IN THIS season of political apprehension and discontent in the Caribbean Community, the parliamentary parties of Barbados appear to beat the top of the list in public discussions amidrising speculation about a snap general electionas a consequence of the critical state of the health of Prime Minister David Thompson.
Both the current ruling Democratic Labour Party (DLP) and the Opposition Barbados Labour Party (BLP) have been doing comparatively well in concealing from the public their often bitter internal divisions, in contrast to the public washing of dirty political linens by some of their regional counterparts.
Not anymore. Certainly not within the past 16 years as leadership squabbles, factionalism, personality clashes and, to a lesser extent, ideological differences have combined to place both the Dems and Bees in the category of other major parties that frequently fail to keep their internal problems under the lid.
While the principal political parties of the Caribbean Community subscribe to multi-party parliamentary democracy, there is a distinction of difference between the leadership structure of the BLP and DLP and that of the overwhelming majority of other parties in the rest of CARICOM.
Unlike other CARICOM parliamentary parties – whose structure begins with an elected leader and includes a chairman and general secretary – both the DLP and BLP have a leadership system that can accommodate a chairman, general secretary and a parliamentary leader viewed, incorrectly, as “party leader” when not heading the Government.
When in Opposition, the parliamentary leader is chosen either by majority or unanimous vote of the elected parliamentarians. In that position he/she could be in readiness to lead the party into a general election, more comfortably so if successful in occupying the chairmanship before a snap poll is called – as could well happen next year.
Such a development occurred in 1993 when Henry Forde (now Sir Henry) retired as Opposition Leader on grounds of ill health, and made way for Owen Arthur’s election.
It is against this background that the current leadership squabble in the BLP should be viewed as incumbent Opposition Leader Mia Mottley strategises to unseat incumbent party chairman George Payne at the annual conference later this month with the unmistakable objective of leadership readiness for a widely expected general election in 2011.
The critical hurdle she has to first overcome is getting the majority vote from among the current nine BLP parliamentarians, with former three-term Prime Minister Owen Arthur currently holding the winning edge but yet to publicly confirm his participation in what threatens to be a fierce and potentially nasty duel.
As of now, there has been no “aborted coup”, no “winner” or “loser”, since a meeting at which both Mottley and Arthur would be the vital participants is yet to take place.
This may well occur by next Monday. For now there are lots of political theatrics within the camp of the Bees, while the Dems are striving to show a brave face as they cope with their own internal problems, including “leadership options”.
