DLP leader launches petition, slams Barbados National Day Loop Barbados

Black Immigrant Daily News

The leader of Barbados’ second largest political party is petitioning Government’s decision to replace Independence Day with Barbados National Day.

Dr Ronnie Yearwood, president of the Democratic Labour Party (DLP), has launched a petition on change.org, citing that the decision was “hasty and unwanted”. In an official statement on the DLP social media pages, Dr Yearwood contended that the country’s transition to a parliamentary republic was ” nothing but a baseless Mia Mottley Vanity project”.

He added that the move from Independence Day to Barbados National Day was a selfish attempt by the Barbadian Prime Minister to leave a legacy, while negating the national significance of November 30 to citizens.

“Independence is more than a word to Barbadians. It’s a source of pride. The day the iconic Broken Trident was raised to signify our break away from England. The birth of our national anthem penned by Irving Burgie and the pledge written by Lester Vaughn. We will not allow these moments to be erased.

We will not stand by as this Prime Minister tries to graffiti her way onto history’s page yet again by forcing another unwanted change onto the people of Barbados,” Dr Yearwood insisted.

He continued: “We are not combining Independence Day celebrations with Republic day celebrations. We are strict guardians of our heritage and we will not allow Mia Mottley to jockey her self-entitled legacy on the backs of those who came before her.

It doesn’t matter if you call it Barbados National Day or Barbados Republic Day, we do not want it if the plan is to rename Independence Day. The solution is to keep Independence Day and we will celebrate as we always have.”

The leader of the DLP argued that many citizens were still lost about what it meant to be a republic, therefore, Government’s focus should be on educating the public and not solely on celebrating.

“From the beginning of this process, the focus has been on Celebration, not Education. People cannot truly celebrate something they do not fully understand,” Dr Yearwood maintained.

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