On November 30, 2021, we officially ceased our “loitering” on the British premises when we became a parliamentary republic with much pomp and fanfare.We reference the famous quote of the Father of Independence and National Hero the Right Excellent Errol Walton Barrow that the Barbados “Government will not be found loitering on colonial premises after closing time”.To emphasise the importance of the monumental step taken almost a year ago, another colossus of Caribbean politics Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves wrote an important commentary to the Barbadian people on the occasion.“You have led Barbados magnificently through an alive constitutionalism, in the ennobling endeavour of establishing and institutionalising a home-grown Head of State, shaped in your people’s own image, likeness, faith, love, and hope. In so doing, the independent Parliament of Barbados, duly elected by a free people in free and fair elections, and acting in their name, finally exorcised the last formal vestige of the incubus of colonialism,” Comrade Ralph opined.
