Politics
Portia Simpson-Miller: Jamaica severing ties with UK monarchy a priority
A referendum on replacing the Queen as Jamaica’s head of state could take place sooner rather than later.
Jamaica’s prime minister has said she wants her country to sever ties with the British monarchy soon so it can turn the page on its colonial past and focus on development.
Portia Simpson-Miller first announced her desire to replace the Queen as Jamaica’s head of state with a Jamaican president during her swearing-in ceremony on January 6, after leading the People’s National Party to a resounding win in parliamentary elections. The Queen is titular monarch of the otherwise independent nation.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Ms Simpson-Miller suggested a referendum on the idea could take place sooner rather than later, possibly even this year as Jamaica prepares to celebrate its 50th year of independence from Britain.
“I think the fact that August coming will be 50 years since we have gained our independence that it’s time for us to sever the ties,” she said during a break in a conference on attracting more foreign investment to Jamaica. “I really feel it is time now for Jamaica to have its own leadership fully, to take charge.”
While professing strong admiration for the Queen, the prime minister described the political change she wants as a memorial for Jamaica’s national heroes and the unheralded victims of slavery. Historians say plantation slavery in Jamaica was particularly brutal.
“It is important to us because it is part of a journey, a journey that started when our ancestors were dragged, sold into slavery and brought here and elsewhere in the Caribbean. Their struggles were so that we can be free men and women today,” Ms Simpson-Miller said.
