Reflection on 44 years of Independence

By Allan Bird, MP

The greatest thing about being independent is the right to make your own choices. To make your own mistakes. So we have been doing this for 44 years now.

I feel we have individually not owned our Independence. It's as if it belongs to someone else. Those nations whose people value their independence and freedoms and are willing to sacrifice everything for the collective good of their children are the nations who enjoy prosperity on Earth today.
We went the other way: we seem to have achieved independence to govern ourselves while our people are still shackled in their own prisons. Our people are walking around doing things but they remain captive in their minds.

We expect government and the MPs to do everything for us. Yet we own 97% of the land. We wait for royalty and taxes from foreign operators yet most of us have never paid any tax to support our country.
As the calls keep growing against the very small number of foreigners who invest in our country and as we continue to blame outsiders for all our challenges, let me ask what have you done for your country this year?

Did you plant a cocoa, coffee, galip or orange tree to sell its fruit and support your country?
Did you spend two weeks at sea away from your family to catch fish and export to support your country?
Did you put in 8 hours of honest work for your employer so you could help the country?
As a pastor, did you preach the Word honestly to serve the people?
As a public servant did you dedicate your time in honestly serving your country and your people?
Did you serve honestly in whatever capacity to support your country?
Did you do anything positive?

Because if you didn't then on the day of independence, as you look at the flag, with your hand over your heart, it is time to reconsider, reflect and recommit yourself to building this nation. This nation is not about the PM or the Opposition leader, or the ministers or the MPs. This nation is every single one of us. And we must commit ourselves in every capacity to make it better.
If someone else is doing the wrong thing, larim em, you must commit to doing the right thing always.
Sapos yumi no mekim, husait Bai mekim?
You were born here, so it's your responsibility to make it better than when you found it.