October 22, 2021
Congratulations to Barbados for finally ditching the British Queen as their head of state. Something they were threatening to do for quite some time, joining Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago and Dominica as the other countries in the Caribbean to do so.
While the verdict has been read on what Barbados will do now, can we also share some caveats on turning republic for some of our readers?
Becoming a republic is not a bed of roses. Not only are you cut off to some degree from the rest of the world, but you also have to deal with internal problems more directly, which of course leads to more political instability in the short term as actors try to grab hold of the levers of the state. Take for example the rough politics of Trinidad and Tobago to the point of dysfunction to a large degree. Also take how Roosevelt Skerrit in Dominica has used the police force to bully and harass citizens, all in attempts to keep on to power.
There is no big secret why most republics fail or are dysfunctional. The biggest issue is that they tend to become too big because everything would need parliamentary approval and that slows down democracy to a snail’s pace. Especially where the chief executive is elected separately from the congress/parliament.
In Barbados as with Trinidad and Tobago the parliament will elect the president on advice of the prime minister, nothing significant will change from what it was, just for the mere fact that this president will no longer have to give any special consideration to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and her heirs and successors. The president remains a figurehead just as it was under Britain, so what exactly did Barbados change aside from a few words on a piece of paper?
I guess this gives Barbadians some confidence that they can manage their own affairs, but they have been doing that anyway before the change?
Anyway, God bless them and we wish them all the best!