As the election season fast approaches, all of the contestants are already jockeying for position, and it’s only a matter of time before the slings and arrows leave their sheaves and holsters respectively. Contrary to public opinion, politics has always been a contact sport and it’s not for the feint of heart. Thin skinned individuals need not apply. They should seek another line of employment or stay in the pleasant and cushy confines of the private sector. It has become the norm for politicians to obliterate their opponents, dehumanize them, with the expressed purpose of disqualifying them. In each of these cases you can bet your last dollar that the truth never got in the way of a good story, and while the contestants, more often than not, will not lower themselves to do the dirty work, they will get a so called surrogate who is expendable to do their bidding – carry their water for them. It is sad to see that Anguilla has become a signatory to such low brow tactics.
For as long as there have been democracies, or any form or organized government for that matter, the business of winning at all costs has been the primary objective of each and every politician. The history books are filled with stories of adventures in politics – from medieval times up to the present day. Politics in its simplest form is the activities associated with the practice and theory of getting other people to do what you want them to do, through debate or conflict among individuals or parties, hoping to achieve political power and, as I’ve said earlier, you proceed at your own risk.
In Anguilla, as in every other place, political candidates who have very little to offer will resort to just about anything in order to get the upper hand on an opponent, the truth be damned. And given that, as someone pointed out earlier, we are a new and young democracy, still navigating, and badly I might add, our way through a field fraught with mines, we see so-called surrogates, and I use the word loosely, calling in to radio talk shows mostly to denigrate. The callers don’t have anything positive to bring to the discussion, but will instead patronize the show, and soon enough the real intent of the call rears its ugly head with a barrage of unfounded personal attacks on others.
One of the by- products of party politics is the umbrella it provides to those ne-er do wells who really don’t have the cojones to stand on their own and make assertions. They have to be told by some other flunky what to say. They couldn’t possibly have come up with such ignorance on their own. Of course, I’m referring to an incident that happened on the Mayor Show, over the weekend, when one caller called in and started heaping accolades on the show calling out the panelists by name, telling them what a wonderful job they had been doing. I thought the caller was rambling for too long, as he always does, and I prompted him as to what issues he would like to see the candidate in his district address.
No sooner had I asked the question, the phone lines went dead and those of us in the US naturally assumed that there was a failure of some sort, and we would soon rejoin the show as we normally do. Well, no such luck. We received a call from Anguilla alerting us to the fact that this caller was still on and he was denigrating me without my being able to defend myself. It made it look as though I had retreated to my corner and had thrown in the towel, to use a sports metaphor. Nothing could be farther from the truth. I did not know that the caller had been allowed to continue with his rant at my expense. To not respond will allow the caller to think that he got the better of me, but that will not happen. I really don’t want to lower myself to the caller’s level, but since he was given free rein to go after me, behind my back, then I do believe that a response is in order. Just today, the President of the United States, Barak Obama, was asked to comment on the incendiary racist comments made by Los Angeles Clipper Basketball team owner, Donald Sterling, regarding Black people. He was very economical in his response. He said: “When someone shows his ignorance, all one has to do is let him talk.” Well, I’m not the president and I will say what I have to say. All one has to do is to consider the source – who is doing the talking. First of all, this person is a joke. He has nothing to offer, and does not possess the intellectual acuity to debate me. And, furthermore, anything that he has to say is irrelevant, in or out of context.
We have serious issues facing us and to waste precious time going back and forth with a nonentity, who brings nothing to the table, is a waste of valuable air time. American Laureate James Baldwin was quoted as saying, “Know from whence you came. If you know from whence you came the possibilities for going forward are endless.” I don’t know what’s going on here, and I don’t really care. Conversely, I know from whence I came and I’ve got a damn good idea where I’m going. And, not only that, I’ve got the wherewithal and the plan of how to get there. Can you say the same thing? You just continue to sit in your doorway feeling sorry for yourself and look out over the bay – yes, I said the bay, my backyard, and think of what might have been.
In an essay written back in 1971 for Truth Magazine by Sydnie J. Harris called “Catastrophes Begin with a Nail,” because, as he says, most looming crises, when they come, had their origin, for want of a nail. Here is how it goes: “For the want of a nail, a shoe was lost; for want of a shoe, a horse was lost, for want of a horse, a message was lost; for want of a message, a battle was lost; for want of a battle, a war was lost, for want of a war, a kingdom was lost, and all for the loss of a nail.” He goes on to reference several catastrophes that have happened, over time, for the want of one small detail that may have been overlooked. My point here is that we overlook the simple things that, over time, become major problems. So attention to detail in our case, with regard to our upcoming elections, will definitely be virtuous.
