In his farewell address to the nation, outgoing President George Washington, in 1796, admonished the still very young nation of the United States of the dangers of starting political parties. He was very forthright in his assessment of them and his parting words follow: “The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissention, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the words of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation on the ruins of public liberty.”
“Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” Those words of the great statesman Winston Churchill are as relevant today as they were when he said them. It seems that no matter where you go, the rancor with which political parties operate nowadays is par for the course, as is evident in our own homeland, Anguilla. The airwaves are rife with the vitriol emanating from those who think that they have what it takes in this global landscape to lead us into the next millennium. That in itself is a pretty tall order, and it will take a very special person to fill those shoes. The question that pops up though is, is it worth it? Does anyone want to subject themselves to the nasty attacks that will be forthcoming just to serve his or her country? It is no wonder, then, that those who have something to offer stay silent on the sidelines and, as a result, we wind up with the lowest common denominator, to take us forward? Take a look around our region, and what comes to mind? We are a troubled lot. We are quickly losing the patina that is sun, sand and surf. We tend to latch on to a party which quickly turns into an “us versus them” street fight. In Mark 5: 28, the Bible says that, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” So why then do we choose to head down this path?
Well, like the big bad wolf, we can huff and puff as we try to blow the house that is party politics – down, but who are we fooling? As much as I hate to say it, that scourge is here to stay. For as long as there are politicians out there who can’t stand on their own, who need the safe harbor of a political party, then there will be political parties. So what then are we to do, one might ask? That is the question and, in the immortal words of Shakespeare, “to be or not to be.” Politics in general is a rough sport, and I don’t mean that in the sense of taking a bat to a ball coming at you somewhere in the neighborhood of ninety miles an hour, but one in which the primary objective is to win at all cost. One would have to be skilled, not to mention brave to stand in the batter’s box, or before a wicket, not knowing at what speed the ball is coming at you. That requires hand and eye coordination and nimble feet. A politician then has to be able to stand in the pocket and take the hits, of which there will be many, and as long as we allow our politicians to make it up as they go along, we will continue to get the same old tired crop of backbenchers time after time.
Our political system is rotten to the core. From the head to the innermost bellies. As the system stands now, it does us no good. We’ve had 47 long years, seven years more than the Israelites had to find their way. We are mired in a system that is so outdated, it’s embarrassing. Colville Petty writing in The Anguillian some years back, in a piece called “Deeply in Love,” described the system that’s in place now as one that ensures political longevity. He goes on to say that “It ensures victory after victory at the polls, thus their devotion to it, and thus their reluctance to part with it.” As long as it benefits those in power, they have no incentive to change it. They’ve been at least two attempts to overhaul both our election laws and our constitution and every time they came up empty. It’s difficult to believe that we just stand on the sidelines and let a bunch of political hacks determine our future. We deserve better than what we’ve ended up with. So who’s to blame? Do we blame the true children of the revolution, who once the job was completed, left the rest to our elders, or do we blame the stubborn pride of our elders, who had the smarts to realize that the task that lay before them was one of astronomical proportions, yet decided to skull the boat alone? We are better than this and until we modify the way we elect our representatives, and what we require of them, we are mining fools gold. It’s worthless.
Folks, we have to be an engaged people. If we don’t like what’s going on, we have the power to demand or make a change. If we don’t become engaged, then we haven’t the right to complain. Now is not the time to be passive – we’ve done that for far too long. We have gone through too much to tolerate what’s going on. We’ve accepted as a fait accompli that which they’ve given us: nothing. We don’t have to. I read where our esteemed CM said, “I ain’t goin’ nowhere.” I’m sure that a collective cheer from the teachers and other government employees could be heard in unison around the country. Isn’t that something? He wants another five years to advise the incoming administration. Of course he presupposes that his party will win. Why do we continue to accept the status quo? Who will step forward and let the government know that this is unfair, that the time for action is now? We marched for those foreign workers once, when we thought they were getting a rotten deal, are we not entitled to the same consideration?
