Dear Editor,

We have witnessed, over the past three years, resolutions aimed at awarding a day to honour national heroes or noted Jamaican personalities.

For example, the Minister of Culture Olivia “Babsy” Grange, in December 2020, led the cause for Sam Sharpe Day (December 27) and is currently guiding the process for the declaration of Olympian Herb McKenley Day (May 24), while Leader of the Opposition Mark Golding called for October 24 to honour Paul Bogle.

One may ask: What is the purpose of these special days?

Our answer is found in the first of such declarations, 10 years ago, when Governor General Sir Patrick Allen read the proclamation setting aside August 17 as Marcus Garvey Day.

The proclamation, in part, stated that, “On the 13th day of August 2012 in the year of the celebration of Jamaica’s Independence and the 125th anniversary of the Rt Excellent Marcus Garvey’s birth, the prime minister of Jamaica, the Most Hon Portia Simpson Miller, ON, MP, after consultation with the members of the Cabinet, decided that the 17th day of August each year, being the anniversary of the birth of the Rt Excellent Marcus Mosiah Garvey, is appropriate as the day to be set aside for the focusing of attention on the outstanding contribution of the Rt Excellent Marcus Mosiah Garvey, but shall not be a public holiday.”

The governor general then went on “to proclaim and make known that the 17th day of August in each year shall be designated as Marcus Garvey Day and shall so be observed”.

In declaring, the governor general noted that, “From here on, every year this time, all of us here in Jamaica will be called to mind to remember this outstanding national hero and what he has done for us as a people, and our children will call this to mind also on this day.”

In December 2020, the proclamation by the governor general, in setting aside Sam Sharpe Day, included as its purpose, to “reflect on and celebrate the unflinching courage and bold resolve of these our ancestors, led by Sam Sharpe, who gave their lives for our freedom” and “that the 27th day of December shall be designated as Sam Sharpe Day annually and so observed”. (Jamaica Information Service)

In October 2017 Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport Minister Olivia Grange began piloting the legislation, the National Heroes and Other Freedom Fighters (Absolution from Criminal Liability in Respect of Specified Events) Act, 2017, a Bill aimed at absolving a number of iconic Jamaicans, including Garvey, of what she described as “acts of liberation”.

In February 2018 the Senate passed the legislation to absolve certain national heroes from criminal liability.

As we observe the 12th anniversary of Marcus Garvey Day on his 135th birthday, can the Government shed light on whether Marcus Garvey’s criminal record in Jamaica was expunged after the legislation was passed in the Senate? No Bill can become law until it is approved by the Houses of Parliament and receives the formal assent of the governor general. Did this Bill receive the formal assent of the governor general?

A search on the Jamaica Parliament’s website under public Bills came up negative (perhaps I looked in the wrong place), and one would have thought that such news would be found on the King’s House website, which had other events, such as wreath-laying ceremonies and Marcus Garvey Public Sector Scholarship Awards, listed.

Marcus Garvey was named Jamaica’s first national hero after being posthumously conferred with the Order of the National Hero in 1969 after his remains were brought back to Jamaica.

Dudley C McLean II

Mandeville, Manchester

dm15094@gmail.com