic will have a non-executive president that will be elected by an electoral college of both Houses of Parliament and the president shall be entitled to serve initially for a period of four years and thereafter, be reappointed for another term.

Mottley further revealed that amendments will be made to facilitate that transition, which will see the new president being sworn in on November 30, whilst from December 1, Barbados will start the journey of the settlement of the new constitution of Barbados, which will be the subject of extensive consultation and communication with the island’s citizens. (RSM)