MP Robert Miller also encouraging strong focus on education, technology and business in British payback

The call for reparations is growing in Jamaica with Member of Parliament (MP) for St Catherine South Eastern, Robert Miller joining the fray.

Miller says he is robustly supporting the call for reparations from the country’s former colonial masters, arguing that any monies received from the British should be used to pay for educational advancements, technology and business.

The MP’s call comes in the wake of news that a high-powered team of British and Caribbean lawyers has been assembled to advocate for reparations from Britain for the atrocity that was 300 years of slavery.

MP for Clarendon Central, Lester ‘Mike’ Henry recently chaired a virtual conference of stakeholders including attorneys, academics and historians, as part of efforts to advance the agenda set by the unanimous vote in Jamaica’s Parliament in 2015 for the reparations process to begin.

Miller, who served on the Commission for Reparations for over eight years, is excited by this new development.

According to the first-time MP, “I am encouraged by this development as it speaks to the quality of work done over the past few years to drive the most important of missions. I feel a sense of buoyancy about the future, given the experience and skill of the legal professionals and historians being assembled to pursue success in this reparations fight”

Fight for reparation is right

Miller is adamant that the fight for reparations must be seen right the way through as Britain must be made to pay for what is undoubtedly a shameful and dastardly period in human history.

He advanced the case that, “the education system could certainly be one of the main beneficiaries of the fruits of reparation, given the way labour, skills and human resources were abused under centuries of slavery instigated and perpetuated by the British”.

In concluding, Miller articulated that “it sticks in my craw that Britain continues to benefit from a wicked regime, while Jamaica continues to be burdened by the legacy of that punishment”.