ULP desperation campaign
In New York, the democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani won an emphatic victory with the significant support from organised labour, immigrants, working people and ordinary decent folks. He carried an inspiring message that the city belongs to everyone who lives in it, rather than the notion that the rich and powerful should have all the privileges while working people are pressed down by high taxes, unaffordable housing, a high cost of living, inadequate and expensive transportation and a lack of hope for the future.
Contrast that with the dark and nasty scaremongering campaign being run by Gonsalves’ Unity Labour Party, with three weeks left before the crucial general elections slated for Nov. 27. An observer with no knowledge of Vincentian politics will assume that the opposition New Democratic Party is the bogey man poised to eat the people’s supper.
What is unfolding across St. Vincent and the Grenadines is the most unimaginative campaign mounted by the governing party since it stormed into power in March 2001. The signs are unmistakable. Gonsalves is tired and washed up and can now only be relied upon to shout, curse, name-call in a negative sense, rather than present an uplifting agenda for taking our small and beautiful country into the third decade of the 21st century.
He and his party are evidently playing catch-up. They have no policy, programme or new ideas. The only thing they possess in abundance is money, and it now appears that the population, sufficiently matured beyond bribery and handouts, is poised to eat them out, drink them out and vote them out. They misused and mismanaged the generous relief received and borrowed money following Hurricane Beryl, and gave away plantains, eggs, chickens, and money.
The level of desperation is proof that the party is polling poorly. As my contract professor used to say, they are throwing everything and the kitchen sink at voters, hoping that something, anything, would stick.
Imagine a governing party with complete control of the election machinery, accusing its opponent of manipulating the process in some constituencies. Here is a party known for its high-handedness, crying foul and playing victim. Firstly, it came up with the unsubstantiated claim that opposition operatives had damaged the vehicles of officials and supporters at government event. Then the party posted on social media pictures of damaged election posters, implying it was under attack. Put aside for a moment the exuberance of some party supporters on either side of the political divide, why would an opposition party that is clearly riding an ascending crest of support direct its followers to tear down or damage posters in Bequia or West St. Kingstown, where the ULP does not have a ghost of a chance of prevailing?
And when you thought the governing party could sink no further, it has gone to the bottom of the barrel in search of muck. Some of its propagandists have now pulled out the race card, accusing the opposition of deploying supporters with lighter skin and textured hair to bolster its campaign. Such buffoonery is more than passing strange for a party led by a Caucasian man and in a country where for 41 of the 46 years since independence, Vincentians have opted for leaders who are mixed race as opposed to those of a darker hue.
Compounding ULP’s negative and backward campaign style is its subliminal anti-Black messaging on social media. They have unleashed white and light-skinned ULP cartoon characters pummelling subdued, defensive and defeated NDP characters of distinctly African descent under the label “We [ULP] are the rulers of the land.”
In a vain attempt to beat back the opposition’s vastly superior messaging initiative, the ULP again sinks to unimaginable depths. To counter the NDP’s EC$500 proposed payment to new mothers, the party invoked derogatory words such as “breeders”, while accusing its opponents of supporting prostitution. But it gets worse. The ULP poster offers a stark contrast. The party released a poster of a light-skinned, well-dressed, well-groomed young graduate holding a certificate next to a young black woman, evidently poor, hair undone, with a baby on her hip and the distinct impression of another in her stomach.
The low vibration, dark narrative of Gonsalves is also reflected in his bellicose command to labour warriors: “Tek dem on!”
Every election cycle, Gonsalves throws a pity party. In 2015, sensing that his sexual irresponsibility was about to be exposed, he tearfully begged supporters to stay with him. In the party’s 2020 manifesto, he beseeched party faithful to give him one more chance to complete unfinished business. As if that was not enough, he told the long tale about how his wife was about to undergo an operation that was so delicate she might not walk ever again and that his second son was gravely ill. On Monday, he took to the airways to announce yet again that he has an intelligence report that there are advanced plans to have him assassinated if he were to win again. One can only hope that this canard, first dropped on the nation in 2009, will be laid to rest on Nov. 27, when the tired fellow, long past his prime, will be retired by Vincentian voters.
To gauge how bad things are for the ULP, Gonsalves conceded the North Leeward constituency last weekend. His “fight up” is for seven constituencies on the Windward corridor, which he no longer describes as a “cardon sanitaire” and Central Leeward. Who believes his grumble that NDP will tear down the international airport if they were to triumphantly win the election?
Outmatched by opposition initiatives aimed at alleviating the daily pressures of life for the population, NDP proposals are derisively labelled “gimmicks”. All the while, citizens wait in vain for an all-elusive “master stroke”. Remember when the opposition leader was said not to know St Vincent? Now the claim is that Dr Friday has copied “Comrade Ralph”.
The next 20 days to decision 2025 will be wild and nasty. Let us all be vigilant and respectful of each other, and never forget that politicians don’t beat up and shoot up and kill each other. Neither should ordinary citizens. Be robust in your debate and with your opinion in our quest for a more prosperous nation.
