Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves on Sunday misrepresented the facts on the debate 10 years ago when he strongly opposed the proposal by then Opposition Leader, Arnhim Eustace that all Garifuna be granted honorary citizenship of St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG).
Eustace made the announcement on May 31, 2015, in New York at a town hall meeting held by the Opposition New Democratic Party (NDP), of which he was also leader.
“I expect the New Democratic Party to win the next general elections. And I declare here tonight, that having won, I will take the first step by making all the Garifuna honorary citizens of St. Vincent and the Grenadines,” Eustace had said to extended applause.
On June 2, 2015, Gonsalves spoke strongly against the NDP’s proposal
“I do not support that. I do not support that and Arnhim Eustace would not support that either, so he put the adjectival ‘honorary’ in front of it,” said Gonsalves, who has ministerial powers to grant citizenship.”
He likened the NDP’s honorary citizenship proposal to citizenship by investment, which his government continues to oppose, also 25 years after it repealed the law and ended the formal programme.
In the June 2, 2015, press conference, Gonsalves noted that the law that his government repealed had given an honorary citizen a passport and permanent residency in SVG.
“When you give them honorary citizenship, our Garifuna brothers and sisters, are they coming out from Belize, from Nicaragua, from Honduras from Guatemala, they are coming out of those countries for jobs in St. Vincent?” Gonsalves had said.
“They are coming for your houses? I want to know what this involves. If you are going to be an honorary citizen, the only thing I have to judge on is what you called honorary citizen before, and the only distinction there, the only thing you had to pay money,” he had further stated.
In subsequent comments in June 2015, Gonsalves described the NDP’s honorary citizenship proposal as “irresponsible and reckless, both in principle and practice”.
Eustace stood by the proposal and stated in August 2015 that it should not be “commingled with our day-to-day politics”.
However, speaking on WE FM on Sunday, Gonsalves falsely stated that the opposition had initially proposed full citizenship for all Garifuna and had moderated its position after he questioned it.
The issue of Gonsalves’ position in 2015 has become topical again as a visiting delegation, led by the President of the International Garifuna Council, Trevor Palicio, honoured him in a ceremony on Friday, National Heroes Day, declaring him a “Messenger of Chatoyer”.
Gonsalves said: “Of all the awards I have received across the world, this is
the greatest honour of my lifetime.”
Chatoyer, the leader of the Garifuna people, died in battle against the British in 1795. His death was followed by some 5,000 Garifuna, Kalinago and Blacks being exiled to Balliceaux, a 320-acre island in the Grenadines that has no source of fresh water or food.
Thousands of the exiled First Vincentians died on the island in the months before they were further exiled to Roatan, off present-day Honduras.
On March 6, Gonsalves announced that his government has acquired Balliceaux, which, up to the point of the acquisition, was privately owned.
Some sections of the Garifuna community globally praised Gonsalves for his actions.
However, on Sunday on WE FM, Leroy Providence, a social commentator said he was
“haunted” by the discussion surrounding the government’s acquisition of the island.
Providence said he was haunted because when Eustace raised honorary citizenship for Garifuna, Gonsalves had responded by asking if they were coming to SVG to take away people’s jobs, houses and land.
Providence pointed out that Eustace “only wanted it to be a sentimental thing … That was the idea.
“And we would have benefited a lot because that would have been a connection of several million people abroad — Vincentians. We were broadening our horizons and our economic base,” Providence said.
“But, ultimately, look, we have people coming here, offering them citizenship and all that. And those people would have made a bigger impact than we are feeling from some of the rogues who have come in here posing as big guns.”
Providence mentioned British-born businessman David Ames, who acquired full Vincentian citizenship after investing in the former Buccament Bay Resort, money that was later revealed to have been from a Ponzi scheme involving UK pensioners’ earnings.
“Ames came in here and got all sorts of facility and where he is now? In the jail. You see what I mean?” Providence said.
“This is what haunts me when I hear the discussion on Balliceaux and as if you’re doing such a great thing now and you’re always keen about it. I am disappointed. That haunts me.”
He said that even North Windward MP Montgomery Daniel, who is of Garifuna descent and is now deputy prime minister, “didn’t say anything, didn’t defend his people,” amidst Gonsalves’ comment.
“… that’s had me and it will remain with me for a long time,” Providence said.
However, speaking later on the same programme Gonsalves, accused Providence of having “a visceral antipathy towards Ralph and the ULP (Unity Labour Party”, although their face-to-face interactions are pleasant.
The prime minister then went on to state, falsely, that when Eustace first made the proposal he had offered full citizenship to Garifuna.
In his comments on Sunday, Gonsalves further said that “persons who spoke on behalf of the NDP with this matter” had said that there were “1,600 acres of land in the Grand Sable area, which was prime Garifuna land which could be given to those people who are coming as citizens, the Garifuna, whom they said to come as citizens”.
Gonsalves did not identify by name any of these people who he said had made such a statement.
iWitness News reported on the matter extensively 10 years ago, and the issue of the Garifuna acquiring or occupying land in SVG only surfaced when the PM brought it into the discussion.
