Our Vulnerable Caribbean

By G.A. Dwyer Astaphan

I wish to focus on two major threats in the latter category.

The first one is the people of the region.

We seem to be in a state of surrender to convenience, materialism and, the moment, easily distracted from diligence, perseverance and responsibility, and ever so willing to give in to, and even to support and promote, bad things and bad people.

This is evidenced by the presence in our midst of a filthy, foreign culture which has invaded us under the guise of modernity, free enterprise and freedom of expression.

It has diminished our faith in God, our spirituality, our sense of respect, our integrity, our work ethic, our education, our technical and social skills and development. And our values and our institutions have all suffered in the process.

But this has happened only because we welcomed it without question or reservation. And now it’s more than us, with unprecedented obesity, diabetes and hypertension among our youths; with television sets remaining on in homes 24/7; with people  living beyond their means and indulging in antisocial activities in order to maintain their lifestyle and to impress by having what they want rather than what they need, and so on; with vulgarity and immorality being widely accepted; and with criminals wielding guns and influence at all levels of our society, and becoming iconic amongst the young (especially among those from less fortunate socio-economic circumstances), as they spread fear across society.

That is surely a threat to our economic, social and political stability.

In addition, we have put ourselves at the mercy of individuals and groups whose undue influence in our politics and our lives generally has compromised the integrity of governance and democracy in our region.

Which now brings me specifically to the second major threat: the prime ministers of the Caribbean.

On this point, noted Trinidadian journalist Tony Fraser wrote a strong article in the Trinidad Guardian newspaper of June 2nd, 2010. Here are some quotes from it:
“…. so drunk had he (Patrick Manning) become with his success of dominating all around him, including the national community and polity. However, the legions of mice and men and women (borrowing from author John Steinbeck’s book ‘Of Mice And Men’), who surrounded Manning in the party, cabinet and government-those holding on because it was the best thing that ever happened to them, those who were willing to tolerate anything once they were close enough to glow in the reflected glory of the emperor-fed Manning’s ego.”

“………PNM members have extolled the virtues of the party being a lodge in which no one speaks out against the decisions of the oligarchy, and an organization in which the words of the leader are sacrosanct. It is the same thinking which fashioned the national constitution and the political culture, all predicated on a dominant strongman and a subject oligarchy in tow to rule the masses…...”

“……..the processes are completely controlled by the political leader and his oligarchy. Where is the party newspaper of C.L.R. James?”

Tony Fraser could have been writing about   St. Kitts.

And in relation to the Labour Party, he could have been asking: “Where is the party of Manchester, Sebastian, Challenger, John, Halbert, Solomon, Nathan, Bradshaw, France, Southwell and others?”

These prime minsters are not leaders; they are rulers. The governance of true leaders is premised on democracy, transparency, accountability and the rule of law. Rulers, on the other hand, do pretty much as they please, whether openly or furtively, and they are the law.

You will note what Mr. Fraser said also about the “fashioning of the national constitution” of Trinidad & Tobago. And he is correct. Caribbean constitutions do indeed seem to nurture dictatorships and oligarchies.

But that’s not all. These Caribbean emperors also behave as if they want even more power, and some have even launched attacks on our constitutions and placed undue pressure on our Courts.

It’s almost as if, having sucked up all of the power around them, given the vacuum created by any combination of weakness, sycophancy and fear among their hangers-on and colleagues, they have turned their predatory gaze upon the constitutions and the Courts, in their quests to be presidential, or to be president for life and, without saying so, to become the Caribbean’s latest version of Haiti’s diabolical Francois ‘Papa Doc’ Duvalier.

One thing is certain: under this kind of arrangement, our governments will be so heavily engaged in pursuing the ill-advised paths ordained by our emperors, so busy trying to effect costly damage control as a result, and so badly and broadly compromised, that they will never be able to successfully tackle the heavy issues that our countries face with regard to security, the economy, debt, education, health, the environment, energy, infrastructure, and so on.

In other words, Caribbean people under the rule of these emperors will always be short-changed.

But our emperors do not deserve all of the blame. Because, as the Mighty Sparrow said in song, it seems that “we like it so”. Our emperors do what they do because we allow them to. And we do so because we are getting something out of it, or because we are basking in the glow of our emperors, or because we have given up, probably quite afraid of the consequences of questioning and challenging.

And the more our emperors and their cabal of oligarchs are allowed to get away with, the more they laugh quietly at our foolishness and gullibility. But it seems that “we like it so”!

They fail to account to their parties in conference, while party treasurers resign in quiet protest. Yet instead of calling the emperors to account, we sit back and praise them while they laugh at us and rob us of our dignity.

Man, “we like it so”.

This is a situation in which the St. Kitts & Nevis Labour Party finds itself. Its members see no reason to demand a proper report on the Party’s accounts and financial activities. They don’t think that they need to know about Lex Consulting. They operate on the principle: We won’t ask, and he won’t tell.

That means that their emperor is sacrosanct in all that he says and does. And they feel that any criticism of him is nothing but a personal attack.

They “like it so”.

Until a couple of weeks ago, Trinidadians used to refer to the People’s National Movement (PNM) as the “Patrick National Movement”. Manning’s persona had outgrown and engulfed the part. He had become the party. And every criticism or question was brushed aside as a vicious and uncalled for personal attack by “people who just grudge de man”.

Do you think, that PNM supporters still “like it so”?

We never seem to learn from history, do we?

That is the same unquestioning, gullible, adoring, servile posture that was adopted by the people of Germany towards their ruler, Hitler; by the Italians towards Mussolini; by the poor masses of Haiti towards the diabolical Duvalier; by those persons who invested billions of dollars with Bernie Madoff and Allen Stanford. Until, in every single case, it became too late, and tragedy struck.

We in the Caribbean are indeed under serious threat from ourselves and from our prime ministers.

And only we can neutralize this threat. And not by a revolution, but by an awakening and a transformation.

The only hope for survival and success in our islands in the years to come is true democracy, with leaders whom we choose and whom we examine vigilantly on a daily basis, because democracy requires such vigilance.

So this ridiculous era of imperial rule in the Caribbean needs to be brought to an end. It has been going on since Columbus landed, and it still continues under Caribbean emperors. Shame on us!

This anachronism must be brought to an end by the people, constructively through relentless scrutiny, relentless questions and searching dialogue, and relentless pressure, all within the law. The people don’t have to wait for elections. Changes have to be made, and the top is the place to start.

A key role is also to be played by conscious and conscientious members of political parties who are strong enough to stand up for what is right, and who want to keep their parties relevant through the ages.

If there is no action, these two major threats, namely, ourselves and our prime ministers-emperors (and rulers of Opposition parties), could wreak more havoc on the region than the coming hurricanes, earthquakes and volcanoes.