By Sir Hilary Beckles – The UWI, Vice Chancellor
Glorious congratulations to Mia Mottley on her revolutionary success at the Barbados polls. As Vice Chancellor of the University of the West Indies, the regional academy I know she loves dearly and cares for passionately, I offer our collective salutations as she proceeds to give positive effect to the peoples’ mandate. So complete has been the demonstration of the public’s trust in her intellect and integrity that no statistical space was left for doubt. The UWI welcomes the opportunity to work and rise with her to meet head on the many challenges facing the country and region.
In my personal capacity as her long-standing friend and fellow education traveller, I join with the nation in giving effect to the notion that she has shown battle-worthy resilience and dedication and has won our confidence as a superlative sister possessed of the necessary skills to leverage and lead. I eagerly await the resumption of her innovative and visionary leadership and approaches to national development and, in particular, her serving the educational advancement of the poor and marginalised.
As an historian of the community I can assert that this electoral victory reaffirms what we have long known; that the Barbadian people are tolerant, patient, flexible, accommodating and generous. But when these attributes are persistently taken for granted, they rise up and move swiftly and decisively in the direction of justice. This latest demonstration of the national characteristic will in time be known as the Mottley Revolution.
Everyone has good reason to be proud of the peoples’ choice. It is now the duty of all to accelerate the rebuilding of the nation under her leadership on the basis of the shared vision and common cause she so eloquently and persuasively articulated in the electoral discourse.
