Asot Michael: Easter Message To A Recovering Antigua & Barbuda

Asot Michael, the MP for St. Peter’s in the Antigua and Barbuda House of Representatives, gave an inspirational Easter message last Sunday, over a year after the global COVID-19 pandemic began. The speech served as both a commemoration of the twin-island state’s perseverance and a call to action against social and economic injustice. “We pause to reflect on the challenges facing our beloved nation,” Michael said, calling to mind the severe economic hardships the islands have faced following a major drop-off in tourism brought on by the pandemic, “and renew our faith and hope in the promise of the best Antigua and Barbuda for all its sons and daughters.” For Asot Michael, as in his New Years’ speech, his passions for civil and economic equality are rooted in a commitment to his Christian faith. He encouraged his constituents and the people of Antigua and Barbuda to follow their faith in a similar way and speak truth to power on the anniversary of a “brutal state-sponsored crucifixion.”

 

A National Introspection

The story of Antigua and Barbuda from its first settlers, to receiving its independence in 1981, to the present pandemic, has been one of constant struggle. Asot Michael is a third-generation ABLP member, his family’s history tied inextricably with the highs and lows of the newly independent nation. Asot. A. Michael, his grandfather paid the ultimate price for his support of the Antigua and Barbuda Labour party when anti-government protestors burned down his business in St. John’s, Antigua. He died of a heart attack brought on by the riots the next day. His father, Patrick Michael, in Asot’s words, “was an essential pillar supporting the Antigua & Barbuda Labour Party during its darkest hours [and] sacrificed his business to ensure its survival.” Asot Michael’s belief in his constituents and in the island as a whole is in equal measure a belief in the legacy of his family, his party, and the foundational strength of his Christian principles.

For Asot Michael faith does not inspire complacency or a misplaced pride, but on the contrary, is the bedrock on which acts of restorative justice can be built. “Let us reflect carefully on the extent to which our failures as Christians to confront unjust, ineffective distribution of the resources of the state and our unwillingness to set aside personal gain at the expense of the common good are destroying the structures of democracy,” Michael warns. This speech comes not long after the 2021 budget debate in the Antigua and Barbuda House of Representatives. Economic injustice is fresh in the MP of St. Peter’s mind as he contends with a system of generous tax benefits to private developers at the expense of constituents in increasingly dire economic situations. His message is not only to those constituents but to his peers in the house, to create a level playing field for local entrepreneurs and economic opportunities for all of the majority-black islanders.

Asot Michael Warns Against the Dangers of Tax Giveaways

These problems Asot Michael brings to the fore in his speech aren’t new ones. At the start of his speech in the budgetary debate in February, he mentioned his attempt to bring these issues to the floor in 2020 that was promptly overruled. Problems that his peers in the house could table for another day now loom large in Antigua and Barbuda’s uncertain future. As a third-generation member of the ABLP, Michael has seen the ebb and flow of his people’s support and understands intuitively that if the problem of tax giveaways is not solved soon, his constituents and the island at large could become disillusioned with Labour once again. In his speech at the budgetary debate, Michael mentioned his misgivings over St. Peters’ own Parham Town, a historic location whose renovations have been planned that suffered heavily under the opposition party and is now a decade overdue for proper restoration. He finds fault with the ineffective distribution of resources, when local communities like Parham are ignored in favor of private investors and the promise of future tourism. Asot Michael asserts that prioritizing community needs over the wants of corporate interests is the most Christian stance to take. It is through his convictions and his faith that Michael believes the needs of Parham Town and his constituents can be met, and that Antigua and Barbuda can flourish without the twin-islands’ most vulnerable communities suffering for it.

Assertive Commitment to Values

Asot Michael concluded his Easter message with a commitment to the core values of his faith which he encapsulated as the lessons of Easter: “The ultimate triumph of good over evil, the victory of truth, righteousness, justice and tough, sacrificial love over darkness, fear, insecurity, and oppression.” The appeal of the resurrection after a year of socio-economic hardship is clear to Michael. To him, the return of Christ is not only an affirmation of faith but proof of the indomitable resolve of justice. “Easter is always a powerful reminder that truth beaten down and hidden in a grave simply will not stay there. It will rise.” Antigua and Barbuda is a young country, and the Antigua and Barbuda Labour Party is young in turn. The party’s only two losses at the polls in the 40-year history of the nation, came in 2004 and 2009. Asot Michael spent a decade as the opposition party watching Antigua and Barbuda suffer under the disastrous stewardship of the United Progressive Party. The belief that justice can be deferred but not denied kept the ABLP going during its period of defeat, just as it now inspires the ABLP as the party in power during one of the worst crises of the 21st century so far.

In this way, the celebration of the resurrection is not merely the passive act of waiting for the return of a savior, but the celebration of tenacity, activism, and a call to arms against those who would seek to blame, harm, or otherwise threaten the most vulnerable people in a given nation. Asot Michael has committed his life and his career to the pursuit of those values; to the pursuit of truth and, as he puts it, “the defiance of evil.” As in his New Years’ speech, Asot Michael encouraged reflection, both on the tenacity of his people and how much still needed to be accomplished. The speech served as a call to action to all Antiguans and Barbudans to “drive the changes which are desperately needed to defeat insecurity, poor governance and increasing poverty in their homes, in their communities and in the nation at large.”

The country may be young, but the struggle for socio-economic justice in Antigua and Barbuda has always been and will continue to be an uphill battle. But for Asot Michael, each Easter serves as a milestone and a powerful reminder of his faith not only in Christianity but in the tenacity and power of restorative justice. The ABLP has decades of work ahead of it. In a year’s time, whether or not life has returned to a state of normalcy, the struggle for socio-economic justice will continue and the message of the holiday will bear repeating: That come what may and no matter how buried it may seem, the truth will rise.

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