Carnival over, bacchanal start

In days gone by, Ash Wednesday, which used to follow the old February/March Carnival, would be welcomed on radio by the playing of non-calypso songs, often with religious content. {{more}} Playing or signing calypso in Lent back then was taboo, but one veteran calypsonian was assured on hearing his voice on radio. He was the incomparable Lord Kitchener and his melodious Ash Wednesday piece was entitled “ The Carnival is Over”.

These days with all the “gettin on bad,” and “going mad,” we no longer restrict ourselves to such sobriety. Nah! We doin it “Over and Over,” so with the July Carnival and no Ash Wednesday and Lent for prudish restrictions, “de Party can’t dun.” When we tired of Vincy mas, we movin on to Lucia, den Crop Over or Antigua, Grenada, Notting Hill, Toronto and Labour Day in New York. Nuff fete!

Yet it must dawn on us, slowly in some cases, that we must face up to the realities of daily life. Those with children of school age face the daunting task of equipping their charges for the new school year, for instance. For all of us, a new challenge arises in the debate on the Constitution Bill 2009. Having had a first reading in the House of Assembly on May 28th, 2009, the Bill is due to have its second reading and come up for debate in Parliament in early September. In the meantime, the Clerk of the House of Assembly has invited written submissions from the public on the contents of the Bill.

The official Constitution reform process in St. Vincent and the Grenadines is over six years old, having kicked off with the appointment of a Constitution Reform Committee (CRC) in 2003. All those days, Government and Opposition sang from the same hymn sheet where Constitutional reform was concerned. The Leader of the Opposition seconded the Prime Minster’s motion for constitutional reform. Both sides of the House supported the establishment of the CRC, named representatives to it and generally facilitated the work of the Commission until after the last general elections. Things deteriorated by 2007 with the Opposition signaling its refusal to play ball until some electoral non-issues (as far as the Constitution is concerned) were settled. Events have since made these non-issues of no consequence, but rather than improve, the situation has worsened.

Now that we are about to face the real constitutional test, our brave endeavour to forge our own rules of governance has become a victim of the very political partisanship and quagmire out of which we wanted to pull ourselves and our country. All sorts of political charlatans who lacked the courage to come forward in the informed discussions so widely conducted by the CRC in the 2003-2006 period are now emerging with all sorts of red herrings (mostly rotten), distortions and deviations. Rather than informed debate, we have allowed the “Ralph” word to deflect us from our noble aspirations.

The Constitution debate and referendum are coming when the shine seems to be rubbing off the new ball that PM Gonsalves took in 2005. Everywhere, the claims of police brutality cry out for redress. The official responses are less than satisfactory. All law-abiding citizens, which the overwhelming majority of Vincentians are, give full support to the fight against crime and violence, against the drug barons and gunslingers. But that is no excuse for excessive displays of force against innocent citizens. When this happens, how do we expect people to respond to calls for a new Constitution to protect human rights? Are we not allowing those who would mislead to muddy the water when there seems to be no official deterrent to blatant abuse?

At the same time, the economic squeeze is tightening (not if you look at how we spent the Carnival). If there are complaints about police violence and at the same time the economic conditions are worsening, though not because of any significant local factor, how do we expect people will respond to invitations for submissions on a new Constitution? So it allows those with axes to grind to have a field day on the streets, on the airwaves, in Kaiso even.

The content of the calypso this year should give a powerful message to those in government. Just as they, in Opposition, had benefitted from the criticism of the then government, in kaiso, now it is the Opposition’s turn and “Butt fo’ butt,” is the order of the day. Even unrelated international events are used to prop up nebulous arguments against Constitutional reform. Our Constitution, Ralph, Chavez, Iran, Honduras, are all thrown in the same pot, to hell with truth and honesty!

We cannot allow such an important process to suffer in this way. We must not permit political partisanship of one kind or another to cloud sober judgement. The Carnival may be over but the political bacchanal now starting.