And one person who did not sign the book of condolences is Leader of the Opposition, Shyne Barrow. Barrow told us today that he has no fondness nor admiration towards the queen, the king, or the monarchy on a whole. In fact, he says we should have moved past the monarchy the same day we became an independent nation.
But now that we are at this juncture, he feels that it is time to go in the other direction.
Shyne Barrow, Leader of the Opposition
"I totally agree that we need to move beyond the monarch. Many of the ministers have expressed such, I definitely commend the Minister of Education for using his platform on the Battle of St George's Caye Day stage to talk about the harrows of colonial life, colonialism, colonization. I see many nations calling for the crown of England to return all of the diamonds and all of the jewelry that they stole from these nations that they colonized. So this PR to romanticize the British Monarchy, this delusionary romanticization by some people is unfortunate but for me there is no question, I have no fond memories of colonialism, certainly I believe many part of Belize still suffer from colonialism, certain ethnic groups in Belize suffer more than others because of colonialism, people will never get he government that they deserve in Belize because of colonialism. We don't need any king or queen as our sovereign, there is no British Defense Act or pact to guard against Guatemala, if the queen is removed from our dollar, our currency does not devalue. It is all, I wouldn't even say fairytale, it is a nightmare that some people just refuse to let end. I believe the time has come for it to end, what a monarch represents is totally contrary to freedom and democracy and even people in Britain, there are republicans in Britain that want the monarch to end."
"Charles, he has no special significance to me and neither does the queen, that is how I feel."
Barrow also lamented his disappointment that Belizeans are still buying into the fairytale of a monarchy, when in reality as he sees it, it's a nightmare of colonization.
Shyne Barrow, Leader of the Opposition
"You know it's quite unfortunate and I think, that's why I'm happy to see that the Minister of Education and Culture is leading the charge that he believes we should move away from the monarchy because there is a lot of education that needs to be done. Colonization was not better in Belize than it was in other places, slavery was not better in Belize than it was in other places, I mean everything is relative so yes, you know, the nightmare could have been worse but it doesn't excuse the perpetrators of the crimes against humanity and that is what the queen of England, that is what the King of England represents to me. I cringe to say that King Charles is the King of Belize, to me that should have ended on September 21st, 1981. And that is how you move forward with reconciliation and reparations and we can have bilateral relations as two equal nations and again I cringe to see Belizeans with the sentimentality towards a monarch that has only oppressed us, that has only exploited us and has never done anything for us. Certainly, maybe there's some people in the country whose ancestors weren't enslaved like mine and so maybe they can't relate but just people acknowledge injustice even when it didn't happen to them and their ancestors, wrong is wrong, no one should be enslaved, no one should be oppressed, no one should be exploited, and where that was done, that has to be repaired, it has to be atoned for and so we have to stop this fairytale that never happened."
