A stable Republic has three proverbial legs, namely: (i) the will of the government, (ii) the consent of the governed and (iii) a lawful procedure to establish the Republic. In Part 1, the procedure was shown to be highly questionable. Changing a Head of State in a country’s constitution is always an entrenched provision, yet the Government made us a Republic on the absurd argument that it was not – so, we are left with two legs.

On 15th September 2020 in our Parliament, the Government stated that Barbados would “become a Republic by the time we celebrate our 55th Anniversary of Independence.” [1] The Queen’s response was immediate, stating that becoming a Republic was “a matter for the government and people of Barbados”. [2]

One day later on 16th September 2020, the Government informed the international news media that Barbadians had given their consent for Barbados to become a Republic in the 2018 General election, stating: “we certainly campaigned on it in the manifesto”. [3]

A FOUNDATION OF ILLUSIONS.

If this were true, then the Republic of Barbados would be founded on two legs: (i) the will of the Government and (ii) the consent of the public. However, all Barbadians know, and the Attorney General of Barbados swore before the Barbados High Court [4], that none of the political parties that participated in the 2018 General Election campaigned on Republicanism.

For the avoidance of doubt, there is no mention of any plan to make Barbados a Republic in the BLP’s 2018 general Election Manifesto, their 2016 Covenant of Hope or their 2013 general Election Manifesto. The latest it is mentioned is in their 2008 Election Manifesto – with their signed promise of a public referendum. In preparation for this promised referendum, the Government passed the Referendum Act in 2007, which mandates that there shall be a public referendum before we are made a Republic.

Instead of the promised referendum, we were subjected to a year-long campaign to get Barbadians to hate the Queen. Parliamentarians questioned her benefit to Barbados. The University of the West Indies accused her of racial hatred. Our established media mainly published the views of those who disparaged her. Rather than test their hate-based campaign with the promised referendum, Barbadians who questioned the rush to republicanism were targeted with invective.

FACTS AND FICTION.

The international media generally ignored easily verifiable facts and misled the world with fiction. Foreign Policy reported: “Mottley, who has campaigned on republicanism, won a landslide victory in 2018 elections when her party won all 30 seats in the House of Assembly.” [5]. iNews UK reported: “She campaigned on republicanism, ahead of her landslide victory in 2018 elections.” [6]. Even the prestigious National Geographic reported: “Charismatic and outspoken, Mottley campaigned on republicanism to become the nation’s first female leader in 2018.” [7].

Journalists behaved like activists with absolutely no regard for the truth. For example, the Guardian falsely stated: “more than 60% of Barbadians were in favour of becoming a republic”. [8] Time, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the Daily Express and Wikipedia falsely claimed that a two-thirds majority in Barbados’ Parliament was needed to become a Republic.

SOURCE OF MISINFORMATION.

The source of both falsehoods is the University of the West Indies (UWI). The day after the court case, the UWI informed the Rotary Club of Barbados and the public that “Parliament lawfully and constitutionally amended the Constitution of Barbados” [9] based on the two-thirds majority – which was the opposite of the Attorney General’s sworn argument. All civic organisations in Barbados contentedly remain misinformed to this day.

Approximately one month before Barbados was made a Republic, the UWI did a survey of 500 Barbadians (over 18 years old) and provided partial results to the international media. Their survey found that only approximately 35% supported Barbados becoming a republic [10]. Notably, approximately 45% (almost half) of the 500 Barbadians the UWI surveyed had completed college or university education, while the Barbados Census shows that only approximately 20% of the population (over 15 years old) had those academic qualifications.

Despite the survey being heavily biased with an educated group that were more likely to support Barbados being a Republic, there is no known mathematics where the reported “more than 60%” is an approximation of 35%.

FAKE HISTORY.

During that year of misinformation, our institutions failed us – badly. Our lawyers, journalists, teachers, poets, entertainers, radio moderators and political scientists who promoted republicanism kept the government’s absurd argument, that removing our Head of State was not an entrenched constitutional provision, from the public. Our news media, civic organisations, and the University of the West Indies continue to keep this information from the public, thus distorting the historical record of knowledge.

Artificial Intelligence algorithms tend to prioritise information from academic research and media houses. Since they were the main sources of misinformation about the Republic, the main Artificial Intelligence programs (Grok, Gemini and ChatGPT) now promote a fake history of Barbados. Even when corrected, they reset to promoting the fake history, thus ensuring the next generation of humanity never knows the truth.

EPILOGUE.

In 2019, Queen Elizabeth was the respected Head of State of Independent Barbados. All our elected representatives and appointed senators swore before God, on the damnation of their eternal souls, to be faithful to her. In 2021, we were informed that they had broken their sacred oaths and voted her out of office, and that we must all fall in line, so we did.

The Queen died on 8 September 2022, approximately two years after warning that becoming a Republic was not a matter for the government alone, but “the government and people of Barbados.” Many who dared express sentiments of mourning on social media were rudely set upon by our radical activists who accused them of supporting colonialism. Then the Government’s most revered Cultural Ambassador wrote the song, “Good Riddance to Rubbish”. Thus, the hate-based campaign against the Queen came to an end.

Next week, the final Article in this 3-part series – Long Live Prime Minister Mottley.

B I B L I O G R A P H Y

[1] The Governor-General’s throne speech in the Barbados Parliament on 15th September 2020.

[2] The Guardian UK, Patrick Wintour (Diplomatic Editor), 16 September 2020.

[3] Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Phil Williams (Chief Foreign Correspondent), 17 September 2020.

[4] High Court Claim No. CIV 867 of 2021.

[5] Foreign Policy, Stéphanie Fillion (United Nations based foreign affairs reporter), 28 June 2021.

[6] iNews UK, Michael Day (Chief Foreign Commentator), 26 November 2021.

[7] National Geographic, Jacqueline Charles (Pulitzer Prize finalist, 2018 Maria Moors Cabot Prize winner), 22 November 2021.

[8] The Guardian, Michael Safi (international correspondent), 30 November 2021.

[9] Barbados Today, Marlon Madden, 26 November 2021.

[10] Monarchy vs. Republicanism Survey, 19 December 2021.