THE ATMOSPHERE of uncertainty and suspense which exists in a country when general elections are pending can be palpable. Inevitably a pale of ashen gray hangs over voters and key decision-makers as all are involuntarily detained in a state of purgatory.
This suspended limbo negatively influences businesses in particular, but also investors and those who do not want to take undue risks until the national direction has been fully and democratically determined by the legitimate choice of a majority of voters.
So the calling of an election is most often a moment of deliverance, a time when the opaqueness of ambiguity evaporates.
Opposition parties and opposition people will call for elections, as they did recently, in order to impose their ideas and candidates on voters in the quest of power. That is a natural political proclivity.
When elections are due (or overdue), the population is engrossed in a tense, expectant game as inconstancy preoccupies us. Businesses are tentative as they cling to tenuous tendrils of ambiguity; civil servants are suspended by the thin thread of irresoluteness; and the man in the street, egged on by newspaper columns like this and radio call-in programmes, becomes distracted from his treadmill routine and engages in animated and often ill-advised, noisy speculation.
On Tuesday evening, Prime Minister Freundel Stuart, perching on the edge of an election cliff of his own making, on which he seemed to be waltzing for the past four weeks, finally scurried to make that nervous plunge into the dark cauldron of uncertainty, calling general elections. It was an inevitable vault that makes the most hardened political leader a little tentative, so why not let us forgive our timid first-timer.
Like the four cheated women in the movie, Waiting To Exhale, patient Barbadians gave a collective sigh of relief.
Much like Whitney Houston and her three colleagues who were looking for more fulfilling relationships in this Forest Whitaker picture, they will finally get their chance.
On February 21 voters will affirm their affinity. I would never know why Stuart would choose February 21. And I would not wait for his explanation either.
Fact is, it was his right to choose a date that he found most advantageous and he took the belated decision. He will find that the early days of the solemn Lenten season – from February 13 – will be dominated by the distraction of the last week of partisan politicking with its loud meetings and ear-splitting entertainment. His decision will afford thousands who would not ordinarily wear red on Valentine’s Day, February 14, to find an excuse to be enrobed in the raiment of his opponents, seven days before voting.
Stuart has also chosen to invite Barbadians to vote (or not vote) for his Democratic Labour Party (DLP) two days after the Tillman Thomas government in Grenada becomes a one-term relic of political history, if the prediction of CADRES opinion polls is to be believed.
The wisdom of his timing baffles me, but we will have every opportunity to second guess it in another three weeks. At that time he will either be hailed as a genius of the game or be ridiculed for the stupidity of his selection.
Once Stuart’s lieutenants started distributing their glossy reports to constituents and once the party announced a Wednesday night mass rally in front of Government Headquarters on Bay Street, with entertainment and seven speakers, the politically discerning recognised this could not all take place in the allocated four-hour span until 11 p.m. when out-of-season political meetings must end. He needed the elbow room of legally extended hours of public meetings to fully and comfortably accommodate the event.
Not even a meeting of the House of Assembly that morning confused the issue.
Stuart has been criticised, wrongly in my view, for the way he chose to make the announcement. It is his prerogative and he did it his way. When will we learn that our Prime Minister does things in his way?
Like Frank Sinatra, he could sing:
I did what I had to do and saw it through without exemption.
I planned each charted course along the byway,
And more, much more than this, I did it my way.
Mind you, many of us would have taken the opportunity to meet the Press and use the high-profile event to gee up supporters, inspire colleagues and canvas the electorate. Not Stuart.
Former Prime Minister Owen Arthur’s criticism of Stuart’s methodology is not supported by the facts. Only once (in 2003) did Arthur choose the floor of the House of Assembly, which he suggested was Stuart’s best option, to make the announcement. On the two other occasions when it was Arthur’s decision to make, he used the preserve of his Bay Street office to call the Press into the Cabinet room for a tete-a-tete.
In 1994, Prime Minister Erskine Sandiford (now Sir Lloyd) used the route of the Barbados Government Information Service office as did Prime Minister Bernard St John (later Sir Harold) in 1986.
In 1991, we the Press were invited by Sir Lloyd to the official residence of the Prime Minister, where he gave a wide-ranging interview and offered the hospitality of Ilaro Court.
Within hours of last week’s announcement we recognised Something Happening, according to calypsonian Red Plastic Bag, when the parties followed reggae artiste Biggie Irie’s advice and we saw them Get Ready and Get Behind The Truck.
By daybreak all Barbados Labour Party (BLP) candidates had so mobilised their teams that walls and poles in public places were littered with bright red posters. This sent a signal of promptitude to the population even as they drove on the highways and byways. This visual was enriched by the party’s radio advertising, which featured exciting rhythms and catchy lines.
Then the DLP held the first meeting of campaign, affording accountability to some key ministers. It was a positive tactical move and sent a signal it, too, was ready for the hustings and proud to show its record. The meeting was well attended and some outstanding speeches were made.
If I had to choose one it would be the hard-hitting address by Minister of Finance Chris Sinckler. And if I had to select a pleasant surprise of the night, it would be the fluency and grasp of issues by former senator Verla DePeiza in her maiden speech as a candidate.
The DLP’s eloquent election theme, It’s About People (and not power), is an influential marketing message likely to reinforce the Dems’ mantra and mandate – Barbados is more than an economy, it is also a society.
The meeting was bereft of 2013 posters and paraphernalia. It also had a couple of technical hitches that no party wants at the start of a campaign, but I believe the faithful were forgiving.
Now we start the first full week of campaigning. We will soon discover the extent to which the parties are prepared and equipped to undertake the arduous task of non-stop canvasses and rallies.
We have a horse race on our hands. I anticipate all the frills, thrills and spills of an exhilarating and adventurous gallop, in the straights and the bends.
May the winner be . . . we the people.
• Harold Hoyte is Editor Emeritus of THE?NATION.
