By D. Gisele Isaac
Word coming out of the Red Camp is that there will be no by-election in St Phillip North. Rather, the sources claim, the February 19 Writ will be superseded by one for a General Election, as the ever-worsening legal drama of the Alfa Nero poses too much risk to the Gaston Browne Government.
To a clean, transparent Administration, Conventional Wisdom would say, “Ride out the storm! Truth will win out! And, anyway, you have until 2028 to recover.”
But to an Administration steeped in cover-up and corruption, where what we see is never all there is to be seen, desperation urges: “Hurry! Do um now, before subbm wuss happen and you get wring out like one old washrag!”
And so we end up with the likelihood of a General Election aimed not at getting a new mandate to continue the good work an administration has begun – but to cover up old and costly sins and ensure the possibility of committing new ones.
If ever there was a text-book argument for a fixed election date, this is it! And I don’t want to hear anything about Barbados, either, because it’s a comparison of cocoa to caca.
After all, it’s not Barbados that was singled out and humiliated by the USA, nor Bajans who were defecated on and called losers and mendicants by their prime minister. Judging by the state of its infrastructure, especially the roads, Barbados’ Ministry of Works is not stained by a 15millionvehicle−purchasescandal,anditsMinistryofFinanceisnotpressedtoexplainwhyitturneddownUS66 million in a sale and accepted a disputed US$26 million less.
Is Antigua and Barbuda we talking ‘bout….
According to those who know, the March 16 date (if allowed to go forward) was strategically chosen, as it falls just before a High Court ruling in the Alfa Nero case that could erase the last vestiges of the prime minister’s credibility.
It is more than telling – for those who can take telling – that a by-election which follows a man’s 50-year tenure in elective politics is hanging its red cap not on five decades of achievement, advancement or improvement in the constituency, but on tekking in front before behind tek dem.
And behind they’ve surely placed us, the electorate, the citizenry, the country, as they look ahead, scheming on how to make it better for themselves. As yet another housing “scheme” is lined out on a former farm at North Sound, where dubious deals already have been struck for manufacturing plants. And as lands are offered for sale to local entrepreneurs – after the Executive has had first pick, of course – and the well-connected snap them up as post-election insurance.
Meanwhile, these brazen under-performers and non-starters are pushing us to the polls with expired promises of regular running water so that Granny can bade and Pappy arm can smell good and Junior can finally have number portability.
As potholes are being filled with “sugar-cake” that cannot justify the 40% increase in licensing fees – except, of course, in By-Election Country – and as a minister decides whether to blow whistle or take blow. As public health facilities slide into further dereliction while the minister power-washes his disused branch office. And as 200-plus CCTV cameras seem unable to record criminal activity while the Cabinet orders lighting, sound and stage to star in its own reality series.
I could go on. But why, again, state the obvious when we see it, hear it, and live it every day? From the supermarkets where shopping lists are unmade and courthouses where justice is delayed to West Indies Oil where real ownership is now questionable and offshore banks that appeared to be little more than conduits for funny money.
This is the track record on which the Browne Administration is planning to bum-rush a General Election.
After the fiasco that the recent St Peter exercise deteriorated into, as hundreds of voters were induced into last-minute revalidation, I can only hope, this time, that the Electoral Commission will not decide to hand out ID cards, willy-nilly, with no attempt to check even basic residency requirements.
Realistically, though, I don’t expect that that will disturb the chairman’s peace, given the cold-bloodedness that greeted the prime minister’s boast about illegal transfers in 2023, when even the then-director of public prosecutions declined to lift a finger in investigation.
And so the responses and decisions lie with us, The People, once again, to be the guardians of what’s left of our democracy.
While some Labour supporters have determined they will no longer suffer, unwashed, in silence, will they take the next step and decide, with 14 days long passed, they will not be fooled a third time? And will the uncommitted, the free-riders, and the vexed-but-not-vexed-enough-yet finally decide to stop being taken for granted, stop being used, stop being disengaged and make a stand against the blatant lies and empty promises?
Any way you go, or decide not to, and whether we are handed a by-election or a General Election in the coming weeks, only you can decide whether the government we get is a reward or a punishment. Which do you believe you deserve?