TODAY I’M EATING CROW; I’m telling Prime Minister Freundel Stuart “I beg yuh pardon”.
In fact, I’m also asking calypsonian David Rudder to forgive me as I adapt his hit Haiti I’m Sorry as a vital part of my apology to the Prime Minister.
Haiti I am sorry
We underestimated you
One day we’ll turn our heads
And and see the real you,
Haiti I am sorry
One day we’ll turn our heads
And recognise your wisdom.
Here why I’m asking the PM’s pardon. Prior to the last election it appeared everyone in Barbados but Stuart was sure he would be a one-termer – there was no way he could pull off an election win.
But he did, by a razor-thin margin that did not give him a lot of room for extravagance. After the election many felt he could not hold on to the Government with such a small seat difference and in some ways it appeared the campaigning never ended. And when St Philip West MP Dr David Estwick started throwing tantrums again, some pundits were starting to bet Stuart could not make it to 2017.
True to form, Bajans could not tell if Stuart was listening, but they knew for sure he was not talking.
After a while Estwick settled down and life went on.
Since the last election, former Prime Minister Owen Arthur decided it was time for him too to take a walk so he left the Barbados Labour Party he had led for about two decades and that he had been a member of for almost a lifetime.
He literally crossed the floor of Parliament and sat as an Independent on the Government benches.
Without having said a word, Freundel’s razor-thin majority, theoretically, was not so sharp a weapon in the hands of the Bees anymore.
Then a few months ago a dispute in the BLP Christ Church West camp flared up and reached boiling point last weekend with the expulsion of Dr Maria Agard, the MP for the area. While Agard has not crossed the floor, again theoretically her position further blunts the edge of that razor.
Again, it all unfolded with hardly a word from the Prime Minister.
Now, for as long as I can recall, I have heard it said that “a day in politics is a long time” and Freundel has more than two years left to remain silent while watching the razor lose more of its edge. Based purely on pattern, Stuart could find himself calling an election a far more statistically confident man than he came out of the last one.
A day in politics is truly a long time. Forgive me, Mr PM, for underestimating the power of silence.
