The Government would have us believe that the protests that have been taking place are just a small bunch of people who don’t represent the views of people across St. Vincent. The Prime Minister has tried to insist that the people at the protest, of which he thinks there were 200, don’t make up the majority of the views in the country.
However, what he has failed to grasp is the why. In a civil, democratic society, it is not up to a Government to decide what you put in your body.
People must be encouraged to take a vaccine; it is of course the best protection against COVID and is the only way that we can move beyond this paralysed state that the world is in. But this doesn’t mean that we should succumb to a totalitarian regime that takes away your liberty and your own choice to make decisions that are best for you.
There is only one country in the world that has enforced mandatory vaccines and that is Indonesia. Despite having had this in place since February, the Indonesian population is only 3% more vaccinated (first dose) than St Vincent and the Grenadines – with SVG having 1.8% more 4 their population double vaccinated.
Other countries with successful rollouts have been able to avoid legally compelling their citizens to get the vaccine, with countries like the US and the UK offering an alternative- regular testing- for those who cannot or chose to not be vaccinated.
The UK has managed to achieve one of the world’s most successful vaccine roll-out without compulsory vaccines, with Prime Minister Boris Johnson saying that “there will be no compulsory vaccination. That’s not the way we do things in this country.”
The argument for Vincies lies in Boris Johnson’s final sentence, “that’s not the way we do things in this country.” Liberal and free democracies believe in the rights of the individual and the right for free choice. It’s not about the vaccine, it’s about your rights in your society.
We believe that an employer should never ask an employee if they’ve taken advantage of a flu vaccine or any other medical treatment that might enhance or detract from communal health in a workplace. Our attitude in free societies is that if it doesn’t impact your job, then your employer has no right to mandate certain conditions.
The Gonsalves Government is trying to infringe upon your rights as individuals and as workers and now anybody who questions this, is accused of inciting violence.
But this is what we have come to expect from this Government. They actively remove dissension and only defend their own supporters. From La Soufriere stockpiling, to customs tax increases and a legal system that only benefits them, there is a growing sense that this government has lost sight of the workers that they claim to represent.
This growing sense of deep-seeded disenchantment is what contributed to the palpable anger that took place a couple of weeks ago when 5,000 people, including workers, unions and concerned citizens, took to the streets to protest.
The Prime Minister, ignoring the advice of his security detail, got out of his car and went amongst the crowd. It was here, in and around the anger, that the Prime Minister was attacked.
Protests should always be peaceful, and violence is never acceptable. However, instead of dismissing the protests and the people at them, maybe he should be asking himself why it is that the Teachers’ Union, the Public Service Union, the Nurses Association, and RISE Hairouna are protesting the policies of a Government that is supposed to be representing workers.
The reality is that these groups understand that mandatory vaccines not only go against the grain of civil liberty, but they may also have the effect of costing people their jobs. Unemployment is already high in this country and with the rising cost of living, it is already hard enough for people in lower socio-economic backgrounds and mandatory vaccines will only make it worse.
As if to rub salt in the wounds of those uncomfortable with the direction our country is going in, Gonsalves has now decided to arrest anyone who disagrees with him. This is not what we should expect from a free and fair society.
Gonsalves needs to listen to the concerns of these groups before he does irreparable damage to our political system and the fabric of our society.