Even after the televised national address given by Prime Minister Freundel Stuart last week, the Peoples Empowerment Party (PEP) is still asking the question – “when will the real Freundel Stuart step forward and take his rightful place on the national stage?”
You see, ever since Mr Stuart assumed the office of Prime Minister seven months ago, what we have witnessed is a cautious leader who has reined himself in and restricted himself to carrying on the policies and programmes – such as they are – of his predecessor the late Prime Minister David Thompson.
But in so doing, Prime Minister Stuart is short- changing himself and the people of Barbados!
Those of us who know Freundel Stuart well, know that he is a man of intelligence, integrity, erudition and dignity. We know as well, that he has a deep philosophical understanding of the world, and that he is rooted in democratic socialist values. Thus, those of us who also subscribe to a democratic socialist political philosophy are entitled to expect a lot from Stuart in his elevated leadership role as Prime Minister of our country!
The truth is, that since the death of the Right Excellent Errol Barrow in 1987, we have had to wait a long time for a Prime Minister with an understanding of and a philosophical commitment to democratic socialism to re-emerge.
The late Errol Barrow had no difficulty whatsoever in publicly identifying himself as a democratic socialist! In fact, in the speech that he made to the 30th annual conference of the Democratic Labour Party in 1985, he asserted that as far as he was concerned anyone who wished to seek public office under a DLP banner “must” first subscribe to a philosophy of Democratic Socialism.
Of course, Mr Barrow defined what he meant by Democratic Socialism in many addresses.
In his 1980 speech to the Academy of Politics, he asserted that a “socialist” believes that the “purpose of human history is to achieve a society dominated by the concept of equality”.
He also subsequently sketched a vision of a Barbados in which every man, woman and child counted for something, and felt that possibilities for self-realization and fulfilment existed and were not dependent on being born to wealth and position.
And Barrow not only said it, but he meant it and practised it!
Now, if politics in Barbados is to be meaningful and to have movement and development, then, whenever a new leader equipped with a new political ideology assumes the high office of Prime Minister, we must expect that leader to put their stamp on the administration that they are leading, and to assemble supporters of the new ideology both inside and outside of the administration.
If this does not happen then we are practising an “unconscious” form of politics, devoid of real meaning and movement. Put colloquially, we are “spinning top in mud”!
And truth be told, this is what life and politics feel like in Barbados today – a mere going through of the motions.
This is a far cry from the vision that animates the PEP.
The PEP column represents the views of the People’s Empowerment Party. Email pepbarbados@gmx.com
