Dominica’s late PM attracts praise and comment from world’s media

The late Dame Eugenia
Charles

Wednesday, September 14, 2005

ROSEAU, Dominica: Former Prime Minister of Dominica, the late Dame Mary Eugenia Charles, who died last week, is attracting widespread praise and comment on her long political and legal career from the world’s media.

The Caribbean’s first woman Prime Minister has attracted media comment from the Daily Telegraph, Times, Independent and Guardian Newspapers in the United Kingdom, newspapers in the United States, as well as a string of publications from across the Caribbean Region. 

In an Obituary in the Daily Telegraph of Thursday, September 8, 2005, the writer wrote about the late Prime Minister’s uncompromising defence of her role in the US-led military intervention in Grenada in October 1983. 

“Eugenia Charles remained staunch in her defence of the invasion, regarding it as a “pre-emptive strike” which had removed a dangerous threat to peace and security. 

“When labour’s Foreign Affairs Spokesman, Denis Healey, accused her of having been virtually kidnapped by the Americans, she turned the tables on her accuser by retorting that he would never have dared to make such an insulting remark about the Prime Minister of Canada: ‘It’s only because we’re small and black that he’s prepared to say that’.”

In an Obituary in the Guardian Newspaper, on Thursday, September 8, 2005, Polly Patullo wrote: 

“While US marines crushed resistance on Grenada, Charles appeared on television with the US president. For Caribbean radicals, Charles’s performance was a betrayal and a further invitation to the US to strut around its backyard. But when “Mamo”, as she was known, returned home, Dominicans cheered her cavalcade: the region now had its own iron lady.” 

A regional newspaper, The Jamaican Observer, was full of praise for the honesty and integrity of the former Prime Minister.

“The fact though, is that Eugenia Charles is dead at 86, leaving behind a complex legacy and a profound place in the history of West Indian politics…

“You didn’t have to like Dame Eugenia Charles, and very many people didn’t. But most people respected her. Importantly, she deserved it. She was strong, she was decent, she was honest, she was forthright, she knew her mind, didn’t waffle on issues. Significantly from the perspective of this newspaper, she was a regionalist who supported and worked for Caribbean integration.”

Writing in the Guyana Chronicle, veteran Caribbean journalist, Ricky Singh highlighted her strong opposition to corruption and abuse of authority. In an article dubbed “Death of ‘Iron Lady’ Eugenia Charles”, Mr. Singh wrote:

“She was a politician with a no-nonsense approach, often to friends and foes. You either liked her or disliked her. She had distinguished herself in governance as a staunch opponent of corruption in public life and, reputedly, a politician who never lost the common touch.” 

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