No More Monarchy here, says most of the remaining Commonwealth Realm
It is a grey day in London a week after the recent Coronation of King Charles III
It is a grey day in London a week after the recent Coronation of King Charles III
GLOBAL — As we proceed past the tumultuously planned coronation of King Charles III in the United Kingdom, change is erupting in far flung nations in the realm.
The Caribbean
Of the fourteen nations in the realm of the Commonwealth, eight are located in the Caribbean, down one since the removal of the Queen as Barbados’ Head of State in 2021.
Matching calls for change in Scotland and Ireland, are moving efforts in the Caribbean to formally remove the King as Head of State.
“The move towards republicanism is grounded in the belief that it’s time for former colonized nations to really live their independence and claim self-determination and not be under a monarchical system,” said Verene Shepherd, the chair of Jamaica’s National Commission on Reparations and chair of the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
Now, in some of the quickest reformation actions to ever occur in the region, all eight countries have officially cut colonial ties to stand on their own as republic states:
In Jamaica and Grenada, popular referenda passed in February to make the constitutional amendments necessary to unseat the Crown and establish a new office of President of the Republic on each island.
Belize’s constitutional commission concluded in March that a 2/3 majority vote in Parliament is all that would be needed to make similar changes. The motion passed last Friday.
Bahamas, St. Lucia and St. Kitts then followed suit.
Seeing the regional groundswell, the Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, who originally said he call a referendum within the next three years, decided to put the question to his constituents even sooner than planned.
“This is not an act of hostility or any difference between Antigua and Barbuda and the monarchy, but it is the final step to complete that circle of independence, to ensure that we are truly a sovereign nation,” said Prime Minister Gaston Browne.St. Vincent and the Grenadines finally joined in the ranks just last week, asking for a special summit of CARICOM to consider strengthening financial and political ties for deeper cooperation in the region, in order to lessen dependence on the Commonwealth system.
Dates were announced for the summit today, which will take place in August this year, marking 189 years since the abolition of slavery in the British empire. Another key issue on the agenda would be strengthening the call for reparations across the region.
The Pacific
In Australia and New Zealand, members of government from multiple parties have long hinted at transitioning to republics themselves.
Adam Bandt, a member of Australia’s Green Party, called for a “Treaty with First Nations people, and we need to become a Republic” following the passing of Elizabeth II.
Former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Arden has previously said she expected a transition to happen “in [her] lifetime.”
Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Tuvalu are calling for deepened cooperative relationships with their two big neighbours, so that they can also manage what comes after the transition to republic status.
As Jahlani Niaah, a lecturer in the Institute of Caribbean Studies at The University of the West Indies, put it, many of the benefits first promised by the Commonwealth have not materialized. “We’re relying on those arrangements to bring us serious socio-political transformation, but they have just made us more financially imbalanced.”
At Home
We have written before about Irish reunification movements and Scottish independence, changes that have continued to develop in the past few months.
In London, local anti-monarchy groups are challenging the newly passed Public Order Act as more and more of the population grows unhappy with continued monarchy in the realm.
Tensions have grown particularly for younger generations — especially the children and grandchildren of British immigrants who came from the previously held colonies of the empire.
There has been no official comment yet from the crown, but one is to be expected in the coming weeks.
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