Shefflorn Ballantyne: You’re out of your place, Mr. Campbell!

Editor: I listened with horror and disgust to the statements of Parnel R. Campbell as he addressed the nation during his Law and You TV programme two Mondays ago. Disgusted because it was a display of his most evil heart hidden under an artful “brothers and sisters, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls”. The implications of his words spelt serious contempt for the people of our country, and the arrogance was of such that it should not be allowed to go un-rebuked.{{more}} Our country’s future cannot be secure with men like P.R. Campbell at its helm. To think that he is heading our Constitutional Reform process and yet have the views he does about the people is serious cause for concern.

It must first be noted that Mr. Campbell spent about half of his programme’s time to rant about his qualifications and about my “disqualifications”. He never once addressed the issue I raised in my letter published on July 31st in our local newspapers. He took personal offence at my suggestion that he thinks we are stupid. As to the issue of whether I am correct or incorrect, according to section 38 (5) of our 1979 constitution, he had nothing to say. He thinks we should just take what he says as truth. “…believe me” he said, “I know what I am speaking about”.

Let me be clear. The issue is whether it is possible under the current constitution to vote in a referendum, answering yes or no to each amendment made to the constitution. Section 38 (5) suggests that Parliament can decide upon that. This means it is possible. Parnel Campbell says no, it is not possible according to section 38. Then he said “believe me…I know what I am speaking about”! He listed his qualifications and hopes that we will just believe him, without an explanation of how his position is correct according to section 38. Nonsense! He really thinks “we stupid for true”! Does he really think we will take that as a reasonable answer? Has his arrogant pride blinded his view of the reality here in the country? The reality that an ordinary man like me, accounting lecturer in my mid 20s, can tell him he is wrong on a constitutional matter? He thinks he’ll get away with not only treating teachers and youths as stupid, but the entire country as “damn fools”?

Vincentians should never accept these insults from any leader in this country. Men like Mr. Campbell need to know their places!

I studied Campbell’s words carefully and thought the nation should see his arrogant display accurately. Here are the implications that I drew from Mr. Campbell’s distasteful display on that Monday night’s programme. I gathered that:

1. Only qualified persons with a degree in Law can examine sections of the constitution and give comments with some level of authority on radio or in the newspapers.

2. Only persons who have degree in Law (constitutional law in particular) can disagree with Parnel R. Campbell on his interpretation of the constitution.

3. No ordinary person (without a Law degree) can say that Parnel R. Campbell is wrong in his interpretation of a clause he used before while a member of Parliament

4. No ordinary person can say that he believes Parnell R. Campbell knows better and should stop misinterpreting the constitution for ordinary Vincentians.

5. All ordinary persons should take Campbell’s word as the gospel truth at all times when it comes to constitutional matters.

In his arrogance, Mr. Campbell disqualified almost his entire commission (CRC), including his own deputy Chairman Noel Jackson. Only about 5 of the 25 members which the CRC listed in the 2006 Revised Final report held a degree in Law during the entire process of constitutional review. You mean to say that Tomfool did not realize that? Yet he used these Commissioners and went from village to village in St. Vincent, meeting with people (who are not lawyers) asking for our comments on the current constitution and what we will want to see changed in it. He believed all along that only an elite few can understand and interpret the constitution on their own. Still, he asked us, the great majority of Vincentians who Ralph Gonsalves thinks are ‘uninitiated in the law’, to get a copy of the current constitution and study it. Then they bring out this thick document (with little explanations) six years later and tell us to study that, too, on our own, knowing fully well that they really never meant for us to understand and interpret it without their “help”.

The view he has of the ordinary Vincentians is a terrible one. Who does he think he really is when he makes those out of place statements? We are human being like you are, Mr. Campbell! You are not superior to us in anyway! You need to know your place when you speak to and about us! We pay you during this process and we will vote in November accordingly. You do not deserve the name “father of our constitution” with such arrogance! Learn humility!

You see, it is the idea Mr. Campbell has of himself that troubles most of us. He thinks he is the only one qualified to read a portion of the constitution and interpret it, simply because he did constitutional law in school. He thinks we should build a dependence on him in our need for answers. And when he gives us answers, he thinks we should swallow it ‘hook line and sinker’ without wondering if he thinks we’re stupid! He is the classic proud man who thinks himself something and later turns out to be nothing. Because one day he will realize that the proverb has fulfilled on him “pride goeth before a fall and an haughty spirit before destruction”.

So he spends over 10 minutes on his television program, and within that time, he declared everyone without a degree in law and constitutional law unqualified to challenge him. He forgets that he’s just a man. Then he said that he knows more than I will ever know on the subject of constitutional amendments. What does that mean? It means:

1. That Parnel R. Campbell knows what I currently know on constitutional amendments.

2. That Parnel R. Campbell knows exactly what I will know for the rest of my life (I am in my mid 20s, he is over 50)

3. That Parnel R. Campbell knows exactly what he will learn in the remainder of his life.

4. That he will always remain SUPERIOR to me for the rest of our lives.

5. Such is only possible if Parnel R. Campbell is an all-knowing and powerful GOD to make sure I never know as much as he does!

Since I am an ordinary Vincentian without a degree in Law and have no experience as a Senator and Attorney General, Parnel R. Campbell elevated himself as a god to me and all Vincentians like me. He thinks he’s a god who has power over what I will ever know and will exercise that power to make sure I never surpass him in knowledge.

Let me enlighten him. He is a mere mortal. His learning has made him foolish to think he is some god to anyone who is not “initiated in the law”. He does not know anything that I nor my farming brothers and sisters in this country cannot know and know better than he does, too.

As to my “secret” and “superior qualifications”, I urge him to consider what the Bible says. “I understand more than the ancients because I keep thy (God’s) precepts”. Psa 119:100. Obedience to God’s law makes us understand more about issues than the ancients. So, Mr. Campbell, “Talk no more so exceeding proudly; let not arrogance come out of your mouth: for the LORD is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed.” (1Sam 2:3) Your arrogance made you sink lower than many people expected; your pride is a denial of God who is the source of knowledge. I get my knowledge from Him, and He knows more than you will ever know!

Shefflorn Ballantyne