The United Progressive Party (UPP) is utterly disgusted by Prime Minister Gaston Browne’s continued undermining of this country’s only living National Hero, Sir Vivian Richards, and by Browne’s naked attempts to manipulate him politically.
The prime minister has shown himself to be personally affronted by Sir Viv’s political preferences – as if the Hero’s right to choose should be less than any other citizen’s. Accordingly, he has taken his barely disguised resentment to a new low by publicly insisting that he has done Sir Viv “favours” he does not deserve.
Sir Viv was knighted during the tenure of Prime Minister Lester Bird and designated a National Hero, the country’s highest honour, on the recommendation of Prime Minister Dr. Baldwin Spencer. Neither of these two heads of government ever sought to extract from Sir Viv any personal and petty sense of obligation, as the current prime minister continues, pathetically, to do.
Having not gained sufficient traction with his first insinuations about business favours, Prime Minister Browne has now resorted to the basest partisan measure: accusations that Sir Viv has disrespected Sir V.C. Bird.
No honest evaluation of the annual ceremonies held at the V.C. Bird Bust on December 9 could conclude that they are anything but partisan in content and appearance.
Sir Viv has not attended.
The UPP, since it designated December 9 as National Heroes Day, has studiously honoured all its heroes, including Sir Vere, for their contributions – without political references.
Sir Viv has not attended these ceremonies, either.
How, therefore, can his even-handedness regarding each party’s celebrations be construed and condemned as disrespect for one?
What was disrespectful was the manner in which all the other Heroes were jettisoned, in 2014, in the Labour Party’s haste to reclaim December 9 for Sir Vere alone.
It left the companion Heroes – including Sir Viv – out in the cold for several years, until they were finally parked on October 26, a date still unrecognized and uncelebrated by the majority of citizens and residents, including members of the Labour Party, themselves.
This current crusade of Prime Minister Browne and his followers – to smear Sir Viv’s reputation and to rob him of the respect he has earned, not only with his bat and ball (crudely denigrated by a sitting Labour Party MP), but with his strength of character and deep-rooted principles of race pride and human dignity – needs to stop.
It is despicable in the eyes of the region and the world and deeply offensive to Sir Viv’s fellow patriots. It makes a mockery of the honours his country and countrymen have bestowed upon him. And it makes the prime minister appear Lilliputian as a result.
This country owes Sir Viv a debt of gratitude and the United Progressive Party is proud and pleased to honour it.