Avellon Williams
ST. VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES – The Prime Minister, Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, proposed Monday a single-item referendum asking the people of St Vincent and the Grenadines to replace Queen Elizabeth with a non-executive president as head of state.
Gonsalves told Parliament he would only pursue a referendum if bipartisan support was obtained.
“I will tell you this. I am prepared, if the opposition agrees today, before the end of the year or early next year to put one question in a referendum: to have a home-grown president in the manner in which I’ve just described, a non-executive president, and as was laid out in the proposed constitution, and let us go with that one single issue to the people to complete the national democratic task,” Gonsalves said.
Votes on the revised constitution were overwhelmingly negative in 2009, with 29,019 voting against and 22,493 voting for it.
“I agree that we are now 12 years away from the referendum,” said Gonsalves, who had previously said that he would leave the question of constitutional reform to future leaders.
The Queen of England was removed as Barbados’ head of state on November 30, last year, and Dame Sandra Mason was elected as the first local head of state.
In an earlier statement, opposition lawmaker Major St Clair Leacock, vice-president of the main opposition New Democratic Party (NDP), noted that Gonsalves recently received the highest Cuban award.
He said this raises the question of national awards or rewards for Vincentians for meritorious service.
“What is stopping us?” Leacock said.
According to Gonsalves, if there is bipartisan support for the referendum, a committee will also be formed to establish national honors, in conjunction with establishing a body “to decolonize names”.
“We change the name of Victoria Park. We change the name of Higginson Street and other places. Murrays Road, the cause is a colonial administrator. And we do that, especially at this time of fresh hope….”
Furthermore, Gonsalves suggested that the country proceeds with the recommendation to name George Augustus McIntosh, Ebenezer Theodore Joshua, Robert Milton Cato, and JP Eustace as national heroes.
Although the law does not require it, he suggested there be “all-party unity” on this issue.
According to Gonsalves, the National Heroes Committee must be reconstituted because one member has died and two others have ‘resigned or are no longer members.’
In addition, he said the committee would examine whether or not one or two women would qualify as national heroes, and get started on supporting constitutional decolonisation, to support the entire mental decolonization process and these steps.
“So, I propose that matter. The Leader of the Opposition, are you ready for us to go to a referendum on removing the Queen? And I will tell the people of St. Vincent and the Grenadines if you start the process and say ‘yes’ and anytime you dance and start saying ‘no’, I pull the plug on the process.”
Leacock noted, however, that other Caribbean countries, including Jamaica, have national awards but are not republics.
“Why is republicanism a prerequisite to have a system of award?” the opposition lawmaker questioned.
Despite this, Gonsalves said that Vincentians validated the Queen’s status as head of state.
“Before it was a negotiated fiction, you now make it a political reality. The NDP, by your leadership; you can’t duck that,” he said.
