The Caribbean Movement for Peace and Integration (CMPI) has come out strongly against the Duke of Edinburgh International Award Barbados charity moving to the first official residence of the Prime Minister of Barbados.
General Secretary of CMPI David Denny who said he is supporting Member of Parliament Trevor Prescod’s opposition to his Government’s move to lease the property to the charity at $1,200 monthly for a period of 25 years, is calling on members of the Pan Africanist movement and social activists to also stand in solidarity with Prescod objecting to the move out of respect for Father of Independence Right Excellent Errol Barrow, also a National Hero.
Denny said: “We object to the Government of Barbados giving the Duke of Edinburgh [International Award Barbados] charity that space that housed our former Prime Minister. For us, this space must be considered a sacred ground. Our action is not against the Duke of Edinburgh International organization in Barbados because we know that that group has been doing some very good work.
“But we would like to recommend to the Government of Barbados, that if you want to give that group an official residence in Barbados, the best place for that group would be in one of the buildings next to the Garrison Savannah.”
On Tuesday, Minister of Housing, Lands and Maintenance, Dr William Duguid laid the resolution which was passed in the House of Assembly, regarding the lease of the residence to the local charity which will also spend an estimated $4 million to restore it.
The Georgian-era mansion, later home to multiple government departments, has fallen into disrepair for several years, prompting calls for Government to rescue the historic home which dates back at least to 1789.
But Prescod clearly indicated that he was against the Government’s decision to lease the building to a charity bearing the title of the United Kingdom’s Prince Phillip whose past he questioned. The outspoken MP suggested that British royalty is another symbol of colonialism, against which the island’s founding Father of Independence spent his life fighting, from right at his residence at Culloden Farm.
And Denny has assured Prescod that CMPI shares the same opinion on the matter.
He said: “The Caribbean Movement for Peace and Integration will continue to protest, to struggle and to make the call for our former Prime Minister’s residence to remain sacred grounds and if we want to do something there we feel the Government of Barbados should set up a museum that will recognize our Independence struggle, a museum that will recognize the struggles of the 1937 period, a museum that will recognize the struggle of the Bussa Rebellion, and a museum that will recognize our struggle from 1966 until now to highlight the work and the contribution of Barbados developing as a nation.” (AH)
