With the cloudy leadership dust within the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) finally settled with the resignation of former Prime Minister Owen Arthur, and with Crop Over now behind us, it is now opportune to look ahead at the immediate tasks confronting Mia Mottley as she continues with the task of presenting her party as an alternative to the existing Government.
In this regard, two concerns stand out with immediacy. The first is the need to settle the party around her leadership and to calm any lingering negativity among the wider membership which might have ensued from Arthur’s sudden and bitter departure. The second pertains to her more national responsibility of critiquing the Government, protecting the population from harmful policies and generally preparing for assuming the reins of Government.
Whilst Arthur’s resignation has removed the sword of Damocles which hung over Mottley in her distinct role as party leader, the first indication of how she handles herself as undisputed party leader will be revealed in the manner in which she responds to the Arthur satellites within the parliamentary group.
It will be interesting to see how much of the anti-Mia feeling was a result of “objective” flaw rather than subjective ill-feeling arising from the stubbornness of the Arthur group who simply refused to accept Mottley as a replacement of their leader. It is likely that Mottley will find her erstwhile detractors much chastened with the departure of their “alternative” leader, and as a result, she must demonstrate wisdom in her handling of that group and must endeavour to embrace rather than humiliate.
Judging from Mottley’s publicly respectful acknowledgement of Arthur’s contribution to the BLP and to her own development despite the severity of his criticisms of her leadership and the bitterness of his resignation itself, she has demonstrated the capacity to be guided by restraint and magnanimity when the situation demands it. Mottley needs to consciously apply these tendencies to her relations with her more reluctantly cooperative parliamentary colleagues.
This application of political wisdom will come immediately to the fore with the urgent task of selecting candidates, and placing them on the ready for an election which may come any time before the prescribed period. Interestingly, in her previous round as leader, much of the Arthur-Mottley contest was played out over candidate selection; when considerations for self-protection might have overridden those of candidate electability. With the need for one-upmanship less prevalent, Mottley will be well advised to develop broad-based selection mechanisms if only to nullify internal criticisms of “authoritarianism” and self-centredness.
Perhaps, Mottley’s second task of shadowing the existing Government might prove the easier of her two roles. All the signs, including the troubling slide down the Human Development Index and the glaring absence of a growth strategy, point to continued governmental failure.
Mottley’s policy alternatives should and must provide immediate hope.
• Tennyson Joseph is a political scientist at the University of the West Indies Cave Hill Campus, specializing in regional affairs. Email tjoe2008@live.com.
