Leader of the Opposition, Bruce Golding, has cautioned Parliament against allowing the history of slavery to undermine Jamaicans’ self-confidence.

“While we pursue it, because it is an injustice that has never been redressed, I want to urge that we do not allow the history of slavery to undermine our own confidence in ourselves and our own self-worth,” Golding told the House of Representatives on Tuesday.

He was making his contribution to the debate on the private member’s motion brought by his Opposition colleague, Mike Henry, seeking a united position among the MPs for a committee to quantify reparations and calling for certain nations to make compensation.

Golding said that while he welcomed Henry’s resolution, which moved the issue from the corridors into the chamber, Parliament should understand that there was a need for agreement on whether or not members reflected the thinking existing outside Parliament.

He said that there was a need to create “some sort of framework” as to whether or not the matter must be pursued aggressively and, if so, in what way, as well as to include other Caricom countries.

He said that there was a need for a consolidation of the forces supporting reparations, if the idea is to succeed. But first there must be consolidation within Caricom and then with African nations.

“We can’t go talk to Africa if some people from Caricom are saying one thing and some people from Caricom are saying another. But if we can build a Caricom consensus, then we will have to go across the Atlantic to go talk to our African brothers,” he said.

“I have sought not to suggest that there is not justification for pursuing the matter. I have sought to point out that there is a way in which the thing can be taken to a higher level. But I think that I have a duty to point out the challenges that we face, and the things that we are going to have to do to overcome those challenges,” he said.

However, Golding warned, “let us not allow the legacy to undermine our vision of our own potential”.

“While we carry the burden of the legacy of slavery, we must not allow it to darken our vision or to limit our horizons. We have a duty as leaders to inspire our people not to feel sorry for themselves, and those who seem to take some kind of therapeutic comfort in bemoaning the fact that our forefathers were beaten up and enslaved and, therefore, have become preoccupied with their own self-pity, we have a duty to inspire them,” he said.

Golding then quoted from Bob Marley’s Who the Cap Fits: “Some will hate you, pretend they love you, then behind you dem try to eliminate you, but who Jah bless, no man curse. Thank God, we have passed the worse.”