This Friday, 4 October, the grand spectacle and ceremony that is the State Opening of Parliament will take place at the New Parliament Building at Mount Wheldale.
The playing of the Royal Salute at the Governor-General’s arrival, the inspection of the Guard of Honour, and of course the Governor-General’s Throne Speech laying out the government’s policy programme for the coming year. One thing however will be conspicuously absent during the event, as it has been since 2018: the Throne.
The Royal Throne of Grenada, also known as the Presiding Officer’s Chair when used in its dual role as the seat from which the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President of the Senate directed the proceedings of their respective Houses of Parliament, will be absent from the parliament chamber. The Throne, a seat from which all Governors-General of this country delivered the Throne Speech between 1977 and 2018, and from which Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II delivered the speech in 1985, is more than just a chair, it is a symbol.
The Throne was given as a gift to the Parliament of Grenada by Queen Elizabeth and the British Parliament in 1977 to celebrate Grenada’s independence. As such, the Throne was an object with incredibly rich historic symbolism. It represented our independence, our Parliament, and our Crown. As such, we at the Grenada Monarchist League ahead of this year’s State Opening of Parliament contacted the Office of the Houses of Parliament and urged for the Throne to be taken back into use during the Governor-General’s Throne Speech. It would be fitting to once again use this symbol and gift of independence in this year of our golden independence jubilee.
The gracious response we received from the Clerk of Parliament Andrew Augustine was, however, heartbreaking. The Throne, this important symbol of independence and our parliamentary democracy, an independence gift from the Mother of Parliaments, has apparently been so disregarded, so poorly maintained, that it has now rotted to a point it is unsalvageable and thus cannot be used. Quite how this baffling mismanagement has been allowed to occur is unknown.
This travesty and deeply embarrassing disregard for our history, heritage and national symbols is unfortunately just one more example in a long and depressing list in this country. Other symbols of our state left to a similar fate as the Throne are of course York House, the former seat of Parliament, which still stands as a degrading shell across the street from the cathedral in St George’s. Another is Government House, the official residence of the King and the Governor-General, located right next to the New Parliament Building. It, likewise, has been left a rotting ruin since Hurricane Ivan in 2004. There is also of course the Public Library on the Carenage and its associated national archives, and countless other beautiful, historic buildings and artefacts left to rot and ruin across this country.
The Government of Grenada and we as a people need to do better. We must make the effort to maintain and restore our physical heritage. How can we say we are proud of our country if we let its history and past rot away? How can we say we are proud of our country if we let its stately buildings and its symbols of sovereignty decay and fade into nothing? A society which neglects its past, which lets its history degrade and disappear, is a society which slowly but surely threatens to lose a sense of itself, to lose its roots and anchor. How can a society have a present and a future if it has no past from which it came?
A society which values its past, which values its heritage, is one which is secure in itself. It is a society from which you can build bonds of trust, good governance and peace. Beautiful and well maintained environments have been shown, time and time again, to make residents and visitors alike happier. Such societies are also, for those more purely economically minded, ones which tourists are far more interested in seeing, experiencing, and spending money on. A tourist is far more interested in spending their time and their money in a place which is beautiful, well maintained and pleasant, than in a place which is run-down and dilapidated. They are far more interested in visiting a place with a vibrant and distinct cultural and historical identity than one which appears lost and unsure of itself. The seeming blindness of many in our government and wider society to this is extraordinarily puzzling.
There is, however, some light. In his email to us, Augustine said that Parliament is considering having a replica of the Throne produced. This is an excellent endeavour, and the Grenada Monarchist League is urging Parliament and the government in the strongest possible terms to make haste in making this come to fruition. There is also the government’s announcement last year it intends to renovate the Public Library, and the Governor-General’s efforts to raise funds for the restoration of Government House.
These efforts however, often independent and disparate, are not enough. The government needs to make a genuine effort at restoration of our heritage. This would, for certain, be an endeavour which would have an economic price tag no doubt, but one which would certainly pay off in the long run. The price tag could also certainly be minimised by involving international partners. $10 million was raised from international partners for the construction of the New Parliament Building. Certainly funds can likewise be raised to rebuild York House, Government House, the Throne, and other historic symbols and buildings.
This country needs a serious re-evaluation of the way we treat our physical heritage. We must wake up and be conscious about what we need to preserve to avoid, at all costs, embarrassing and entirely avoidable destruction such as the Throne rotting away from occurring again.
Grenada Monarchist League
