Jamaica Baptist Union slams Gov’t’s abstention on Cuba embargo vote

KINGSTON, Jamaica – The Jamaica Baptist Union (JBU) is urging the country not to swap what is right for what is convenient in the wake of Jamaica’s abstention during the October 28 vote, which called for an end to the United States’ 66-year-old economic, commercial and financial embargo on Cuba. “A vote that goes against the united will of the people’s representatives opens a gap between what Jamaica says and what Jamaica does. That gap weakens public trust. It also blurs the integrity of our foreign policy,” the JBU shared in a statement on Monday. It noted that the government’s reasoning behind the abstention merits a closer look. It stressed that for more than 30 years, Jamaica spoke with one clear voice at the UN on this question. “To abstain now is to break with that record,” the JBU said. The union noted it was not questioning the Government’s right to set foreign policy and took seriously the information minister’s word that the country acted under no outside pressure. It also acknowledged Foreign Minister Kamina Johnson Smith’s confirmation that Jamaica still opposes unilateral coercive measures that breach the UN Charter and her statement that the vote has not yet effected real change. “Still, the Government’s reasoning needs a closer look. As Christians, we have to ask a plain question. Is a moral principle wrong just because it has not yet brought quick political results?” the union queried. It noted that if the embargo is wrong, and the Government says it is, then voting against it is the least our conscience asks of us. “A resolution does not stop being true because the powerful ignore it. The world did not stop condemning apartheid because it took decades for those condemnations to work. Moral witness is not measured by how fast it succeeds. It is measured by whether it is faithful. When a people’s suffering gets worse, that is a reason to speak more firmly, not to go quiet,” the union said. Highlighting the suffering affecting Cubans including strangled access to food, medicine, energy and the means to grow, the JBU said it is no longer just a quarrel between governments rather a matter of human rights. “To abstain on a vote about measures like these because we are tired of the debate or want to try a new tactic is to put convenience ahead of justice,” it added. The union said it was also troubled by what the abstention says about who we are, noting the deep and beneficial relationship between Jamaica and Cuba. “For half a century Cuba has trained our doctors, sent medical brigades to our clinics and built schools on our soil,” it said. “Our Parliament recently passed a unanimous resolution on Cuba. It voiced deep concern about the hardship facing the Cuban people, and it backed reform in Cuba and dialogue between Cuba and the US to ease economic restrictions. The minister may be right that the motion did not call for the embargo to be lifted, and that it does not legally bind the executive. But a nation’s witness suffers when its Parliament says one thing and its vote at the UN says another,” it added. The union noted that the effect on the region matters too, highlighting that Caricom split on this vote. Describing it as a worrying crack in regional solidarity. “The small island states of the Caribbean have never drawn their strength from economic muscle. Our strength has come from moral clarity and from speaking with one voice. When we go quiet on the world stage, we weaken the shield that international law gives to every small nation,” it said. Stressing that it does not give its blessing to any political system or ideology and acknowledging that Cuba faces its own problems, the union, however, rejected the idea that punishing a whole people is a fair way to force political change. “Silence in the face of this kind of hardship is not neutrality. It is consent,” the union stated.