RE: Emancipation Address

2014-AUG-06-1952Hrs

We are getting ready for Elections, possibly some time in September (TBA)

This is the timely address given by our Head of UWI Open Campus on Montserrat, Miss Gracelyn Cassell.  I wanted to share it with fellow Mausicans.

"Emancipation Day Address 2014

Today we are again enjoying the August Monday public holiday.  Whether we realise it or not, it is a significant milestone in our history.  Many events have taken us to this point where we stand on the verge of general elections, something that would not have been possible prior to Emancipation.

Dr. Curtis Jacobs explains that “the observation of Emancipation in 2014 takes on a special meaning.  Like the first Emancipation in 1834, August 1 came on a Friday.   This year has been 180 years since our British rulers decided to buy out the property rights that the planter class held in our ancestors as at July 31, 1834.  Collectively, the British Parliament voted 20 million pounds sterling to compensate the planter class for their property rights in our ancestors.  In 1834, this was forty per cent of Britain’s national budget.

Very little of this money ever reached the British Caribbean, as much of it went to pay the planters’ debts and to invest in the new emerging industries in Britain and elsewhere.   Of course, our ancestors received no compensation for several centuries of forced, unpaid labour.  As the Moyne Commission report pointed out, we were not prepared for Emancipation and were, for all practical purposes, placed in a state of benign neglect for one hundred years.

Emancipation 2014 is being observed against the backdrop of a systematic campaign in the Anglophone Caribbean for reparations, for Britain to acknowledge its black debt and make due recompense.   This process is ongoing.

Emancipation 2014 is also being observed against the backdrop of the upcoming elections.   The right to vote, to choose our own path, is one of the most important achievements along the road that our ancestors took their first, halting steps.  This right was achieved after more than a century since emancipation, and it required a workers’ rebellion in the entire British Caribbean that forced our British rulers to sit up,  take notice, and accept that it had a responsibility towards the people in its Caribbean possessions.

Today, we tend to take this right for granted, but this right was only granted to the people of Montserrat in 1951, 117 years after Emancipation.  It was not a right we have enjoyed as a matter of course.  There are many people still living in Montserrat today who came of age but did not have the right to vote as we do today.

With this right to vote come several other freedoms, among which is the right to choose our own leaders to represent us in the highest public forum in our country.  We are also accorded the right of freedom of expression, the right to speak our minds without fear of arrest and imprisonment if our views are not in accordance with the official position.  There may be repercussions to exercising this right to freedom of expression in a country like ours where people are not comfortable with rocking the boat.

But our present political and electoral system is the product of the recent history of our island.  Faced with the disruptions of our social life after a major natural disaster, our leaders devised a system where each registered voter is afforded the right to nine votes.   We have some 30 persons presenting themselves for public office and we are faced with the issue of choice.  Emancipation 2014 has met us debating who should be granted the right to represent the interests of the people in the highest public forum in our country.  To entrust a fellow citizen with the responsibility to represent our interests government is a right that borders on the sacred, both on the part of the voter and the prospective candidate.  It is not to be taken lightly.   The voter is expected to make his choice on the basis of his or her careful consideration of the abilities and record of each candidate before casting the 9 votes.  The candidates are expected to have carefully examined their conscience to decide whether they are competent to represent the people.  They are expected to have set aside their personal interests in favour of the interests of the people as a whole.

Unfortunately, very often our elected officials lose sight of the reasons they are elected.  They put themselves up for election as representatives and servants of the people but may find themselves succombing to the power of the position and in short order instead start seeing themselves as masters.   Both our people and our elected representatives must be vigilant in suppressing this behaviour.

As we observe Emancipation in 2014, it is fitting that we reflect on the road we have travelled.  It must be a time to celebrate our victories and reflect on our failures, resolving never to repeat past mistakes but learning from them. The upcoming elections should be a celebration of the achievements since that first Emancipation day.”

A Happy August Monday to all!

Gracelyn Cassell"

Pat Ryan 65