We must tell the Comrade dat!

What a difference a year can make! Just last year, I-Pa was on his way to taking the Calypso Monarch by singing “Ah can’t tell the Comrade Dat.” In 2007 his fellow bards in Kaiso have turned that message completely around and seem determined to “tell de Comrade” many things. It was good that the P.M. was still in the country to hear for himself in the calypso semi-finals though it would not have been the most encouraging preparation for the CARICOM Heads of Government Summit.{{more}}

I remember in past years Comrade Ralphie analyzing the totality of the Kaiso content and proud to say that the majority of the messages were, in a political context, positive in favour of his government’s achievements. Judging by those criteria the same cannot be said this year with clear signs from the calypsonians of at least unease, to put it mildly, with the ways things have been going in SVG. And the concern is not restricted to any one group, for it has come from veteran and relative newcomer, home-based and foreign-based male and female.

On a personal note, I don’t think that the criticism is well-directed or well-founded but there is a clear message. The Comrade’s government has a communication problem for there can be no dispute that many positive things are happening, how come it is not manifested in kaiso, the cultural voice of the people? Is the problem one of the message or is it the messengers? If nobody else, then Culture Minister Rene Baptiste must take this back to her colleagues and get them to ponder on it.

In neighbouring St. Lucia, ex-P.M. Kenny Anthony and has colleagues opted not to listen and paid the price for it. Comrade Ralph is no Kenny but there are lessons to be learnt from the St. Lucia experience. How for instance to combat this expressed perception (it is more of a misconception) expressed by several calpsonians that there is a threat to freedom of speech here in SVG, that “people are afraid to talk” and have become what De Man Age in typical style calls the “Silent Majority”.

It is difficult to say with any degree of credibility that there is any threat to freedom of speech here. If anything, successive governments have presided over the introduction of virtual open sesame especially, where the air waves are concerned. From dawn till dusk there is hardly a radio programme which does not have some call-in component and even those public servants who people say are afraid to talk, are not afraid to share information, even confidential in some circumstances. What has happened is that there is a particular eagerness, some may even say over-eagerness on the part of the P.M. to take on all detractors and the legal Sue has been perhaps even more active than when P.R. Campbell was Attorney-General. But that does not amount to any threat to freedom of speech; it simply means that in our criticism one has to be mindful to be factual and not libellous or inflammatory. After all, I should know, having been the object of many such cases in the days of “FREEDOM” and “JUSTICE.” It never muzzled me or my colleagues.

That “yuh can’t talk” idea seems to be fairly widespread in the New York diaspora if one is to judge from the calypsoes. What is wrong here? After all the Prime Minister has made several visits there with public sessions very much a part of them. Is it the same poor communication? Maybe it provides a good reason for a long-overdue overhaul of the Foreign Ministry and our Missions abroad. I am not too sure that they are all in sync with what their role ought to be and some of the changes announced don’t give much hope for positive improvement.

While the P.M. is at it, we can also tell him it may be good to do an overall retooling of the government, senators included. The recent performances of the Ministry of Agriculture re. the Moko disease and its internal problem send a wrong message. Similarly, can you imagine that the parents of the rat-infected C.W.Prescod School would turn up for a meeting but no officials from Education or Health! And, Comrade, you wonder why you getting such licks?

It is one thing to always put on positive spin on events, another to face up with reality. The truth is that the ineptness of the Opposition may in fact be masking a wider unease about the smooth forward movement of the government. It is not just the NDP that is concerned, broad sections of people; including progressive people want to see greater focus, improved efficiency at all levels. That may mean mashing some corns but if that is necessary, so be it.

We must TELL DE COMRADE DAT.