Who shall lead the “change”?

08.AUG.08

The newly-formed People’s Movement for Change (PMC) made a bold challenge to Prime Minister Gonsalves’ oft-repeated boast that he (Gonsalves) is the change when it was formally launched at the Peace Memorial Hall last week.{{more}}

The leaders of the fledgling movement made it clear that the PMC is not yet a political party, though it is obviously inclined in that direction. However, whilst not yet contending for power, veteran political and social activist Oscar Allen made it plain that the PMC was “contending for change”. So, Dr. Gonsalves has been warned in unmistakable terms that neither he nor the Unity Labour Party (ULP) has any monopoly on the process of change.

Whatever one may think of the politics of the PMC (though it is far too early to make a judgement), it is refreshing that the PMC is making this challenge. The reactive and sometimes even reactionary nature of the opposition NDP to government policies provides the Prime Minister with excuses to claim that in the context of St.Vincent and the Grenadines, the ULP is the only “progressive” force. This claim does not take into account the sterling contributions of civil society organisations where national political and socio-economic issues are concerned. Not being directly involved in the cut-and-thrust of local politics, none of these have responded to the PM’s claims. The PMC has served notice that from now on these claims will have to be substantiated.

It is perhaps not surprising that, at its launching, the PMC shied away from boldly announcing a challenge for power by declaring itself a political party. This is in keeping with the history of the progressive movement in the Caribbean and with local experience. While it is true that “progressive thinkers” usually approach party building as part of a process rather than a sudden launch, it is also true that there is a strong trace of the historical timidity of these forces in the approach. One, therefore, detects a certain level of disappointment among those, disillusioned by the politics and practices of the ULP or the NDP, that the PMC has pitched short of a length, to use cricketing terms.

It is significant that the persons in and around the PMC are persons previously associated with the “progressive politics” of PM Gonsalves, several of them active campaigners. They are not the first batch who have peeled away from the ULP core. During the ULP’s last term in office, several close acolytes of Dr. Gonsalves fell out with him. Regrettably, they quickly discarded their “progressive” robes and have become among the most rabid and reactionary opponents of the Prime Minister, thus revealing the shallowness of their democratic and progressive credentials. One does not expect this of the leadership of the PMC, given their track record so far, but in the cauldron of Vincentian politics, and caught between the major contending forces, it will take great skill, courage and tactical approaches to maintain a principled stance.

Where to now? The answer must lie in what PMC leader Jomo Thomas described as raising the “critical consciousness” of the mass of our people. If the PMC is to make a meaningful and lasting impact, it is this area which they must address if we are to emerge from our senseless internecine partisan political battles.