For the past forty or so years we, as a people, have been struggling to get it right. We’ve watched administration after administration, in some, cases totally disregard and do just about whatever they wanted. When we look to those whom we expect better from, they look away. We apply too late the remedies that may have earlier affected a cure as per Winston Churchill. Somewhere, along the way, someone will have to take the handoff and run for dear life. Who will that person be? It is high time we join the rest of the global community and take our rightful place. We tend to do things our way but, as painful as it may be, we are going to have to learn to do it correctly. There’s nothing wrong with being different. We have always been that, but we’ve also been our own worst enemy. We have met the enemy and it is us, to use the famous phrase by Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry. The great innovators, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and the Beatles, have all been outside of the box thinkers. This upcoming election can’t be about the same old rethreads. We need an infusion of new blood, new ways of thinking – someone who can utilize our full potential, and someone who is qualified and dignified to represent us on the global stage. That person has to encompass all of the qualities I just mentioned. An outside of the box thinker.
From its inception, party politics have been the downfall of many a promising political career. It seems that it is the trend wherever you go, more so in the Caribbean according to an article called “Party Politics dividing the VI and the Caribbean” by Lorrie A. Rhymer. It would be fair to say that we’ve brought our pigs to fine market. We were given the opportunity to start from scratch and we instead chose to get in line behind the other despots and adapt their style. In his piece, Mr. Rhymer asserts that all you have to do is look right here in some of the other Caribbean countries, you don’ t have to look around the world, “you can look right here in the Caribbean to see some of the disastrous affects of the introduction of party politics.”
In this week’s Anguillian, Mr. Colville Petty chronicles Mr. Hughes’ political career and I think it’s a microcosm of politics in Anguilla. Party politics in Anguilla, for the lack of a better term, has been a joke. Members jumped ship at every turn just as soon as it was politically expedient to do so, and without any shame and all because “we like it so.” We have to get rid of this bad habit of thinking that these guys know what’s best for us. They know what’s best for them. They hardly ever come out so how the devil are they going to know what we want. Now that election time is nearing again, they’re out in masse. You just can’t make a few donations, no matter how well intentioned, and think that’s going to seal the deal. No one gets a free pass. You are running because you have something to offer, and while we’re at it where have you been for the last five years? Folks, let’s not just settle on the first smooth talker that comes along – let’s not be that easy.
With the introduction of the party system, our country started to see what would be a long and checkered past, one that continues into today’s races. The thing that a political party does is to field a group of organized people wanting to take hold and in some cases keep political power within a government. It also provides a safe haven for those novice politicians to play with the big boys. We tend to hide behind the party system and, more often than not, can’t or won’t do anything for the people whom we were sworn to serve. Mr. Rhymer, in the same article, references the “constitutional crisis” in the St. Kitts and Nevis Parliament in which “Dr. Denzil Douglas has been the subject of a no confidence vote going on fifteen months and up to the present the order has not been put on paper in the House of the Federation.” Mr. Rhymer goes on to say that “the people should be ashamed of themselves.” A reader responding to the article wrote that “politicians and diapers are one and the same and should be changed frequently.”
I suppose that party politics is here to stay and is not going anywhere anytime soon, for as long as there are politicians out there, who can’t stand on their own two feet, they will need an umbrella under which to seek shelter when the slings and arrows start to fly. When they have to resort to guile and deceit, then it’s not for the greater good. The Father of the Nation in his farewell speech to the young people on the park, named after him, had this to say and I quote: “Seeking political office is an enormous and national commitment, but only well qualified persons, in terms of education, dedication and integrity with the right leadership charisma, should be selected for public office at the highest level. This holds true whether it is by ballot box or other forms of legal appointment.” Mr. Webster goes on to say that: “I’m appealing to Anguillians old and young to bury their differences and ill will and seek to be united again. Let us make this emerging nation a land of glory and opportunity; a land where we can say with pride and joy that we are Anguillians; a land in which paradise has been regained with God being our great leader.” There it is folks. The gold standard.
It is up to us to take the baton from Mr. Webster and, with the wind at our backs, cross that elusive finish line for which we so strongly yearn. Let us take the advice of the man we call the Father of the Nation, and go forth and seek that which is rightfully ours. Let us clean up our politics and sweep out all imposters and also rans. With God in our midst, we say si se puede, yes we can. Until then may God bless us all and may God bless Anguilla.
