KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent, CMC – Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, a staunch anti-monarchist, has defended his decision to attend the coronation of Britain’s King Charles earlier this month, saying it would have been “churlish” of him not to attend the May 6 event.
He said the new British monarch had assisted St. Vincent and the Grenadines during the April 2021 eruption of the La Soufriere volcano.
Governor General Dame Susan Dougan, her husband, Hugh Dougan, Prime Minister Gonsalves, and his wife, Eloise Gonsalves, represented the island.
Gonsalves said while he remains opposed to the British monarch being the sovereign of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, he hopes that the constitutional provision that allows for it to exist is no longer in place in 2030.
In 2009, Vincentians rejected, in a referendum, that, among other things, proposed changes to the Constitution, which included replacing the British monarchy with a non-executive president as head of state.
Gonsalves, speaking on a radio program here, was asked whether he thought Vincentians would replace the British monarch by the decade’s end.
“Conceivably. And I think it’s a priority, but there are priorities, and there are priorities; there are lists of priorities,” said Gonsalves, adding, “I recognize King Charles as the King of St. Vincent and Grenadines.
“That’s a fact of life, constitutionally. I had to recognize him and that he has a representative here — Dame Susan,” said Gonsalves, noting, “but I can’t accept in me that somebody who was not born here, who didn’t grow up here, who doesn’t live here, who is there only because something started in 1763 when Britain and France divided the Eastern Caribbean countries among themselves, and then from that moment onwards, every monarch there is head of state of St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
“I just don’t know how anybody can simply say, ‘Well, that is something which is acceptable’ or that they could — that it adds to stability,” the prime minister said, adding that having the British monarch as sovereign of St. Vincent and the Grenadines “is debilitating psychologically.”
Gonsalves attended the coronation on a day that his Minister of Agriculture, Saboto Caesar, seen as a potential successor to Gonsalves, described it as a “celebration without a conscience.
“I see the ‘coronation’ as a timely reminder that we must rise and demand reparative justice,” Caesar wrote.
“We must not allow a selected few to own the process and turn it into a simplified discussion exercise. Neither must we sit with folded hands and suggest that only the handful of hard-working anti-colonialists should continue the fight without our help.”
Gonsalves said while he understood that some people had asked the question, “Well, Ralph, if that is your position, why did you go to the coronation?” his response was, “First of all, he (Charles) has to be recognized as King.
“Because that’s what the Constitution says. And the people of St. Vincent and Grenadines validated the monarch politically in 2009
“So, I recognize all that; I acknowledge all that, but I can’t accept it in my body, bones, blood. But there’s nothing I can do about it. Because it is what it is until that is changed.”
He noted that to changchangingstitutional provisions requires a two-thirds majority both in ament followed by a two-thirds majority in a referendum.
Gonsalves said this is “very difficult” to achieve.
The prime minister said he also attended the coronation because King Charles “is — compared with the British government itself — on a more progressive path” about climate change, including on adaptation and mitigation issues.
“He has been a long advocate. Of course, we have differences, but at least he’s on the right path,” Gonsalves said.
He further said that former UK Prime Ministers David Cameron and Tony Blair and current Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, of Indian descent, said they would not apologize for the UK’s role in slavery.
“Whereas Charles, at Kigali in Rwanda at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting, he said, reparations is a conversation, the time of which has now come for that question to be discussed maturely, we must have a serious discussion about it.
“He has supported a group of researchers to see the links between the British monarchy and the enslavement of African bodies. Of course, we know the link, but they’re going through this process,” Gonsalves said.
“And then it would be churlish … for us, having received the invitation, to not to have gone when he, … when he was Prince Charles, called me in the middle of the volcanic eruption and asked ‘What can I help you with here with the humanitarian issue?'”
Gonsalves, recounting his conversation with the then Prince Charles, said, “I said, well, listen, I’m sure you have helped with the British Red Cross — of which he is president — you might even have put some of your own money.
“I said to him, all we need here is the Red Cross to be strengthened because there are so many things they have to do.
“I say, so I’m looking at things as we get out of this (the impact of the volcanic eruption) … I said when you came in 2019, I discussed two things with you, reparations and university scholarships.”
The prime minister said that within a week of the conversation, the then Prince Charles got the Vice Chancellor of the University of Wales Trinity St. David to call him.
“And then we concluded 55 scholarships — 40 undergraduate and 15 graduate, the 15 graduate ones are by distance with a total value of over four million pounds (One British Pound = 1.24 cents).
Gonsalves said that at the coronation, “… those parts, which involved incantations about homage and loyalty and ‘God save the King’ and, and all the rest of it, I keep my mouth shut on those things.
“I involve myself in Christian worship, including saying the Our Father Prayer when the Archbishop of Canterbury led that particular prayer during the service.”
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