Dr Friday’s dignified silence is wholly inadequate

A day is a very long time in politics it is often said. One day though, can seem like a week in the news business, and political news has been buzzing in St Vincent and the Grenadines at a frenetic pace this past weekend.

The speed of occurrences has been so accelerated that the Chatham Bay sale now seems like stale news. The Canash Beach debacle continues to occupy much discussion even as it continues unabated. The destruction of the protective mangrove and that once popular beach seems a done deal with much finger pointing as to who gave permission for what has transpired there. And one wondered where is the mass protest? Is this another seven day talk?

Meanwhile, the Invest SVG saga jumped out front when we learnt that former Miss SVG, the UK trained lawyer Anna Young, who only in April joined our business promotion agency, had suddenly resigned. She had been presented to the nation as possessing an impressive arsenal of qualifications and experience for the job-and a perusal of her work experience strongly suggested that.

Invest SVG quickly put out a well drafted corporate communications statement, which basically says nothing we did not know. It seems that the NDP administration is improving somewhat on its approach to communications which has been woefully poor since they assumed the reins of government. This is commendable, because a government with so many media outlets at its disposal, should indeed coordinate and make effective use of them to get its messages across. Jumping ahead of the social media chatter is impossible, but silence and warbled piecemeal communication is never an option, and does one no good as we saw with the Chatham Bay and Street Vending issues.

And now we learn that Carnival Development Corporation’s Chairman Ricky Adams, has joined the resignation party. Surprisingly perhaps, though not shocking, as there have long been calls for the removal of both Adams and his Chief Executive Officer Rodney Small, by New Democratic Party supporters for no good reason except that they had been appointed during the tenure of the former administration.

Talent and efficiency does not matter when party supporters begin to make demands. Credit must be given to Prime Minister Dr. Goodwin Friday and his team for having stoutly resisted such calls.

But the communication missteps from the new government have been many. It has been clear that, in this area, a lot of assistance was needed. We were not surprised therefore to learn that experienced corporate communications specialist Tedra Kirby, had been wooed back from her job as Network Communications Manager at the British High Commission in Bridgetown. Her expertise in developing and implementing communications strategies can serve the government well, but would only be as useful as the egos associated with political organizations allows her to be. Good PR is nothing more than good practice, and the population would not be convinced if they don’t see and perceive that there is good practice in action. So Kirby has major work cut out for her. And where has been the prime minister in all of this swirling around him? He must be concerned that his ministers’ freedom to communicate their initiatives, in fact, reflect policy agreed to. Amidst all the heady activities he has been mostly silent. He has maintained a quiet, dignified silence, but there will be a time when he would have to demonstrate that he is principal among his parliamentary colleagues. The learning curve is a steep one and to be successful there must be firm leadership. A dignified silence cannot always suffice; in these most recent incidences, it is wholly inadequate!