#BTColumn – Elevating a Bajan to head of state

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by this author are their own and do not represent the official position of the Barbados Today Inc.

by David Comissiong

The late Aretha Franklin – the world’s greatest Soul singer – had a hit song that featured a “rock steady” beat and that was named “Rock Steady”.

And in the lyrics of that song, Aretha declared, “let’s call this song exactly what it is – Rock Steady”! Well, I think that we Barbadians should do the same with this “Republic” issue. We need to stoptalking so much about “Republic” this and “Republic” that, and simply describe the actual change that we will be making.

You see, it seems to me that some of us are unnecessarily confusing ourselves with this word “Republic”. So, instead of using the word “Republic”, let’s just call this thing exactly what it is: namely, that we are removing the Queen of England from her current position of Head of State of Barbados, and we are elevating one of our very own Barbadian citizens to that exalted office. It is really as simple as that!

Indeed, a very simple and concrete way of thinking about this matter is to zero in on the one specific Section of the currently existing Constitution of Barbados that we will be changing on or before the 30th of November 2021.

Our Barbados Constitution contains a total of 117 different sections, but it is really only one section – Section 28 – that we will be revamping by Independence Day 2021. And that Section reads as follows :-

“There shall be a Governor-General of Barbados who shall be appointed by Her Majesty and shall hold office during Her Majesty’s pleasure and who shall be Her Majesty’s representative in Barbados.”

One of the first things we need to note about this particular section of the Constitution is that although it states that our Governor-General “shall be appointed by Her Majesty” (the Queen of England), the accepted convention is that it is actually the Cabinet of Barbados – the Prime Minister and the other Ministers of Government – who determine who is to be appointed Governor-General.

The Cabinet then informs the Queen of their choice, and in keeping with the convention, the Queen appoints the person chosen by the Cabinet of Barbados.

This is the process that was used to appoint our current Governor-General, Dame Sandra Mason, and all seven of the other Governors-General who preceded her.

Once that person is appointed Governor-General, they then go on to perform all of the functions that our Constitution stipulates are to be performed by the Governor-General. But the crucial point to note is that they perform these functions – not in their own right or in their own name – but rather, in their capacity as a representative or an agent or subordinate of the Queen of England. And it is precisely this constitutional deficiency and national indignity that our Government has promised to correct on or before the 30th of November 2021.

And why – you may ask – do I call it a constitutional deficiency and a national indignity? Well, the truth of the matter is that when Dame Sandra Mason performs her Governor-General functions for Barbados on a daily basis, she uses her own intelligence, knowledge, judgment and experience to perform those functions.

She does not go running to the Queen of England for instructions or advice on how to perform her functions. And the same holds true for the other six native Governors-General who preceded Dame Sandra.

Indeed, one of the fundamental factors cited by the Henry Forde Constitutional Review Commission for recommending that Barbados should establish its own native head of state, is the outstanding record of performance by our native Barbadian Governors-General. This is how that sentiment was expressed in the Report of the Forde Commission:–

“Barbados has been well served by its six Governors-General, of whom five have been natives of Barbados. It is this success which has led the public to question whether it is indeed necessary for the head of state of Barbados to be someone other than a Barbadian-born citizen.”

And so, the only change that is going to occur between now and the 30th of November is that the Queen of England will be relieved of her office as Monarch of Barbados, and instead, Barbados will have its very own indigenous head of state – a citizen of Barbados who resides in the country, and who will be selected by thefifty-one (51) members of the combined House of Assembly and Senate of Barbados.

That new, indigenous head of state will be referred to as the President of Barbados, and will carry out the “exact same” functions that are currently performed by our Governor-General.

The governing Barbados Labour Party (BLP) administration has indicated that this is the only constitutional change that they are absolutely committed to at this point in time. And so, this is the one, long overdue, Constitutional change that they intend to implement by the 30th of November 2021.

However, the administration has also indicated that it is very open to the idea that Barbadians may wish to go beyond this singular change and may wish to consider other, more substantive, changes to our country’s constitutional structure, and that any such wish will be facilitated through a comprehensive national consultation process.

But that is a medium to long-term project that will commence sometime after the 30th of November 2021. However, so far as the here and now is concerned, our Government has expressed an admirable determination finally and decisively to correct this glaring andlong outstanding deficiency in our national constitutional structure by this year’s Independence Day. Let us, therefore, call it exactly what it is – a patriotic initiative to dignify our nation by bestowing upon ourselves our very own Bajan head of state. And that is a progressive development that I can only say “Amen” to!

David Comissiong is Barbados’ Ambassador to Caricom.