Committee considering four additional National Heroes

St Vincent and the Grenadines may soon have four additional national heroes, an accolade presently held only by Paramount Chief Joseph Chatoyer.

The persons who have been suggested by the National Heroes Selection Committee are George Augustus McIntosh, Ebenezer Theodore Joshua, Robert Milton Cato and Dr John Parmenos Eustace.{{more}}

Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves, speaking at the remembrance function and wreath laying ceremony for Chief Joseph Chatoyer at the obelisk at Dorsetshire Hill last Monday, March 14, said that René Baptiste, the chairperson of the advisory committee on national heroes, had written to Governor General Sir Frederick Ballantyne and copied to him, the results of the work of the committee, which was established in respect of choosing other possible national heroes.

He said that while he has received the report, he has not yet had the opportunity to discuss it with the Governor General and Cabinet and to speak to the nation.

“It is an ongoing process. We must always keep in our minds the legal process for the naming of national heroes, the appointment to the office of national hero. Basically, the person must have displayed exceptional or extraordinary leadership qualities, and his or her work must have made a profound difference for the people of St Vincent and the Grenadines.”

The Prime Minister said that persons in leadership need to ensure that discussion which continues on the question of additional heroes must be conducted with civility and good sense. “Always remembering that the highest hallmark of leadership is not so much to inspire, which is important to be done, but to draw out of people that which is good and noble in them and often times to draw out the goodness and nobility which the people do not as yet know that they possess.”

The choice of additional national heroes, particularly Milton Cato, is controversial and back in 2013, lawyer Jomo Thomas resigned from the National Heroes Selection Committee, as he thought that the Prime Minister, through a speech, had been trying to influence persons to support the bid for Cato, a former leader of the St Vincent and the Grenadines Labour Party, to be named national hero.

Monday’s function also heard addresses from Minister of Culture Cecil McKie, Minister of Agric-ulture Saboto Caesar, member of the Rosebank Development Association Urel Louie-LaBorde and the Cayetanos, a Garifuna couple from Belize. The Leader of the Opposition was represented by former parliamentarian John Horne.

Those attending the ceremony at the obelisk included Governor General Sir Frederick Ballantyne, Miss St Vincent and the Grenadines 2015 DeYonte Mayers, Commissioner of Police Michael Charles and members of the diplomatic corps.

Entertainment was provided in song by Glenroy ‘Sulle’ Caesar and through dance by the Arabesque Dance Company.(LC)