The End of an Era
On the day when Vincentians in the American Diaspora celebrated Thanksgiving, Vincentians at home served up deliverance from 24 years of PM Gonsalves’ suffocating rule, a deliverance that supporters and opponents of the New Democratic Party will long remembered. Only Gonsalves stood in the way of the NDP replicating its devastating 1989 triumph when it won all of the 15 seats in the House of Assembly. Yesterday’s humiliation constitutes an ignominious end to a man who offered so much promise only to flatter to deceive.
Saboto Caesar and Camillo Gonsalves, who the aging prime minister from as early as 2013, touted as the next generation of ULP leaders never got the chance to prove themselves worthy. Camillo lost in every polling station and Saboto did not fare much better. In a nasty attempt to prevent anyone but son Camillo to emerge as leader Gonsalves employed the ‘Samson option,’ thus bringing the ULP house down on itself. He marooned Saboto in the agriculture ministry and never truly embraced Luke Browne, whom he feared would form a formidable tag team with his brother-in-law Saboto and control and dominate the party’s future direction.
It is always a difficult task for a party to win a third term, much more a 6th but many of the actions that sorely exposed the ULP’s weaknesses last night were unforced errors. They, especially Gonsalves, became lords rather than servants of the people. The evil vaccine mandate which the ULP- dominated election panel tried to paper over last night was a wake up call to many Vincentians who still thought that Gonsalves was a force for good.
The usually well-informed and analytical Peter Wickham compounded the errors he made on Wefm’s ‘Issue at Hand’ a few weeks ago by claiming that Vincentians had the option to be exempted from the vaccine for medical and religious reasons. Even more shocking was that none of the panelists who knew better sought to correct him. They well knew that protestations by citizens who had genuine medical and religious reasons not to take the untested, unreliable and unsafe injection were lampooned and rejected by ULP leaders, government appointed doctors and religious czars.
They thought they were confronting 271 public employees who took the government to court. Instead there is an abundance of anecdotal evidence to support the claim that the overwhelming rejection last night was from a people who along with all the other horrors of daily life responded in anger to the misrulers who compelled them to take the jab to save their jobs only for them to wallow in pain and sorrow as loved ones, friends and colleagues, in the prime of their lives dropped dead, developed all manner of ailments and adverse events hitherto rare or unknown to SVG.
It was nauseating listening to an election panel that never gave voice to the other reasons for the ULP’s implosion, such as the high unemployment and crime rate, the persistent poverty which trapped 4 out of every 10 Vincentians while Gonsalves’ family and its big shot friends lived luxuriously, the evident official corruption pervading our society and the splendid campaign ran by the opposition.
Worse, they could not bring themselves to congratulate Dr Friday on his success. They spend close to 10 minutes talking about St Clair Leacock’s leadership qualities before, grudgingly, as if as an afterthought, mentioning the man who led his party to a stunning victory.
Whereas Gonsalves traded in fearmongering and anti-communism (strange for a party that claims to be progressive and anti-imperialist), and all-out bribery in the vain attempt to woo voters, the NDP, armed with superior messaging, financing and narrative, offered hope and substance, which Gonsalves and his coterie, to their chagrin, derisively labelled ‘gimmicks’.
This was an out-of-touch bunch, smacked into reality by voters chanting ‘Enough is enough.’
There is no doubt that the overwhelming majority of Vincentians, at home and in the diaspora, will breathe easier today. Even some who voted for the ULP out of habit and fear, or because of questions about a party mired in opposition for a quarter of a century, may conclude that the country needed to be liberated from Gonsalves.
To the NDP supporters, especially those who stayed with your party in its darkest hours, wallow in your good fortunes. However, don’t ever fall victim to the creed ‘my party right or wrong’ as ULP supporters did. To the party leadership, especially Dr Friday, who was subjected to months of being called weak and lazy, soak up your victory with the foresight that now comes the hard part.
The ULP leadership and spin doctors would gloat in defeat, ‘We had a good long run.’ Supporters, especially the poor, unemployed, low-income and vulnerable, do not buy into the nonsense. Gonsalves’ family and their policy clique had a good run. His run was so good that in 2018, they were able to secure three luxury apartments in Trinidad valued at over TT$5 million. Imagine what they have accumulated since. At $1000 per month, Gonsalves’ brother-in-law’s telephone allowance was more than the monthly income of a large swath of Vincentian workers. All workers, ULP, NDP or no P, must learn this lesson and not be tricked by politicians who demand party loyalty over your economic survival and self-interest. Learn to speak truth to the powerful.
NDP, it’s your time to deliver. You can begin immediately by teaching Gonsalves and his defeated clan’s men a lesson in good governance and democratic best practice: remove all of your election billboards by Monday morning. Provide real meaning to the call; we are all in this together. We have a country to build.
There was a lot of talk of square pegs in round holes. Jobs and other vital positions should be offered and filled on the basis of merit. Free up the civil service to do its job. Give our police force the tools to protect and serve. I can hear Oscar Allen’s wise words: The people are watching. In the same way in which they rejected Gonsalves’ call to lift him up and instead elevated you to the corridors of power, draw this critical lesson: never ever underestimate or disregard the power of the people.