By: Staff Writer
September 20, 2022
Democratic Labour Party president Dr Ronnie Yearwood said that Mia Mottley administration needs to “try something new” on the reforms the country needs and says it’s time to be “bold and honest” about the challenges the country faces.
Dr Yearwood, in an interview with Caribbean Magazine Plus, said that since the country become a republic in November of last year, the Mottley administration has not moved on any meaningful reforms to shore up the democratic institutions in the country.
Dr Yearwood said: “Everybody said yes, we agree with becoming a republic, but why don’t we have the constitutional discussions, create a New Republic constitution, then become a republic?”
He continued, “The government said no, no, no, we’re becoming a republic and we’re pushing through, and then we’re going to have the constitutional changes afterward.”
These constitutional changes have yet to happen says Dr Yearwood and discussions about them have faltered off. “Having the discussions about constitutional reforms after we have become a republic doesn’t make sense, because you’ve got the same old independence constitution. So you’re calling yourself a republic on paper but you still have all of the trappings of the old constitution.”
The Barbados constitution was enacted in 1966 and was last amended in 2021 where it was changed to allow for the country to become a republic and allow for a president to become the head of state, as opposed to the governor general. But this is the extent to which the amendment went and nothing further with regard to constitutional change has been put forward in earnest.
Dr Yearwood added: “There wasn’t any consultation on becoming a republic. We brought a petition and people were fighting to get consultation just to try to get things to make sense.
“Nobody is disagreeing with becoming a republic, but when she did it we wanted to make it a moment where everybody could celebrate and actually see the change to the republic.
“So really, we are a republic in name, but nothing has changed. Absolutely nothing has changed.”
Dr Yearwood warned, however, “The actual details that would affect people’s lives, like a Bill of Rights, new arrangements for term limits for the Prime Minister, fixed term elections and integrity legislation, things that would actually make us a new republic, I still don’t know when these things will happen?”