Government pushes on with republic move

Leader of Government Business in the Lower House Santia Bradshaw has defended the Mia Mottley administration for pushing ahead with the transition to a Republic during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Responding to criticisms from Opposition Leader Reverend Joseph Atherley who suggested that the move was ill-timed because of the COVID-19 outbreak, Bradshaw said the world had not stopped because of the pandemic.

She said even as Government continued to battle the potentially fatal respiratory virus on all fronts, it still had to push on with its other goals and objectives.

Bradshaw accused Atherley of opposing for opposing sake.

“This is a very historic moment I must say because this has been long overdue…Having been a child growing up in politics I have a certain understanding of the vision, the way in which we must behave and the targets certainly that we must meet and I do believe that we have a responsibility to complete what has been started and that responsibility has fallen certainly on our generation to be able to complete what has been started by the Father of our democracy as well as the Father of Independence.

“…This reminds me of the discussion that we have sometimes on the Common Entrance. Everybody has written reports, everybody has a position, everybody knows what’s not working, but when it comes to touching anything that bears the stamp of the colonial past all of a sudden we are not sure that we want to let it go, even though in our hearts we know we would be all the better for it,” Bradshaw said during debate on the Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2021, today.

“What we must not do in the midst of grappling with a pandemic is pretend as though everything has come to a standstill, as though we can no longer push the envelope or push our people to be the best that they can be, or that we can’t put the systems in place to prepare for after the pandemic, for the post-pandemic period.” (RB)