Thursday, July 31,2014 - When you seek, or hold, a position of public leadership, you can expect to have yourself examined. Within the law and within the bounds of decency, but examined nevertheless.
Linkon ‘Kontenda’ Maynard has been the Labour Party Organizer for many years, and also an extremely close ally and confidant of Denzil Douglas.
And since July 3rd, 1995, he has had, in my opinion, more power in this country than any Minister of Government except Douglas himself.
His late father was a Labour Man to the core.
Kontenda declined the Labour Party’s invitation to be its candidate in West Basseterre in the general elections of 1989, for personal reasons.
Whatever those reasons were, he knew that Labour would not have won those elections, which meant that while he might have won his seat, he also would’ve been in Opposition.
And I say “might have” because the man who actually ran for Labour, a far more popular and endearing person than Kontenda, won the seat by only 131 votes.
For the record, Denzil Douglas had also declined the Party’s invitation to run in that Constituency. He insisted that it was Constituency Number 6 or nothing for him. Like Kontenda, Douglas was, again in my opinion, afraid to run in Constituency 3. Afraid, and unwilling, to take one for the Comrades.
You see, PAM had made strides in West Basseterre, having lost in the 1975 elections by 723 votes, in the 1980 elections by 473 votes, and in the 1984 elections by 244 votes. And neither Kontenda nor Douglas was willing to risk being the first Labour candidate to lose in West Basseterre.
If those figures represented a trend, then the fight for that seat in 1989 would be a dead heat. Too close for comfort for Kontenda or Douglas.
They left it to Sam Condor, who went on to win the seat by 131 votes, bucking the trend, and doing so under extremely difficult circumstances, in which certain people were even campaigning against Lee Moore in Constituency Number 4 as they promoted Douglas in Constituency Number 6.
Maybe apart from the fear of being an historic loser, Kontenda didn’t want to be associated with Lee Moore in that way. Maybe he had become part of the cabal that set out to oust Lee Moore, and to introduce ’New Labour’ after Lee Moore’s ouster.
Maybe Sam Condor was put up as a potential sacrificial lamb, to be thrown under the bus from the very start if he lost, and to be disposed of with Lee Moore after the elections. Or, in the event that Sam did win the seat, he’d be marginalized from day one, whether out of, or in, Government.
Those of us who were around in back then, and even the younger ones in our midst, can reason the thing out.
After the 1989 elections, the relationship between Kontenda and Douglas did appear to strengthen, becoming even more visible after Lee Moore’s ouster as Party Leader. And with that, we saw the transition to ‘New Labour’.
In the process, he has reaped significant benefits, both for himself and for his family.
He has been chairman of the Development Bank, ZIZ, SCASPA, and now the National Bank. He has sat on all kinds of committees. He sits in on many, if not most of, the crucial Douglas decisions. He has been well taken care of, even to getting land when he shouldn’t have.
Not long before it was time for his wife to retire, she was transferred from teaching to being Deputy Labour Commissioner, a post for which, frankly, she was not well prepared.
It may be that the objective was to place in a higher income bracket so that she might retire with a larger pension.
But even after she left the Labour Department, she was given a post in our country’s embassy in Washington, DC., also in a post for which, people claim, she was not prepared.
If you check out these missions, embassies and other offices you might see a picture of wives and girlfriends.
It happens that she has a child, whom she and Kontenda wanted ( as all loving parents would want) to be in a better professional environment for her upbringing and care.
The problem for me is that not every special-needs child will have such a privilege, certainly not your child or mine.
So instead of using the public money properly to bring the expertise to our country where every special-needs child might have the same opportunity, Douglas assigns Mrs. Maynard to Washington, DC., after her retirement, to receive pay and allowances on top of pension.
It’s cronyism. It’s an abuse of public resources. And this isn’t easy for me to state, because a child is involved. But it’s wrong.
So Daddy get, Mommy get, and who else get?
Konris, their son, is now challenging Sam Condor for the West Basseterre seat.
Irony of ironies! While Kontenda may have been afraid to be the first Labour Party candidate to lose in West Basseterre, Konris seems destined to earn that most curious distinction, to go along with the mockery of the Medal of Honor which was awarded to him a few years ago after he had won four or five calypso crowns, as part of Douglas’ effort to market him politically.
Meanwhile, the new candidate and his wife (who is a lawyer) set up a company earlier this year to provide corporate services. And in a matter of months, the company has become the main economic citizenship service provider for proposed the Range Development at Christophe Harbor.
What do you think explains this: skill or privilege? Merit or cronyism?
Daddy get, Mommy get, and now Son get.
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