Political hopefuls should keep their personal religious views away from public forum

Fri, May 4. 2012

Editor: Anyone wishing to become involved in politics on the national stage should surely realize that their personal religious views must be kept out of the public forum.{{more}}

It is not to say you cannot be religious if you wish to be in politics, but it is necessary to be cognizant that you’re seeking a public office and religious utterances are always going to be contentious. Religion and politics are simply irreconcilable, unless the state is a Theocracy.

Although I am not currently residing in SVG, I have always kept pace with the debates (dismal as they are at times) that pass for political consumption at home. Anesia, no doubt, is ambitious and is well schooled, but her seeming inability to realize that in politics, compromises are always necessary, brings the claim of her intelligence into question. It is not enough to be articulate, one also needs to be politically astute and be willing to give ground when necessary. Politics is a marathon…. not a sprint race.

Anesia surely has committed political suicide; she has been caught out by the two major political parties, and, given the limited space available for third parties to operate within the political sphere, her prospects of a rebirth are quite dim. The Searchlight editorial that she may rebound yet because of her youthfulness is rather kind to her. After reading her 11-page letter, one can only conclude that it is the rantings of an irrational person. The entire tone of her letter reeks of arrogance, snobbery, disrespect and a lack of subtlety. I am no convert of either political parties, but her letter to Mr Eustace was pretty much a verbal slap in the face to him and the NDP as whole. The ULP must be salivating from this propaganda opportunity with which they’ve been presented.

I have no interest in discussing/debating whether or not her religious association is cultish or satanic….to each his own. Simply because the public has come to accept what are deemed as mainstream religions does not make them any more relevant or favourable for political acquiescence. Where Mrs Baptiste is clearly short is in her uncompromising belief that she and her religious views must be accommodated, irrespective of the potential damage it may cause the organization (NDP) to which she belonged, and then trying to justify it by subjecting us to read her 11-page political eulogy.

Don