 Mr. Speaker, before I delve into the business of this meeting, I want to take this opportunity to express to the family of Mr. Valens Alexander, A.K.A Trini, a member of staff of the Department of Infrastructure, the Potholen Unit. Mr. Alexander, a Trini, as he is called, was a resident of Wavin-Shabbat castries, who dedicated the last four years plus of his life to the ministry. He was a reliable worker who demonstrated great attention to detail and knowledge to the job. He worked well with his team and always participated in activities and initiatives of the department. Yesterday, Mr. Speaker, while attempting to fulfill the mission of the Ministry of Infrastructure, in satisfying the wishes of the people, and in some cases the demands of the people, a crew of workers from the Potholen Unit along the West Coast Road in the vicinity of Canaries attempting to bring relief to the people of St. Lucia, while we prepare for the implementation of the commencement, rather, of the UK-funded West Coast Road, which should commence next month, when a vehicle disobeyed and violated the traffic signs and overtook a line of traffic and hit Mr. Alexander, and before he could reach hospital, he was dead. Mr. Speaker, I want to extend to his family and immediate family and friends on behalf of the Department of Infrastructure and the Government and people of St. Lucia, our sincere condolences. Today, Mr. Speaker, the staff of the department are certainly traumatised and have been undergoing counselling throughout the day, particularly his immediate colleagues. However, Mr. Speaker, on a more or rather on a joyful moment or note, permit me to extend to our outstanding athlete, Julian Alfred, on her recent successes and look forward to even more. Mr. Speaker, I think today we here in this house came feeling very proud, first and foremost, of our achievement and recognition and observance of our 44th year of independence after a very successful programme last week. But significantly, we all thought that it was a historic moment for a number of reasons. One, that we are coming here to institute a second amendment to our constitution. The first haven't done some time ago in 1979, they're about, and you heard the contribution from the parliamentary representative for Viejo South, quite a significant historic moment. And today, that to the CCJ, that to the constitution. And I'll just just say how informative, how succinct, how detailed this presentation was and how proud I felt at today's sit-in earlier this morning, particularly in the presence of law students who I'm sure gathered quite a bit of wisdom, knowledge and understanding from the former Prime Minister and one who initiated the process towards today's session. But Mr. Speaker, while we were proud of today's session, and we felt that it was a moment for us to have intelligent debate between government and opposition, opposition who often absents themselves from important occasions, whether it is independence, anniversary activities, occasions to bring our people together at ecumenical services, or even here in this honourable house, they disappear and run away. You know, Mr. Speaker, I have been in elective politics for 35 years now, 25 of which in this parliament, 28 rather than this parliament as elected or in the Senate, three years in the Senate, 25 years here. Never once, Mr. Speaker, have I walked out for any reason whatsoever. Not that I'm saying a parliamentarian may not want to protest a particular issue, but for you to walk out at every sitting of parliament in the last 18 months is an indictment on you, just because you didn't have your way. And people must understand that. We must come here and later on I'll just give some historical perspective. I'm not going to be very long. You must come here as a bold soldier, as a brave soldier to fight for your people, not to parade on the sidewalk with a handful of people who don't understand what you're doing and all they're doing is reciting and echoing the nonsense that you propagate with the hope that you'll be able to raise yourself to a pedestal for consideration of leadership in the organisation. But you come here in this moment of history, 44 years after independence and you rattle without compass in every direction attempting to gain points, cheap political points in the presence of strangers, luminaries, like our former justice and students, embarrassing this parliament, I will on his behalf, on the people's behalf apologise to the students and those who came visiting us here today. It's an embarrassment and that is why after such embarrassment there was nothing else to say to him when he got up, take your ball and leave. But Mr Speaker, let us move on. Today's session, I must also take the opportunity to commend the Prime Minister on having fulfilled his promise in his statement, policy statement of bringing to this parliament this amendment to the Constitution. Now, any serious opposition, Mr Speaker, any serious opposition would have taken the liberty of his statement made in the policy statement a year ago and would have commenced their work, beat research, beat communications, town hall meetings etc. But you wait now to try and do what you want. I want to commend the Prime Minister on this initiative today to bring this matter before the parliament. And so Mr Speaker, I want to take a slightly different angle and I want you to bear with me to show the relevance of today's initiative, to show the relevance of today's initiative. And you know, historically when you go down the corridors of history in this parliament, we have had the occasions of debates and banter etc. We've had occasions when there were reasons for parliamentarians to walk out. But you see, Mr Speaker, the organization that I came from when I joined it was an organization of decency, an organization of decency no matter what one may think. And so I reflect, Mr Speaker, on St Lucia's independence on February 22nd, 1979. This deceased Sir John Compton, in his speech on that night as a young man on Independence Warf, he said, today the lamp of our freedom has been lit and it will continue to burn its untiring flame while our seeking and our stirring and our striving continues. Our seeking will continue, Mr Speaker, because we still seek a solution content within a West Indian identity. And that is the most important thing, that we still seek a solution content within a West Indian identity. So even in the moment of independence, he speaks of a West Indian identity. He went on to say, our stirring will continue because the personality of the nation must change and grow. The inequities of our past must be removed. It is all about what we have said today. All about what Dr Anthony said, parliamentary representative for VFOR South, the Honourable Richard Frederick and others, the Prime Minister said