Milton Cato was no hero!

Tue Aug 5, 2014

Editor: A few months ago I followed from a distance, a debate in St Vincent and the Grenadines, as to whether or not late Prime Minister Robert Milton Cato should be named a national hero. Because I live overseas, I waited with respect. In my mind, although I cast my first vote in 1974 (at the age of 19) for the St Vincent Labour Party, many decisions that Mr Cato made has led me to conclude that he does not deserve such honour.{{more}}

First, Cato became the first Premier and first Prime Minister simply because he was in office as our colonial masters granted Associated Statehood and subsequent full Independence to the Caribbean Islands. I am one of those persons who believe that because of shady politics in St Vincent and the Grenadines, Mr Ebenezer Joshua was robbed of the opportunity to be first premier.

If you sense a bias on my part, kindly be advised that on November 14, 1975, as a member of the St Vincent Union of Teachers, I, along with my brother Hugh, faced the wrath of the Cato administration on “Tear Gas Friday.”

I was born in Troumaca, which became a village in 1899 after the settlement at “Silver Hill” was destroyed by a hurricane the previous year.

In 1906, two families, the Whites to the South and the Anthonys to the North, donated lands which became the Troumaca playing field. In 1972, Mr Cato, as premier, took the land away and in the face of protest from some villagers, he stood on the floor of the Troumaca Government School, where I learned to read and write, and uttered the words:

“Play cricket in your backyard.”

What an insult to Mike Findlay, my national hero, who started on that playing field. The Cato Government also planted a forest in the middle of the village. My brother, Frank Da Silva, recently reminded me of that fact.

Dr Adrian Fraser once wrote that Mr Cato had “more than a touch of arrogance??” Oh so true! His attitude of great dislike for anyone who dared to oppose him made him a failed leader. He kept our nation divided. I would like those who want to name Robert Milton Cato a national hero to spell out to my countrymen and the world what did he do to deserve such distinction.

I wish to state emphatically that Cato was no damn hero!

Ken Wyllie

Philadelphia, USA