The recent tensions which have emerged in the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) over the insistence by the Leader of the Opposition that a formal, constituency-led nomination process be adhered to by all sitting and prospective MPs before they can qualify as candidates, is the kind of stuff that excites rival political parties.
Specifically, supporters of the ruling Democratic Labour Party (DLP) have welcomed the open quarrel between Opposition Leader Owen Arthur on one side and former leader Mia Mottley and MP for St James North, Rawle Eastmond, on the other, since it provides a timely distraction from the DLP’s own leadership challenges witnessed in December 2011.
Indeed, while the DLP can point to its return to a semblance of leadership stability, particularly with the silencing of Prime Minister Stuart’s challengers, the BLP continues to grapple with the resistance of Mottley to Arthur’s leadership. This cannot help the BLP’s electoral chances.
It would suit the BLP to reduce the election campaign to a debate on the economy. The St James North tensions provide precisely the sort of leveller to tilt the electoral scales beyond the issue of cost of living, unemployment, high taxes, and economic uncertainty, and serve the DLP well.
However, despite the tantalizing attractions of the St James North brouhaha for those wearing partisan lenses, it is far more instructive to see the resistance to the requirement for constituency nominations for prospective MPs as an indication of the growing pains of Caribbean democracy.
All we know is the “two-second democracy every five years” as Maurice Bishop so aptly stated.
It is interesting that Mottley did not take the opportunity to voice loud support for the BLP’s nomination process, particularly since she has been insisting on “one man one vote” for all leadership positions in the party.
Further, the arguments made by sitting MPs for automatic selection are not consistent with democratic development. Indeed, when argued on the grounds of term limits and democratic renewal, it is MPs of long standing who become the most likely candidates for deselection.
Mottley, who has been arguing for term limits for party leaders, should not be seen as resisting measures which give the mass base of the party a voice in selecting or deselecting longstanding MPs.
Further, the constituency nomination takes the decision out of the hands of the party leader and his small circle. The habit of leaders imposing favoured sons upon reluctant populations has long been a practice of Caribbean politics. Too often MPs have insisted on “running” out of a sense of entitlement. The nomination provides the sitting MP with confirmation of the people’s support.
Whilst the threat of fracture is always a real possibility, as Caribbean democracy matures people will become more used to being heard. Senior sitting MPs, too, will learn how to listen.
