One should never be so naïve as to believe that politics is only for those who have a deep desire to help people or to pursue lofty and humanitarian goals based on love for one’s fellowman.
How could one after the events of the past week? How could one after the flagrant attempt to wrest leadership of the Opposition Barbados Labour Party (BLP) from Mia Mottley, with an ultimatum that ends some time today, along with reports of a move to expel BLP chairman George Payne?
But as if to compound the intensity of this well ventilated BLP infighting and basic powerplays, these deeds are occurring against the backdrop of the current illness of Prime Minister David Thompson.
If one stretched the imagination far enough, the scenario would remind one of any old Western novel’s, where the shot and wounded hero crawls through the desert as vultures hover overhead, anticipating what they see, in their hunger, as the inevitable.
The hunger for power in this case, however, seems grossly inappropriate when seen in the light of profound national sympathy, goodwill and fervent prayer that is washing over this fair land daily on behalf of the ailing 48-year-old Prime Minister.
At the risk of seeming naïve, I was looking at Barbados in that light too, and seeing Thompson’s travails as a catalyst for national unity. Perhaps that was one of the reasons I could not agree with Minister of Health Donville Inniss who, in speaking to a NATION reporter this week, said Mottley should have seen this move against her coming.
Yes, Mottley would have known, since the last vote-off by her colleagues a year ago, that the huge question mark hanging over her leadership had not simply disappeared with a victory at the Barbados Labour Party headquarters on the night of September 26.
But she could not have known that she had only a year to prove herself!
Mottley might also have known that the battle for leadership was not over after former Prime Minister Owen Arthur called a Press conference at his office September 27, 2009, and zeroed in on “what she symbolises in the minds of the people of Barbados”. But she would not have expected that memory to haunt her at a time when she, on behalf of the Opposition, has joined Barbadians in the national outpouring of goodwill toward the Prime Minister.
She might have known – since Arthur noted at the Press conference that her leadership challenge could not be resolved by a vote among the parliamentary group but by her ability to make herself “likeable” – that the leadership rumblings and under-currents would eventually come to a head. But naïvely, perhaps, she might not have expected such a sudden attempt at her removal.
Inniss and some others are not surprised, because when Arthur addressed that Press conference, he “just drop it”, as our youths would say. The former three-term Prime Minister said then that Mottley needed to “recognise that there are things that you may like to do that could affect the standing of your party” and that “Ms Mottley does not have to be me but she has to make herself likeable, she has to be respected because people want to believe that their leaders are full of integrity”.
He spoke volumes!
If a day in politics is a long time, then the last 12 months seem to have been enough time for Mottley to have delivered on what Arthur advised, and more than enough time for her colleagues, who have the power to decide on her leadership, to conclude that she must go.
But why now?
Barbados, like nearly every country in the world, is feeling the effects of the economic recession, with expected declines in most sectors, but hardly anyone here is facing the spectre of abject poverty that is a feature of daily life on the streets of Haiti.
So what’s the rush to oust Mottley? Is it the hope of articulating or paving a miraculous rescue of the economy, with the removal of one Minister of Economic Affairs and the appointment of another fresh in the people’s minds?
If the Opposition’s concern is the deafening silence on economic matters by Government, particularly after the Prime Minister had to seek regular medical attention in New York, then no fault should be found in Mottley; since she has been persistent, strident and consistent in her criticism of Government’s management of the economy. In fact, it was she who kept the CLICO issue from slipping into the realm of oblivion.
This rush to oust the Opposition Leader has everything to do with the physical condition of the Prime Minister. The likelihood of Thompson being unable to run the affairs of state as effectively as he would if he were not sick has presented the glimpse of an opportunity for some peering beyond the current wave of national sympathy.
By extension, the recent Cabinet reshuffle that saw the Prime Minister divest some of his responsibility and at the same time anoint an apparent successor has emphasised that, without Thompson fully in control, the Government is weakened.
It has become a prime opportunity for the opponent to strike four quick body blows: put back at the helm of the Opposition the man many see as the doyen of economics, throw massive doubt into the people’s minds about Chris Sinckler’s ability to manage the ailing economy, play on the current tension caused by the removal of Dr David Estwick from the Ministry of Economic Affairs to Agriculture, and try to make Acting Prime Minister Freundel Stuart feel as insecure as possible following Sinckler’s elevation.
Clearly this style of political warfare is the norm, for it is not without precedent. In recent history, infighting among those in the ruling St Lucia administration heated up while Prime Minister John Compton was on his sick bed following a series of strokes in the United States.
Things reached boiling point by the time Compton died in September 2007, and Stephenson King, the current prime minister, had to fight to hold onto leadership.
Also in Barbados, former Opposition Leader Clyde Mascoll was just as unceremoniously ousted via a “no confidence” letter to the Speaker of the House in January 2006, causing him to cross the floor and join the Cabinet of the then ruling BLP administration – this after Mascoll had, arguably, enhanced the DLP’s image.
But in Barbados today, now does not feel like the time for people’s political careers to be ruined. This is a time for introspection; even love (call me naïve)!
Even if the recent CADRES poll showed that Arthur is still favoured above Mottley to lead the BLP, the drawing of daggers at this time feels sadly wrong and innately unfair.