In his “Letter From a Birmingham Jail,” Martin Luther King Jr. responded to Alabama clergymen who opposed his actions in Birmingham. They admonished him not to proceed with his civil disobedience because, as they put it, the time was not right and that he should wait. Dr. King admonished his brothers of the cloth by asserting that, “For years I’ve heard the word wait. This wait has almost always meant never. We have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God given rights.” Now I’m not advocating for anyone to get locked up, but I can see parallels here. We’ve been waiting for those leaders who would show us the way. We’ve endured centuries of benign neglect and emotional suffering at the hands of others, who either didn’t know or just didn’t care about 6500 people living in a backwater region. It seems that we’ve replaced one despot with the makings of another. Should we be required to also wait till things get better, or do we want them to get better now? Are we just satisfied to accept the lame ramblings of ersatz politicians? We seem to be viewed as stupid by our so-called leaders. Why else would we elect them time after time, those political hacks whose only interests are their own? We cannot continue to accept the status quo by having two Anguillas, the haves and the have-nots. The time has come to put aside all of our petty grievances and come together as one people, regardless of party affiliation. Let’s rekindle the fire of ’67 and see to it that that wonderful rock returns to those halcyon days. We want to recreate a society in which each and everyone has an equal chance at leading a dignified and successful lifestyle.
Government is supposed to do for its citizens that which they can’t do for themselves. In his pamphlet, “Common Sense”, Thomas Paine differentiates between government and society. He contends: “Society is produced by our wants, whereas government by our wickedness, the former promotes our happiness positively by uniting our affections, the latter negatively, by restraining our vices. One encourages intercourse and the other creates distinctions. The first is a patron, the latter is a punisher.” Paine continues, “society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one, for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries of a government, which we might expect in a country without a government, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnished the means by which we suffer.” We are the ones who put these politicians in power and we most assuredly have the power to remove them. Unfortunately, we do not have the power of recall, and a no confidence vote requires a member of the government to make the call. Given that the House will be dissolved, one can see why the likelihood of losing ones’ job might act as a deterrent from making such a call.
When we were under the absolute government of Premier Robert Llewellyn Bradshaw, we knew exactly the why and the where our suffering originated, and we also knew exactly what the remedy was, and though it would take many years to execute the plan, we did remedy the problem. Given where we are now, one is forced to ask: Is this what we fought for? To see us fast becoming a minority in our own homeland, to see our properties vanish to foreign owners when the banks seize them, to see our shores overrun while we stand by helplessly? Need I continue? Have we just packed it in? Let’s take a page out of the playbook of our black brothers in Birmingham and by whatever means necessary, get our government to respond to our needs. We keep allowing ourselves to be pushed back further and further. Well, sooner or later our backs will be against the wall and we will have run out of space. Why the devil don’t we awaken from this malaise, that is passivity, and let the powers that be know “we’re as angry as hell and we’re not going to take it anymore.”
Government at its core should be of the people for the people and by the people. Let us make sure that no one gets left behind. Let’s not lose sight of what I’m saying here. As long as we’re a nation split in two, we’ll never amount to anything more than a very bitter and disillusioned people. Let us take this our 47th year in existence as a new nation as a chance to learn from our mistakes. Let us heed the words of Short Shirt: “When will we learn to live together?” Until we do that, until we make sure that no one is left behind, until we are the nation that our forefathers intended us to be, then we’re nothing more than a bunch of self aggrandizing individuals whose only interests are their own. In closing, let me repeat what George Washington said: “The alternate domination of one faction over another sharpened by the spirit of revenge…” should not be the way in which we operate, but then that’s wishful thinking. So let me quote Mark 5:28 again which says “a house divided against itself cannot stand.” The sooner we learn that the better off we’ll be. So may God bless us all and may God bless Anguilla.
