Editorial

REPLACING THE MONARCHY ONLY INVITES TYRANNY PERCHED ON AN ANARCHICAL THRONE

September 21, 2022 | By Silbert Barrett |

Our decision must be strategic and not ceremonial; hence, we must choose our battle wisely and not be fighting old wars but instead first take care of ourselves; renew and rebuild our strength of character in leadership and institutions to become stronger, wiser, and better able to fight the wars ahead. Every man/woman act in their self-interest.

It is not our constitution that fails us it is the nature of men, as man to man is so unjust. Therefore,  first, understand the nature of power before talking about replacing the Monarchy with a republican system of government. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”.

If Jamaicans are serious about demanding reparation and replacing the queen, they must first elect leaders who are liberators, not looters.

What is written in our constitution is only as powerful as the person who is given the power to interpret the written words, hence the core of our problem lies not with the constitution but with the lack of leadership and the willingness to sacrifice for the betterment and empowerment of the poor and disenfranchised.

Which of our leaders has ever sacrificed anything for the masses? Sadly, this is not a question that is placed on the ballot box or articulated in their resume. Those of you who would want to destroy our constitution are blinded by the weakness of men, men like you who do not have the strength to make personal sacrifices.

Here we spent the good part of some 60 years trying to grow the Jamaican economy not knowing that economic growth depends on building institutional capacity in governance structures which they all failed to do.

There is nothing wrong with our constitution, we cannot and should not support idle talks about destroying the little institutional capacity we have built up over the years, instead, we should focus on funding our existing institutions rather than wanting to gut and destroy health care like the Republicans and given healthcare saving account to poor people.

“The road to state control of the lives of persons usually begins with small imperceptible steps. It is usually clothed in the garb of some perceived greater good such as national security, economic growth, and the like. There begins one slight trespass, and then another, and another, and before long the trespass becomes the norm, and the right the exception.”

We continue to travel in the culture of classism believing black people’s only place in life is to eat from the crumbs of the rich and powerful. Far too often so-called “Black Nationalism” as you have so wisely disguised had failed to build strong social, political, and economic institutions to protect fundamental rights. National chauvinism is often a pile of quicksand on which our so-called leaders try to rally the masses. Political opportunism is not Pan-Africanism. Exploitative Socialism cannot be disguised in Black Nationalism.

Change cannot be for the sake of change, this is just shuffling the deck, when however you change the cards, at the core of real leadership and governance are fundamental values and principles which govern how you with POWER relate to and treat those who are less powerful and using your position of power to embed these core values and principles into institutional and capacity building such that they become the core philosophy of the heads and people who are running those institutions upon which the powerless depend on for the protection of fundamental rights, justice, social and economic equality.

If you have never spoken up if you have never raised your voice for the good of the people you are a liar, as the cruelest lies are often told in silence. A man may have sat in a room for hours and not opened his teeth, and yet comes out of that room a disloyal friend or a vile co-conspirator to the rape of his country and people and how many lives have perished because, of pride, or spite, or indifference, or that unmanly shame which withholds a man from daring to betray the desire of greed and self-interest, that at this critical point in our nation’s development, has but hung his head and held his tongue.

The core of this debate on leadership should be about the measure of the man seeking leadership cause “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” Martin Luther King, Jr. –

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