Anti-Gonsalves hypocrisy

Tue Aug 6, 2013

EDITOR: I tried to pen an article exposing the lies and deceit of a self-appointed sect that watch over the so-called diminished affairs of St Vincent and the Grenadines under the Unity Labour Party (ULP) administration, but I failed.{{more}}

After almost a page with constant revisions, I was finding it difficult to write a coherent response to the aspersions and spurious claims made by this vanguard for so-called freedom and justice in the country. It is real hard work to convince oneself to oppose someone who actually believes that ‘pigs can fly’. In the end, it is important that sustained folly be challenged if only to offer the consumer of information another view that may afford him or her opportunity to form their own subjective opinion.

Birthed in now the unregulated social networks and non-traditional media, the message is preached and written about a Dr Ralph Gonsalves who must be the ‘worst among worst’. From Marxist, Leninist, Communist to scum and all other derogatory and sometimes defamatory adjectives in between, the political leader of the Unity Labour Party (ULP) and Prime Minister of the country is accused from Sunday to Sunday with vitriol. Yet, remarkably, as if with a dose of hypocrisy and a pinch of irony, PM Gonsalves is in turn accused of being a name caller and disrespectful when he chants, ‘untutored, lowest common denominator and fanciful Vincentians’.

This article does not portend a defensive piece by a ULP surrogate. I do not see it as my duty to defend Dr Gonsalves or his administration. In fact, it is quite known that the Prime Minister loves the nature of competitive politics. He loves Opposition protest marches so he can compare the numbers to Blondie Bird & Friend’s masquerade bands. He thrives spending hours reading the transcripts of the speeches, so he can form tactful responses and relishes the parliamentary questions that provide a platform to elucidate government policy and accomplishments. And yes, those who seek to play partisan politics will be met by an equally partisan political leader and Prime Minister. However, the anti-Gonsalves choir cries foul when their attacks are rebuked or harshly debunked.

The concept of statesman was raised to question the extent at which Dr Gonsalves has been prepared to defend himself and his office. In response, Dr Gonsalves is noted as saying a ‘statesman is a dead politician.’ Will it suffice the anti-Gonsalves movement that his family clears his name in the sweet by and by after decades of defamatory remarks? One radio host vented last month that Dr Gonsalves has sued too many times, yet why can’t it be said “Dr Gonsalves has been defamed too many times?” But, this is not even the real issue. What has been written and said often lacks the substance to muster even a serious attenuated discourse. St Vincent across the Internet is described in the league of repressive regimes like Syria and North Korea. Democracy in the country is said to be on a knife’s edge, with the Comrade drawing the strings. The citizens of SVG are regarded as zombies going to and fro in constant fear of political machinations. As you read the Facebook posts or the opinion letters, you wonder “What is happening in St Vincent?” However, as you think beyond the sensationalism, it quickly dawns on you that the actors have one thing in common, that is an overzealous loathing toward Dr Gonsalves.

Where there is accusation of no democracy, freedom of speech or association, three protest meetings concluded safely within two weeks, there is no censorship of the print or electronic media and anything can be added on social network sites. Said to be fearful of a dictator, Vincentians vent in the newspapers, morning radio programs and online on every issue imaginable, even at times assassinating the truth to promote their cause. Where passivity exists because of lack of interest in the elitist politics that masquerades itself as poor people’s causes, this is characterised as fear.

The movement which is blinded by its anti- Gonsalves venom led it to point fingers at the young man and his parents who placed first in the Common Entrance Examinations earlier this year. The movement has raucously scorned the education revolution, but was deliberately silent on the 44 nurses that recently took up employment in Trinidad and Tobago. The choir of nay-sayers, pull-downers and holier-than-thou patriarchs defend remarks like “I will come for you in the middle of the night,” but woe to Gonsalves to ask for an apology from editors and letter writers who he thinks have wronged him.

The ‘truth’

The post-modernist view is that truth does not exist. It is simply how we look at things. Yet, it is not difficult to see that the fears that were preached in 2001 and thereafter have not materialised. St Vincent and the Grenadines has not turned into a communist state; families with two cars have not lost one, Vincentians are not corralled to attend national functions, and the judiciary remains independent. The society has not disintegrated into chaos and abject poverty.

We have our problems and challenges. The ULP can and must do better by maintaining discipline as they govern. It is the truth that Vincentians at home and abroad would like to have more opportunities, more jobs, better roads, better health care and other public services. No doubt, the construction of the Argyle international airport has created some hardships that need skilful leadership in deploying our scarce resources to other critical areas of national development. But, let us not hoodwink and deceive our people that our country is at the mouth of Armageddon. Our answer cannot be found in an ‘anti-Ralph, anti-Ralph’ campaign on a daily basis founded largely on fanciful follies.

In the end, Dr Gonsalves has often said he never presented himself as a candidate for saint, but for Prime Minister of the country. He has been open as to his human weaknesses and has confessed that at times he has erred like all of us. He and the ULP administration have made mistakes, but our democracy is alive. In time, Dr Gonsalves will again need to come before the electorate and be evaluated thumbs up or down on his stewardship in the preceding period. With the simple mark of an X, the country will choose among all those that offer themselves to lead.

Until then, oppose if you wish; do so robustly if necessary, but by George, at least have the decency to oppose on merit.

Adaiah J. Providence-Culzac

Comments at: cemsvg@gmail.com