The Sunday Times newspaper in the United Kingdom is reporting today (March 13) that the British Royal Family is banking on a successful visit to Jamaica this month, by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, to ensure the island remains among its Caribbean realms.

The Times suggested that, though the official line from Buckingham Palace is unchanged – that “the issue of the Jamaican head of state is entirely a matter for the Jamaican government and people” – the duchess is a heavy hitter when it comes to charm, and the royal tour may seal her and her husband’s future as the queen and king of Jamaica.

While Prince William and Kate will also be touring Belize and The Bahamas during the Caribbean “charm offensive” in celebration of The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, the Times stated that all eyes will be on Jamaica “where the republican beacon burns bright”.

JAMAICA THE ONE TO WATCH

Professor Philip Murphy, director of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies at the University of London, was quoted as saying: “Jamaica is the one to watch. The political will is strong and the issue of reparations for colonialism and slavery adds moral weight to the republican cause.”

Reflecting on the 2012 visit of William’s brother, Prince Harry, to the island, the Times noted that it came shortly after then Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller gave an inaugural address in which she vowed to remove the monarch as head of state.

“I love the Queen, she is a beautiful lady. But I tink time come,” the British media house quoted Simpson-Miller as saying in what it called her “promise in patois”.

But, suggesting a quick reaction from the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the Times said Prince Harry was then dispatched, as one of “the most effective weapons then in its armoury”, on a tour of Belize, The Bahamas, Jamaica and Brazil.

“Hours before Harry’s meeting with Simpson-Miller in March 2012, she suggested Britain could apologise and pay compensation for the ‘wicked and brutal’ years of slavery, reiterating her determination to ‘take full charge of our destiny’ and remove his grandmother as head of state,” the Times wrote.

“But the prince greeted her with bear hugs, kisses and hand-holding diplomacy in front of a photograph of a smiling Queen. He later raced and joked with the sprinter Usain Bolt and danced in blue suede shoes with a local troupe.”

In the years following, Simpson-Miller, now in retirement, never got any closer to fulfilling her promise.

Added the Times: “Despite decades of pledges from governments and polling suggesting that half of Jamaicans favour a republic, the movement idles in neutral.”

The media outlet noted that Jamaica’s Caribbean neighbour, Barbados, was unique in not requiring a referendum to remove the Queen as head of state, with its prime minister, Mia Mottley, using her comfortable majority to push it through.

As a result, Barbados became the world’s newest republic when it officially did away with The Queen as head of state last November.

Unlike Barbados, all eight remaining Caribbean realms – Belize, Jamaica, The Bahamas, Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, and St Kitts and Nevis – need a referendum to ditch the monarch.

Said Murphy: “Nobody has yet had the courage to chance their hand on it. Referenda are unpredictable things and can become a decision on the popularity of the government of the day.”

He added: “[Jamaica’s Prime Minister Andrew] Holness talks about a discussion about broader constitutional matters, which is the perfect way for it never to happen. Once you get bogged down in what form the constitution should take, it becomes an intractable problem.”

During the visit of the Duke and Duchess, from March 22 to March 24, a meeting with Holness is on the cards and other engagements include “celebrating Bob Marley” and seeing the Jamaica Defence Force in action.