The Missing Details: On the NDP Garifuna Conundrum

The next day, Friday, July 31, it was on to The Grenadine House for a meeting with the entire Executive of the NDP. Once again, in her officious and rather insulting way, Vynnette Frederick made it clear that I was not to sit at the head table with Joseph, Ramos, and Mr Eustace. As directed, I took my place among the assembled crowd and listened to the speeches from the head table, particularly to the once again repetitive, long winded words of Wellington Ramos.{{more}} Finally, a document entitled Charter for the Historical Recognition and Effective Collaboration of the Garifuna People and the State of St Vincent and the Grenadines (The Garifuna Charter) was presented. As I perused it, I thought that in order for this document to be properly discussed or debated, it should have been presented to all participants before arriving at this meeting. Quickly, I read through the seven page document that Dr Linton Lewis was attempting to present in a language and style that belonged more in a courtroom or an academic hall. The subject matter seemed to be going over the heads of almost everyone in the room.

The discussion which followed was tepid, ranging through varieties of citizenship, to the different legal definitions of ‘nation’ as opposed to state but it was not leading to consensus. I tried to contribute but I was not acknowledged until Joseph Guerrero, who was very familiar with my background on the issue, singled me out and insisted that I be allowed an opportunity to say something. I provided information on my role as researcher under Dr John Foster, one of the historians who provided the historical details that allowed First Nation peoples in Canada to challenge the Canadian government and that, over a period of years, finally resulted in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). I argued that the situation between the Garifuna and the State of SVG is very much the same as that which existed between native peoples in Canada and the Canadian government at the time and that the document being presented by Dr Linton Lewis was, in my opinion, an effective format for moving the issue forward. With that, the discussion came to an end and we broke for lunch.

St Clair Leacock was the first to come to me and thank me for my contribution. Dr Lewis then followed. During my presentation, however, I had mentioned the document I had sent to Mr Eustace. Dr Lewis asked me whether I had that document with me. I pulled out the document and showed it to him. I asked whether he had seen it. He replied in the negative and asked whether he could have a look at it ,so I passed the document to him. During the lunch hour, he read the entire document. He then rose, shook my hand, and said: “Now I understand.” Again, I asked whether he had ever seen the document. He confirmed that he had never seen it before. This exchange sent alarm bells ringing in my head for I distinctly recalled that Mr Eustace had informed Ramos, Joseph, Luzette, and myself, on at least two occasions that he would pass the document to members of his Executive for their reaction, discussion, and possible approval. The question in my mind was – did Mr Eustace tell us (the Garifuna representatives) a lie?

For the rest of that day, as much as possible, I limited my contact with anyone from the NDP or the delegation. The next morning, I went to have breakfast with the team members, hoping to discuss my concerns with Joseph and Ramos, but Dr Godwin Friday showed up and we asked him to join us. After breakfast, Joseph and Ramos had to leave for the Saturday morning Global Highlights radio programme in which I insisted I would not be participating. Dr Friday then mentioned that he was glad to be alone with me since he wanted to discuss something with me. It turned out that he was having difficulty getting the party to accept a form of local government that he thought would be appropriate for the Grenadines.

He seemed to know that I had written on the subject, perhaps through the Internet, and wanted to find out more about my thoughts on the subject. It turned out that we were both approaching the subject based on our knowledge of local government structures in Canada. Dr Friday then broached the subject of the document I had sent to Mr Eustace. I asked his opinion on it and was informed that he had never seen it and wondered if I might be able to provide him with a copy. I responded that I only had one copy but that I would get it copied locally and provide him with a copy. For the second time, the suspicion that Mr Eustace was not dealing honestly with us had been confirmed by another of his very top executives. Before we parted, I asked Mr Friday why he has been maintaining such a behind the scenes approach to politics in SVG. His response was that he is limited by several factors such as race, the reluctance of Vincentians to have any leaders from the Grenadines, the handicap of being in Opposition and not having access to government funding in order to do what he would like to do. He made it clear that he saw his role as primarily supporting and advising Mr Eustace in whatever way he could.

I spent the rest of that day alone. I had not been invited or included in any of the day’s activities. The next day, Sunday, I went to Campden Park to visit my brother and I met with Nigel Stephenson to check on the long, drawn out process of making the unoccupied Scott family home the new NDP constituency office. I assured Nature that I intended to be around to help him and the party with the upcoming election. Later I headed out to Sandy Bay. About 15 minutes before it was time for the rally to begin, I joined Joseph and Ramos near the platform. Joseph immediately signalled that he had to speak to me about an important matter, so we moved away from the assemblage to a more private location. Joseph then proceeded to inform me that Vynnette had given him a message for me from Mr Eustace. The message was that I would not, under any circumstances, be allowed to speak at the rally that evening and that I should stay as far as possible away from the platform.

I was totally paralyzed by this news. When I recovered, I could see the embarrassment in Joseph’s facial expressions. I asked him to do me a favour and get Vynnette to come and speak with me. A few minutes later, they appeared. When asked what was going on, Vynnette insisted that she knew nothing more, that she was asked to deliver the message by Mr Eustace and that is what she had done. I made it clear that I found the entire matter unacceptable and that I insist on finding out what led to that decision. She finally relented and told me that the only thing she knew is that Mr Eustace had gotten the information from a ‘trusted friend,’ that I was determined to get rid of him as leader and that I had already decided on who was going to replace him. She also made it clear that the rally was about to start and that this was not the time to try to speak to Mr Eustace. I acquiesced and removed myself as far away from the platform as possible. I listened to all of the speeches from the depth of the audience and I knew that the effectiveness of the Ramos thunder had already begun to wane.

The question that remains unanswered in this entire matter is who was the trusted friend that provided Mr Eustace with damaging and false information? Was it Luzette King, who had promised long before to not let me get close to Mr Eustace? Was it a combination of Luzette King, Vynnette Frederick and Wellington Ramos, working together to remove me from the entire project? Was it the result of my conversation with Dr Godwin Friday and my question to him about his silence in the politics of the party? Or, was it the result of a final expression of lack of faith or trust in me by Mr Eustace himself? I still remember the last words spoken to me by Joseph Guerrero as I was leaving the hotel. He informed me that Mr Eustace has made it clear that he “did not want me in HIS party.” I find that statement very shocking – I did not know that the New Democratic Party was the property of Mr Arnhim Eustace.

On Monday, August 3, I spent some time with Joseph. I was not sure whether I should go on the Balliceaux excursion, but Joseph and I felt I should go in the hope that an opportunity would arise to sit and speak with Mr Eustace. That turned out to be a forlorn hope, as Mr Eustace did everything in his power to avoid having any contact with me. During the days after the debacle, despite conversations with several individuals who are close to Mr Eustace and who promised to speak to him about the way the matter had been handled, I got no response from them or him. Telephone calls to the office also brought no response. On Thursday, August 6, at 2:10 p.m., Joseph, not the hotel staff, called my room at the hotel and notified me that I had to be out of the hotel by 3 p.m. I checked out of the hotel at 2:45 p.m and moved to privately arranged accommodations. On August 12, after several attempts at rescheduling my departure date from SVG, together with an offer on my part to pay whatever fees would be involved as a result of the change, and having gotten no response from Mr Eustace and the NDP, I elected to not fly out of SVG and to stay in SVG until this matter is dealt with one way or the other.