Business, as usual? That can’t work!

By G.A. Dwyer Astaphan

They said that Dr. Douglas’ imperiousness, his poor fiscal and administrative leadership, his emasculation of the Labour Party and the Labour Union, and the growing public perception of corruption could plunge the country into an extended period of economic and social suffering and instability.

So, in the interests of Party, Government and the nation, they said that his time as leader should not extend too far into the term (assuming a Labour victory), and that he should be reined in during the transition to new leadership.

They had differences of opinion as to whether Mr. Sam Condor or Dr. Timothy Harris (neither of whom Dr. Douglas wants to succeed him) should be next in line, but the supporters of each of the two were at ease with the other, convinced that under either, governance would be more democratic, efficient and transparent, and that the country would be happier.

So they were all of the view that it was time for Dr. Douglas to proceed, or to be ushered, graciously towards the exit, while the window for a gracious exit still remained open.

And to a man, and woman, they declared that it could, and would, no longer be “business as usual”.

 Well, the elections are now nearly nine months behind us. Has anything changed, or is it still “business as usual”?

Let’s go back in time. For the previous 15 years in government, Dr. Douglas had sought to keep his ministers, especially the more popular and dynamic ones, ‘in their places’.
This craving to exercise control and dominance over people, and to ‘put them in their places’, humiliate and punish them is a trait which is deeply embedded in his personality, critical to his desperate quest for self-validation. A number of leaders of the past shared this trait, as do the very much alive Sylvio Berlusconi of Italy, Kim (‘Charlie’) Jong il of North Korea and Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe.

And while this may have no bearing on anything, there is something else that the leaders with this trait have in common: all were/are short men. Of course, I’m not saying that all short leaders are like that. I’m just giving the bare facts.

In the lead-up to the 1989 elections, after Dr Douglas and his cabal had succeeded in forcing Mr. Charles Mills, the sitting Parliamentary Representative, out of the picture so that he could become the candidate for the safe Constituency 6 seat, the very next objective was to get rid of Mr. Lee Moore as Party leader.

So while Mr. Moore struggled in a difficult race in Constituency 4, Dr. Douglas and certain key persons from Constituency 4 and other areas who should have been helping Mr. Moore, instead, abandoned him.

And when a well known national figure and Labour supporter, who had seen what was going on, asked why these folks weren’t in Constituency 4 helping Mr. Moore, one of them (you can guess which one) told him: “Leh Lee Moore  tek dat. I well wan’ him lose. Time now for de Doc to tek over!”

Of course, Dr .Douglas won handily in Constituency 6 while Mr. Moore lost (for the second time), and the Party had a new leader. Mr. Moore had been put in his place, cannibalized and punished. And humiliated.

For what? He was an able man, loyal to Party and country, and with their help he might have won the seat. But in order to accommodate Dr. Douglas’ vaulting ambition, Mr. Moore had to be humiliated and punished.

Likewise for Mr. Condor and Dr. Harris.

From the very moment he took office in July, 1995, Dr. Douglas took steps to minimize, cannibalize and humiliate the well liked Mr. Condor; and he was able to succeeded in doing so by capitalizing on Mr. Condor’s patient and faithful disposition, and on his commitment to the cause of Labour (which, while he may not have been looking, had become the cause of Denzil Douglas).

Meanwhile, Dr. Harris, Labour’s most charismatic platform speaker, a brilliant scholar and thinker, and a legitimate candidate for the leadership, was perhaps seen as more of a ‘threat’ than Mr. Condor. So, he too would have to be ‘put in his place’, humiliated and punished.

With all of that drama going on, it would come as no surprise that after fifteen years in government, certain relationships would have worn thin. And for every dissatisfaction voiced or question asked, Dr. Douglas would find more and more reason to ‘deal with’ Messrs. Condor and Harris.

That process, among others, led him to purchase some political ‘insurance’ by cultivating a relationship with Mr. Joseph Parry and the NRP. And while nothing is wrong with political parties doing that, Dr. Douglas, rather than trying to heal inside relationships that had gone sour because of his own doing, callously ignored all of that and went outside to keep his numbers high enough in case Mr. Condor or Dr. Harris was to ‘try a thing’. Highly unlikely, as that would have been, after the votes had been counted on election night.

He got himself quickly sworn in, and without any other minister installed as prescribed by the Constitution and by common sense and decency, he flew to Africa in the hope, inter alia, of collecting money to pay off some election debts, and blew off people’s concerns by saying that in this age he alone could run the country from where he was...halfway across the world.

Nevertheless, he sent instructions that Mr. Condor was to be sworn in. Then, after arrangements were made for the ceremony at Government House, and friends of Mr. Condor invited, Dr. Douglas again sent a message from Africa telling them to cancel the swearing-in ceremony and to wait until he returned to St. Kitts. By this act, he announced to Mr. Condor, disrespect, humiliation and all, and to everyone else, that it was indeed going to be business as usual.

And by the time he finished his arrangements, with the portfolio assignments, with him using permanent secretaries and other functionaries as his surrogates to undermine, bypass and disrespect them, and the rest of it, he made sure that Mr. Condor was the most isolated and thus the weakest member of Cabinet, while Dr. Harris’ fate as a Cabinet outcast was sealed.

