A leader who lies to his followers doesn’t deserve their trust, loyalty or respect. He doesn’t deserve to be their leader. And if he lies, not once, not twice, not thrice, but time and time and time again for eighteen years, then he’s courting confusion.
His lies will confuse the people. And that’s a bad thing.
But one day, most of the people will start seeing the light, and their confusion will turn into insight. And as that happens, the leader’s confusion will increase, which is a sure-shot signal that his end is nigh.
However, it’s in that final stage of his leadership that there’s the most danger, because he’ll be deluded into believing that his own selfish survival is tantamount to, or even more important than, the people’s best interests. He’ll want to stay.
And he’ll be reinforced by self-serving hangers-on who see him as their meal ticket and their source of validation, which will only make things worse for the people of the nation, because he’ll become even more reckless, more off-the-wall in his word and deed, and more confused.
And from all of that, the country can be thrown into confusion and chaos.
Remember the saying: “Those who the gods will destroy, they first make them mad”. And a man already in power, and madly obsessed with it, can cause great damage to a people.
Mercifully, the people, in their own vital interest and with a totally clear mind, often step up to the plate to kick out the leader.
And that’s what’s happening in our Federation right now, although the people have not acted in an extreme manner. And hopefully they won’t. But much of what happens going forward will depend on Denzil Douglas. If he doesn’t get his act together and walk away, he could push the people over the top.
Yet with all of that, there’s little to suggest that he wants to do the right thing. His power-hunger and confusion are blinding him to the pain and embarrassment which he’s inflicting on the people, and to the deplorable legacy which he’s laying down for himself.
He’s just not listening. Professor Neville Duncan of Jamaica told him last year that he had lost the support of the people and urged him to stand down. And how did he respond? He said that he’d rather die than stand down.
Meanwhile, a poll done for him recently has brought him great discomfort. And apart from his migraine headaches from the reality on the ground in Constituencies 1,2,7 and 8, he’s having second and third thoughts about candidate choices in Constituency 3, while, only a week ago, a focus group was conducted in Constituency 4 to help determine whether the incumbent ought to be removed.
Small wonder he’s so desperate to get the Budget passed so that the pork barrel that can flow from it might recover some support for him. Plus, he’s also eyeing boundary changes in some constituencies. All of this as he buys time, illegitimately, to duck and hide from the No Confidence Motion which everybody knows would topple his Government.
He has a mortal fear of losing power. That fear was manifested just days ago at a meeting in Frigate Bay of Party activists to discuss the upcoming election when he allegedly said that he couldn’t afford to lose the Government.
Meanwhile, everybody can attest to the increased numbers of heavily armed security personnel accompanying him at his town-hall meetings.
Plus, the Police recently received over 200 sets of riot gear.
And we’re hearing that certain young men have been asked to intimidate and suppress people, in order to maintain the status quo.
Are these measures intended to avoid confusion or to cause it? Can any right-minded person support measures which are intended to, or which, in effect, intimidate and suppress a people and maintain an unjust status quo?
The people of this country want electoral reform, fixed date elections, term limits for leaders, integrity and freedom of information legislation (properly implemented and administered, of course), a proper national health scheme (which we’re only now hearing about) and pension scheme, transparency, good governance, a proper democratic system in which elected persons are no longer marginalized, and a humble, well behaved, and unifying leader. They want back their land, and they want their money that’s in the SIDF.
And Professor Duncan was right. The people no longer want Douglas. All of the empirical and other evidence shows that.
He has only a 30% favorability rating among voters in this country, and about 70% of the voters want him out, they want a new leader, and they want a new kind of politics, under a coalition Government which will heal the nation’s wounds and unify the people.
This is what the voters residing in the Federation want. And any person, whether living at home or overseas, who acts to frustrate the will of the people living on this land, and to increase their anguish, will have to take the blame if, God forbid, the people decide to take it to an extreme level.
And it needs to be understood, as history has time and again shown, that no amount of pork barrel, boundary changes, candidate changes, PEP, electoral gymnastics, intimidation or riot gear can stop an idea whose time has come, or a people who have righteously chosen to stand in their own cause.
Nothing can stop a people whose minds are cleared of confusion, and who’re driven by personal and national pride and dignity and by the fear of the consequences of doing nothing to end the reign of a confused and errant leader.
Seventy percent of them say Douglas must go, and that’s the end of it: he has to go! And it’s people power, and not firepower, that will win the day here.
Indeed, there’s no way that the firepower which is owned by the people and which sits in the hands of national security personnel can or will be turned against the people in their righteous pursuit of liberty, democracy and happiness.
That’s not going to happen.
The people mean Douglas no harm. They just want him to go, and to go peacefully, and like a man. They want a new leader. And everybody, including Douglas and his little gang, must respect that.
Avoid the confusion.
