SURPRISE, SURPRISE: Sir James Mitchell, former long-serving Prime Minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines, verbally blasted retiring Secretary General of the Caribbean Community, Sir Edwin Carrington, for what he viewed as dabbling in Vincentian politics.
Recognised as an elder statesman of CARICOM, Sir James, founder of the New Democratic Party (NDP), is not known to engage in this kind of public chastisement. Certainly not against someone like Carrington, who retires this month after serving the Community as Secretary General for 18 years.
So what political sin did Carrington, who was recently conferred with a knighthood by the government of Antigua and Barbuda, commit to make Sir James so visibly angry? A quick response could be current Vincentian “election politics”.
The opposition NDP, under the leadership of Arnhim Eustace, is locked in a very tense battle with the incumbent Unity Labour Party (ULP) of Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves to avoid a three-in-a-row defeat at the forthcoming December 13 election for a 15-member House of Assembly.
According to the most recent of polls conducted by political scientist Peter Wickham, Gonsalves’ ULP seems set to retain power though with a likely reduced parliamentary majority.
In a telephone conversation with him yesterday from Kingstown, Wickham, director of the Caribbean Development Research Services, told me that the “general mood” points to the ULP’s rerturn to power “but it’s quite possible it may lose a few seats. . . ” And while elections usually produce many surprises, Wickham said he did not expect victory for the NDP.
Was it that Sir James, 79, had misgivings about the outcome of the poll when he rushed to slam Carrington for meddling in Vincentian politics?
After all, according to local and regional media reports, what Carrington said during a one-day visit to St Vincent and the Grenadines to assess the damage done by Hurricane Tomas – having also included battered St Lucia on the same mission – could hardly justify the claimed “personal disgust” by Sir James at interference in his country’s domestic politics at this election time.
The CARICOM Secretary General had nothing to say about the conduct or likely outcome of the elections. He made no criticisms of any party or politician. He simply praised the “home-grown capacity” of the Vincentian government and people for much of the restoration of services and rehabilitation works underway following the damages and destruction from Tomas.
As Sir James – perhaps unintentionally – was revealing his nervousness over the likely outcome of the poll, Supervisor of Elections Sylvia Findlay-Scrubb and her team were intensifying preparations for release of the final voters’ register. It is expected to be below 95 000, as was the case in 2005 when the ULP won its second term with a 12-3 parliamentary victory.
Meanwhile, post-hurricane emergency aid in the form of materials and financial resources continue to arrive in St Vincent and the Grenadines from various sources. The Guyana Government announced earlier this week delivery of financial asistance of US$100 000 each for St Lucia and StVincent and the Grenadines.
President Bharrat Jagdeo also expressed hope that international donors would respond to calls from the rest of CARICOM for “much-needed assistance” to enable St Lucia and St Vincent to “return to a state of normalcy”.
• Rickey Singh is a noted Caribbean journalist.