There has been an uneasy and so-called truce over the past six weeks or so, of the Lenten Season, when parties and candidates contesting the April 22 general election in Anguilla, undertook to stay away from the public rostrums for their political meetings. But, for many of them, the radio stations remained the opportune avenues for their bitter and uncompromising attacks on each other.
The undercurrent, mudslinging and acrimony were always existent over the above period, and today the political atmosphere remains highly charged and volatile just as it was prior to the onset of the Lenten Season. Even the objections to names on the preliminary list of voters reportedly saw, this week, regrettable displays of the fierce animosity and frustration that continue to characterise our election campaign. It is a sad commentary on our political maturity, respect and dignity, not denying that any election campaign is necessarily free from its attendant woes, but there comes a time when nobility and statesmanship should be preeminent.
There is a general fear in Anguilla that the resumption of the last lap, or segment, of our political campaigning in a few days’ time will be all the more degenerative and perhaps damaging – hitting hard below the belt. We can only call for calm and forbearance in the disquieting political storm; and for a concerted effort on the part of our parties, candidates and their supporters, to take the high road and in that fashion – and at that level – to properly and convincingly articulate their plans for Anguilla. What they all should be doing is to present their lofty ideas and plans to the electorate – as contained in their printed manifestos. At least that would be better and more ideal than a heap of nonsense, confusion and cursing that would further divide and shame our discerning people.
There is much that our politicians can speak about that would energise and bring hope and relief to our people. They can speak about positive and truthful steps to radically turnaround Anguilla’s economy and to speed up its recovery process from a gruelling recession – which unmercifully struck the world in 2008, and continued with little relief especially to small island states like Anguilla. Our politicians can speak about jobs and empowerment of our people in social and economic life; developing the island to the extent that the burden of taxation on our populace can be relived. They can address matters relating to improved health and education – two grossly important factors in any developing society and to any aspiring people. They can speak about the need to curtail crime so that it does not become a scourge or menace to our otherwise peaceful community and to our fragile tourist industry, the engine of our economy. Our politicians can extoll the virtues and glories of Anguilla and the importance for our people to aspire and to achieve the best that our world offers. Lastly, but not altogether conclusively, our politicians can demonstrate themselves as role models of statesmanship and leadership for the rest of our island’s population.
But, alas, if some of our politicians are believed to be only self-serving and incapable of leading, then the electorate has no choice than to reject them at the polls – the only democratic manner in which to do so.
One of the matters that have bothered many of our people is the lateness of the general election. Surely, if the Chief Minister had called the poll around the usual time, in February, we all would have been speared the vicious, overbearing and protracted electioneering period now haunting and hurting us. Was the delay, “down to the wire”, calculated to cause frustration among one set of people aspiring to political leadership? Was it to give the Chief Minister a sense of power or because the Constitution allowed it? Or was it in the hope that there could be some rebound in the economy to give advantage and added credibility to the governing party at the election? Whatever was the reason, it may certainly be the genesis for the confusion and hostility we are experiencing today in the run-up to the election.
The pervading view in the community is that a relatively shorter electioneering period would have definitely reduced the tension we are victims of, and the resurgence of a period of acrimony in the aftermath of the Lenten Season. The truce is now over but, in the remaining days of the campaigning, we all can expound our political plans and dogma – whatever we choose to call it – in a civil and most dignified manner.
