Dear Editor,

“I love The Queen. She is a beautiful lady, and apart from being a beautiful lady, a wise lady and a wonderful lady, but I think time come,” said former Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller in her swearing-in address on January 5, 2012 in reference to Jamaica breaking our attachment to the British empire.

Jamaica becoming a republic has been the desire of both political parties from as early as the 1960s. Achieving republic status has been a long elusive dream that would see the fulfilment of the promise of Independence. Many Jamaicans, like myself, believe as long as we wake up to the monarch of England as our head of State, the decolonisation process is incomplete.

Unfortunately, at the January 9 sitting of the Parliament, this quest was dealt a low blow. We saw yet another example of an attitude that has held us back as a country for so long from achieving many of our goals. We saw, despite there being great unity in our desire for Jamaica to be a republic, that some eyes were firmly fixed on that which divided us instead of what united us. This abhorrent approach has been seen by some as self-sabotage as we seek to take steps towards republic status.

For the Leader of the Opposition Mark Golding and his handlers that mean him well, I believe that this delay and derailing of our quest to decolonise would not be to his benefit. Unlike former Cuban President Fidel Castro, history will not absolve him. If I were in his shoes, as a grandson of the empire seeking to represent the descendants of those who were enslaved and colonised by the empire, I would proceed cautiously. Any uninformed and unjustified opposition that delays our desire to detangle our colonial ties would only be harmful to him, our country, and its dream for the future.

We Jamaicans are fixated on the good of our nation and have long dreamed of a new Jamaica, a republic characterised by unity, productivity, and pride at all levels.

So to you I say, don’t stop the progress, log on to the future.

“Time come fi unity, time come fi republic.”

Wade Brown

Vice-president

Young Jamaica

wade.brown00@gmail.com