It is now clear that the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) has badly underestimated everyone else in this by-election campaign and as a result has been shoved on the defensive. Firstly, it badly miscalculated the ability of St John people to see through the cynical games disrespectfully played on them by the DLP in taking its own sweet time in selecting a candidate, after being without a Member of Parliament for such a prolonged period of time.
Then when finally doing so at the eleventh hour, what transpired was a carefully choreographed pantomime whose outcome would have been planned way in advance, in order for the party to next day be able to publicise a variety of expensively printed election material centred on the person selected.
No wonder that people are absolutely shocked that the DLP could only muster 70 eligible members in a branch that is as old as the 52 years for which the DLP has represented St John, and had produced two Prime Ministers and two Ministers of Finance, a record for any parish in Barbados.
Secondly, the DLP must have wrongly regarded as a newcomer lightweight, Hudson Griffith, the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) candidate in the contest. For what the Dems obviously did not expect, was the willingness of the residents of St John to bare their souls to him, and his ability to strongly and effectively communicate their deep feelings about poor representation and gross underdevelopment by DLP representatives spanning 52 straight years of loyal backing at the polls.
That’s because of Mr Griffith’s willingness over several weeks and long before he was officially endorsed by the BLP, to spend quality time among the hospitable people of St John, first of all earning their trust and acceptance, thereby getting first-hand accounts of their pressing issues.
It was the kind of experience that would not have been possible had he been part of a fleeting visit by persons cloaked in officialdom and prestige.
In this way Griffith was able to have exposed to him what he so graphically described as the “soft underbelly” of St John, characterised by cases upon cases of various kinds of human needs that should not be allowed, far less tolerated and accepted as the natural order of things in any part of a modern Barbados.
This would be especially in St John whose parliamentary representatives had more than ample opportunity and power when in Government to improve conditions, or at least agitate about them when in Opposition.
Once Griffith had broken the code of DLP silence, residents of St John found their voice and were willing and able to publicly speak out about their need for vigorous representation to benefit from basic social, physical and economic development.
An embarrassed DLP has been trying to shift blame to the BLP, seeking to deny the BLP’s contribution to the development of St John, including Gall Hill health and community centres and library; housing at Colleton and Gall Hill; day nursery at Colleton; Consett Bay Fishing Project; Four Roads Fire Station and Post Office; schools at Mount Tabor and Hothersal and the former Cherry Grove Primary; and roads at Coach Hill, Massiah Street, Station Hill, Newcastle, Thicketts to Sealy Hall, Sargeant Street, Massiah Street to Stewart Hill and starting the Bath Road project.
The DLP must now publish its own development list.
