ULP in danger if it dismisses the public mood for change

Tue Jun 17, 2014

Editor,

A day in politics is like a year. The NDP learnt this the hard way last election cycle when they fumbled the launch of their main manifesto and the failure to articulate a coherent policy on airport development. As things stand, a reading of the mood of the electorate would suggest that the ULP is in danger of losing the next general elections if the leadership of the party does not run a tight ship over the next few months.{{more}} Some may suggest that the horse has already left the stable for the Gonsalves led administration, but again, “a day in politics is like a year.”

Last week’s Searchlight editorial, “We are waiting and watching,” encapsulates the mass of ULP and NDP supporters who have been bombarded with allegation after allegation of high-level and deep-rooted corruption. Of consternation is the apparent lack of personal responsibility by those high-ranking officials involved. In both recent cases, they were able to simply board flights without as much as a police interview.

This letter-writer felt the angst of senior prosecutor Adolphus Delplesche who chided police officers for not keeping their promise to offer bail to allow a young school-child to write one of his CXC exams, after reportedly stealing a printer and transformer which had been retrieved. This callous and cold act by the police involved highlights the sort of “justice is blind” that singing Sandra sang about. It is the same aloofness by those in authority that has failed to promote Inspector Delplesche to a just rank in an institution where men and women of his training, experience and motivation are few. If another round of promotion passes without this atrocity corrected, then it will be considered another injustice. Again, “we are waiting and watching.”

The reality is that all the goodwill coming out of the party’s February convention has now dissipated. The youth arms have not been activated and the candidate selection process has raised eyebrows in many quarters. If the party was paying attention to the strategy employed by fraternity party United Progressive Party (UPP) in Antigua, the insertion of new candidates did not mollify the electorate, as they lost the election emphatically. The considered view is that the party requires deeper changes, not only at the constituency level, but the promised changes at boards, statutory institutions and other agencies. For far too long, only a small elite class has really benefitted from the “real cheese.” If one man can run a corporation for 14 continuous years without the insistence of some form of renewal in leadership, it shows how deep-seated or ambivalent the party has taken the men and women who are “waiting and watching.”

With ULP currency on the ground depreciating rapidly, one now only wonders how much of a difference the Argyle international airport will contribute to the party’s re-election efforts. Such an undertaking may allow the party to maintain its strong hold on the Windward seats, but the marginal Central Leeward seat can easily go to an NDP Leeward routing, ensuring a change of government. There are strange tidings taking place in the world of politics all over. Six months ago, no one would have predicted that republican number two House majority leader Eric Cantor would have lost to a little known economics professor in the primary election for his district. The result had tongues wagging in Washington. One media report stated Cantor missed the signs because he was “focussing on his ambition while his base crumbled beneath him.”

If Searchlight was not clear enough, Calypsonian I-Madd sings it well in his 2014 composition:

“St Vincent is waiting, for you to do something.

They want jobs not talk, otherwise you will have to walk

Doctor look and see, poor people hungry

They want some relief, and you hear how they begging please

Cost of living rising and people aint working

The situation tight, hope you can do something.”

Doctor this is true; plenty work to do.

This cancer can’t wait and I want you to operate.

Adaiah Providence-Culzac

Cemsvg@gmail.com