Let me give you two cases.
 
One lady, employed under Mr. Condor’s Ministry, who reached the age of 55, got a letter directing her to pack up and leave immediately; and a gentleman, under Dr. Harris’ Ministry, got a letter giving him 24 hours’ notice to leave. These are individuals who had been providing long and sterling service to the government.

And in neither case had the Minister been informed beforehand and asked to provide input.

Meanwhile, while those two public servants, and others like them, have received their ‘go-home now’ letters, there are persons, just as old or older and not nearly as productive, who, because they’re errand boys and girls for, and heavily beholden to Dr. Douglas, are being retained in the public service.

Even latterly some of these errand boys and girls, along with others, have launched a distasteful and vicious smear campaign against Dr. Harris from the inside; the likes of which have never been seen in this country.

And in the midst of all of this, hardly a word or act of protest or indignation from the persons who claimed to be “progressive, conscious, altruistic members of the Labour Party, and true patriots”.

And why not? Well, whereas one year before the elections they had been uncertain as to the way things might turn out, once the deal was sealed on January 25th2010, their progressiveness, consciousness, altruism and patriotism gave way once again to self-survival, self-indulgence and convenience.

They think it’s better to be ‘somebody’ under an incompetent, vindictive, corrupt arrangement than to be principled, get marginalized or fired, and then become a non-entity. They’re not trying to change anything for the better while they’re in there. All they’re trying to do is survive and to stay on the right side of the bully.
 
Don’t these people understand unless and until a person stands for principle, he or she is already a non-entity?

One of them used to tell me, since Labour’s first term when he began to notice some troubling signs in Dr. Douglas, that timing was everything and that at the right time Dr. Douglas would have to go. He told me this increasingly over the years as his disappointment in, and exasperation towards, Dr. Douglas grew. Yet today, 15 years later, Dr. Douglas is still there, and he is also there; probably still saying that timing is everything!

Business as usual? Meanwhile, the same critical problems exist and are getting worse. And it will take somebody with superior wisdom to explain to me how the leadership which created these problems can be the same leadership which will solve them.

Here are some of the new problems that have popped up since January 25th 2010.

1. The economy has further deteriorated and the national debt has increased. Hundreds of people have been and are being laid off in both the public and private sectors. Meanwhile, the Prime Minister announced in March that we would have VAT by November, and that we would be a member of the OECS Economic Union by January 2011. No prior public consultation, and in the case of the Economic Union, no referendum.

2. A 30-year exclusive deal was signed for the Airport with a foreign company. Expect a big giveaway on this.

3. The Sandy Point School was named after Charles Mills in spite of a petition with over 2,000 names on it. No consultation, no review, no joint naming, nothing.

4. School buses are said to be in a state of disrepair, so bus owners will be contracted to transport children. But when bus owners ask a question, they are told that they are too late. Meanwhile, one or two school buses, which have been allegedly sold for pennies, have been fixed and are on the road making money for the new owners. Might they be rented back to the Ministry to transport children?

5. It’s being said that, as in the case of road building, camera, video production and related work which should be done by Government agencies are being done privately, creating the possibility of conflict and over-spending.

6. The termination plans at SCASPA were so poor that people are being asked to reconsider taking the separation package and to remain. Meanwhile, manpower problems exist at the Ports on a daily basis. So guess what! The Port is hiring people!

7. People want to know what is ‘Capisterre Farming’, who owns it, how much land has been assigned to it (there is talk that it is 70 acres), who pays the workers, and so on.

8. People also want to know what to conclude from the allegation that a cheque on the account of a particular company (which was created in the first instance to pull away a big chunk of Marriott business) was signed by a certain woman. What is her involvement in that company? Integrity in Public Life Act, where are you?

9. People are deeply concerned about the fact that Social Security, which belongs to the people of this country, and which is managing their money (it isn’t a private concern owned by the Prime Minister or anyone else) has granted a friend of the Prime Minister (who only recently retired from his job and formed a new business) the exclusive contract to sell the 191 houses that are to be built for it. Does the Minister responsible for Social Security, Mr. Condor, approve of this arrangement?

10. In relation to this same project, allegedly there have been complaints from our local architects and designers that another friend of the Prime Minister (from outside the Federation) has allegedly been given the contract to design the houses...much as had been attempted in the yet-to-get-off the ground Potato Bay project.

11. The concerns with this project do not end there. People are saying that a 2-acre parcel of land is being reserved to build a prime minister’s residence. If there is any truth in this, don’t the people of St. Kitts & Nevis have the right to know and to be consulted? Do we need such a residence? Can we afford it? Is Social Security to pay for it?

All of this sounds like business as usual to me. But that can’t work anymore. It is time for the people to move in with peaceful, powerful and relentless pressure. Not as a political party, but as a people, Labour, PAM and everybody else, leaders and followers alike, standing as one, undivided, and looking after their business, and saving themselves, their children and their nation. Stay tuned and be a part of it.