Remarks delivered by the Honourable Olivia Grange, Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport at the Floral Tribute in honour of Sir Alexander Bustamante

Remarks by the Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment

and Sport the Honourable Olivia Grange, CD, MP

at Floral Tribute marking the 134th anniversary of the birth

of The Right Excellent Sir Alexander Bustamante 24 February 2018

Salutations

Today’s Jamaica would have been a very different place without the work of Sir Alexander Bustamante. In 1928 Sir Alex would have been 40 years of age. He had by now been engaged in the political and Labour struggles movements and had taken a position on the way the pendulum was swinging in terms of human rights and gender rights, and the position that a promising state like Jamaica would have had to take, going forward in nation building and international affairs. Because he was always minded that Jamaica should chart its own course, he was never blinded to the political activities taking place in England, the Motherland; in fact, he was watching the developments very closely. One of the things he would have noticed was the Conservative Party passing the Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Act in 1928, giving the vote to all women over the age of 21 on equal terms with men.