it is... I have been extremely lenient with the name calling members that have been referred to by the constituencies. Yes, I attempted to correct myself, Mr Speaker. All day members have been referring to other members by name. So let's stick to the rules, please. My apologies. That's why I slipped and mentioned the name and then said the parliamentary representative for VFOR South. So it is the inequities of our past which must be removed. And then he went on to say, as an independent nation, we shall seek no foreign alliances. We have and shall remain a member of the Commonwealth, recognizing a majesty as head of state and queen of the Commonwealth. And we shall strengthen our ties with our Caricom neighbours. The most important part of this statement, Mr Speaker, is that and we shall strengthen our ties with our Caricom neighbours. This is what we're doing here today, strengthening our ties in the institutions of Caricom. While recognizing that we are part of a developing world whose problems may be similar to our own and whose experiences can assist us in providing appropriate solutions, our human resources are too slender and our material needs are too great to become involved in posturing and polemics. Mr Speaker, those are strong statements made by the father of independence. And basically what he is saying here, Mr Speaker, is that even while we proceeded to independence, we will be part of a regional organization to begin to build our democracy moving forward. But he said that in the full flash of our joy at the attainment of independence, we must not lose sight of our goal. We must not in our exuberance pull up our draw bridges and retreat into little fortresses of isolation, hoping that the storms of the world's problems will pass us by rather than this should be an occasion when we really dedicate ourselves to the goal of the West Indian unity against speaking of unity. We must realize our newly mentored independence can best be preserved within the environment of inter-independence, the framework of which we have already created in the Charicom Treaty of Chagoramas. Mr Speaker, this is deep 44 years ago. The father of independence said it. We must, he said, we have the framework of which we have already created in the Charicom Treaty. So what we are doing here, Mr Speaker, we are continuing the process which was started. We are continuing the process which was started through independence by saying that we as a people must move forward and present to our people the true independence within an interdependent region. He said the government of St. Lucia stands willing to initiate support and devise propositions intended to advance our purpose. Time is pressing upon us. In the Caribbean we have wasted too much time posturing in seductive rhetoric and semantics without positive follow-up action. Unless we adopt common policies to meet external challenges, both economic and political, we shall be sucked into the whirlpool of intrigues and become objects of neocolonialism from which status we have struggled so long and so valiantly to escape. Mr Speaker, I've read this to show you that we on our own independence determined that we needed to come together as a region to ensure that we put in place the institutions of our people, the institutions of our people to be able to advance in our democracy. So Mr Speaker, what is the point? What is the point if you truly believe in an institution or an organization that you say that is the correct organization for the country, yet still you're moving at a tangent and forgetting the principles of the organization? Mr Speaker, what are the concerns? What are the concerns? We have demonstrated ever since independence and even at the moment of independence we were recording our first Nobel laureate recognized by the world, demonstrating confidence in our people. We went on to produce two and you heard from other parliamentarians the number of outstanding St. Lucian's and West Endians from the Leeward Islands and other countries in the Caribbean from Justice Byron and others who have been recognized by the international community. So what is the concern? Some may say that, well, we don't trust those who may rise to the high offices. But Mr Speaker, we have demonstrated in the region we have been able to handle our own affairs. We have been able to handle our own affairs. It has been demonstrated that from this region international organizations have recruited our own people, whether it's at the United Nations or any other international body, whether they are St. Lucian's or Antigone's or Beijing's, we have proven that we can stand our own. But I think, Mr Speaker, what this amendment has shown and has been articulated throughout and it's not my intention to go into the details and to the mechanics of the bill. I believe the member for VA for South certainly did an excellent job in doing this. What this is about, Mr Speaker, is to show our people the manner in which we can bring justice to the dead steps. And I am saying this amendment to the legislation is doing one simple thing, one simple thing, and that is bringing justice to the doorsteps of the people of the Caribbean and the doorsteps of the people of St. Lucia. And so there's no need, Mr Speaker, to even go into the details. While it is important, there are no needs. When you listen, Mr Speaker, and you understand the cost of going to the Privy Council at any given time, $130,000, $130,000, Mr Speaker, the ordinary man on the street who is begging for justice, who believes that he or she has been oppressed one way or the other if he doesn't have confidence at the lower cost, the magistrates' cost, et cetera, all he is looking for is an opportunity for him to be able to take his matter to the highest cost and the highest cost as it exists now is not only far in physical distance, but is far in financial ability. So what this is doing, Mr Speaker, is to say to the ordinary man that we are bringing justice to your doorstep to allow you an opportunity if you feel grieved to the extent that you'd like the highest cost to conceive it, to be able to take it there, to be resolved in a matter of expediency. And based on the information given, your filing fees can be waived. What more do you want? Parading on the streets? And those you parade with will not be able to help you to go to the Privy Council or to pass this legislation. And no, there's an opportunity, one, to be able to have a reduced fee or the filing fees can be waived. So Mr Speaker, I am proud of this moment. I'm proud of this moment to join my colleague members in full support of this amendment, which I believe, which I believe will not only make us proud, but will make the entire country proud as we move forward. And so Mr Speaker, I endorse this amendment to the Constitution of St. Lucia, 200%. I thank you.