Signs of panic

The silly season has arrived.
Sadly, it has not come in the calculated manner that those calling the election would have liked. Instead, it seems events have taken on a life of their own, and the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) would do well to coral the horse – the galloping horse.
Prior to last week, the Administration appeared to be moving according to a pre-arranged plan. It had begun the process of gradually and almost surreptitiously planting its spokespersons in the media to champion the party’s achievements.
The next stage would most likely have been house visits and platform campaigning. (At the time of writing, public meetings are being announced for St Joseph and St Andrew).
Based on public response, the date of the next election would have gelled firmly in the minds of the party strategists.
However, as is often the case in these matters, the thesis always generates its own antithesis. A Wickham poll coming at the wrong time appears to have thrown a spanner in the works. All of a sudden, the public discourse of the DLP appears to have taken on the tone of a quarrel with detractors – real or imagined.
The Parliamentarians in both chambers now use their privileged time to respond to public commentators, while at the same time claiming to be dismissive of their views.
Since the Wickham poll, there have been clear signs that the DLP’s external composure has cracked, and that an early panic has begun to set in. Worse still, panic appears to have given way to farce. It was saddening to read newspaper reports carrying allegations that a scheduled Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation Crop Over activity had been postponed following an internal memo inviting staff to wear red to the event.
If these reports are true, it would suggest that the ruling party is allowing its nervousness over a possible Barbados Labour Party (BLP) resurgence to show too publicly.
Not only should Barbados avoid the path of political divisiveness, which has tainted other Caribbean democracies, but it is not in the DLP’s electoral interest to appear so insecure that it would resort to blow torches to eradicate ants.  
The advantage of being the government is always an important asset of any ruling party going into an election. It is in the DLP’s interest not to be so rattled by indications of public warming to the Opposition that it self-fulfils the negative prophecy and allows the mantle of Government to slip from its shoulders long before the actual election.
The reaction of the ruling party to the poll, however, is not surprising. For those who wield power, things are always rosy.  
The DLP should not shoot the messenger. It should welcome the negative prognosis as an alternative perspective, which, because of its privileged vantage point, it would never have been able to see for itself.
• Tennyson Joseph is a political scientist at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, specializing in regional affairs. Email [email protected]