It is only a jellyfish that comes into the world and passes off without anybody knowing it was here…make St. Kitts your Garden of Eden. If you don’t do it other men will do it for you. Your country can be no greater than yourselves…. -Marcus Garvey (Mutual Improvement Society Hall, St. Kitts, 2 November 1937).
He was so drunk in Antigua that he tried to board the wrong flight. He was so drunk when he returned here that he did not know where he was taken. He was so knocked out with liquor that he vomited like a whale, urinated like a dog, exposed himself like a jackass, and wallowed in his muck like a pig. -The Democrat, government paper at the time-view of the leader of the opposition (1982).
Six more days for PAM. Six more days for the first ever jackass Prime Minister in the world, for scavenger Powell, for rubbernose Morris and for the rest of that corrupt gang of vampires who have been sucking the life-blood of the people of St. Kitts for the past four and a half years. -The Labour Spokesman, opposition paper at the time-view of the government a week before the 1984 general election.
These are the epigraphs to the 1984 novel by Kittitian-born Caryl Phillips. The book is called “A State of Independence”, and is a coming of age story revolving around Bertram Francis, a young man from an island similar to St. Kitts.
Bertram does well in school as a boy and is granted a scholarship in England as a reward for his hard work and determination. Though he is somewhat reluctant to leave the sleepy and cozy land of his birth, he eventually boards a vessel bound for England and spends the next 10 years of his life overseas.
Bertram eventually returns after hearing news that his country will finally be discarding the shackles of the old colonial ways through Independence from Britain.
Upon returning to his home, Bertram finds his best friend (and former competitor for the England scholarship) Jackson Clayton to be a minister in the government of the day. Jackson is an arrogant, power hungry politician who forces his old friend [Bertram] to make an appointment just to visit him in his office.
As the book nears its climax, Bertram is speaking to Jackson and says that he would like to open a business on his home island. The good minister asks his old friend for a bribe, and when Bertram refuses, saying “nobody can stop [him]” from trying to live his life on the island, Jackson scoffs at him.
“You think you, a little raggedy-arse boy who leave all this time ago, really carrying any swing around here?...If I want to make it so you can’t have a business here I don’t even need to raise my voice, let alone pick up a telephone. I can make it so damn uncomfortable for you that you going be better off taking a walk up Black Rocks and pitching off your money into the sea,” Jackson snidely remarks.
Throughout the book, Jackson exploits his status in society to belittle his one-time-friend Bertram and exert his dominance. Ultimately, the question one must ask is if this is a work of fiction or the cuttingly true characterisation of many Caribbean politicians.
The war of Independence
“I used the quotes because I was appalled at the level of political discourse and the lack of sophistication that was utilised by those who (one imagined) should know better. The kind of personal pettiness and corruption that is depicted in the novel seemed to be a part of the present in the eighties in St. Kitts,” Phillips, who is now a Professor of English at Yale University, said of the scathing epigraphs he chose for his novel.
With Independence bearing down on a people so long prevented from governing their own destiny, why would political parties choose to be so divided from one another and use such vitriolic language to describe their fellow countrymen, who no doubt also craved the same emancipation from the colonial ways? Why engage in corrupt practices to keep a strangle hold on the power you have?
Leslie R. James, Director of the Black Studies at DePauw University, states in his essay, “The Bible and Decolonization in Post-World War II Caribbean Political Discourse”, that Caribbean politicians are driven by the notion of freedom, much in the same way that the Israelites were in their exodus from Egypt.
“Just as Israel’s vision of freedom emerged from Egyptian bondage, so did the vision of Caribbean autonomy proceed from the quest to transcend New World Slavery and colonialism.”
Furthermore, James says that the idea of breaking away from bondage remains a constant in Caribbean political rhetoric.
“Caribbean political rhetoric is a rhetoric of change. It is a subversive rhetoric, one that denounces the present social configuration and announces a new or alternative social framework. It is an emancipatory rhetoric, which announces the deliveries of Caribbean people from the entrapments of history and causes a shift in the colonial paradigm,” he states.
While it may be true that the idea of freedom is at the heart of many Caribbean political campaigns, is that enough to justify calling one’s countryman (or woman) a lying, cheating, fraudulent, scurrilous, godless, evil-doing, immature donkey/goat/snake/pig/horse’s ass who is only out to grab power and drive the country into the dirt in the quickest possible fashion?
Some things will never change
Phillips characterises Jackson as someone who is drawn to politics “by ability, by greed, and by ego”, but some may feel that he is justified in some of his action at the time of Independence. After all, a lot was at stake.
When one is laying the groundwork for an entire nation’s future, there must occasionally be some Machiavellian instances where “the ends justify the means”. Correct? In contrast, St. Kitts is now a modern society and has moved away from that kind of thinking to be a “free” society where justice prevails. Correct?
A recent edition of The Labour Spokesman refers to the party’s political opponents as “the black tainted massas of PAM”. The following week, The Democrat implied that the Prime Minister was at the heart of the crime epidemic that is grieving the nation by saying that “it is time to send a strong message that this society demands change from this epidemic of crime and violence beginning with the disgraceful Denzil Douglas”!
In the 25 years since Independence, it seems that the government and opposition parties have changed places, but the rhetoric and “ends justifies the means” attitude largely remains the same.
One of the nation’s most well-respected political analysts, Dr. Asyl Warner, even believes the situation to be worsening as the Federation moves into the 21st century.
“In terms of the political dialogue, St. Kitts has, since the late-70s or early-80s, unfortunately become so politically divided. I don’t like to use the word divided, but it is the best word for it. It is like there is a chasm between both parties, and it is only getting wider, perhaps because of political ambition for one party or another. Whatever it might be, the chasm is widening,” he said.
Warner explained that he believes Kittitians and Nevisians are caught on a wheel of petty political discourse that is rapidly gaining speed and pushing the parties even further away from a common ground rooted in the national motto “country above self”.
“We have been fed a constant diet of political hyperbole, of the political propaganda that we choose to use. And so, we are attracted to what we call the trappings of politics. The music, the food, the liquor, the dance, the entertainers and the rabid, guttural speech-somehow we begin to think that because we get this constant diet it is political development, but it isn’t.”
“Whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also.”
Matthew 5:39 is one of the most famous verses from the Bible, and yet the highly religious Caribbean tends to forget this important tenant upon the political platform.
The revolutionary 1789 autobiography of Olaudah Equiano, titled “The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African”, eloquently points out the hypocrisy of the Europeans’ allegedly Christian values in relation to the horrific atrocities committed in the slave trade. He asks white society how they can treat their fellow human beings so despicably if they are true believers in the unity preached by Jesus Christ. It is such a powerful argument that it is often considered one of the critical texts in the abolitionist movement.
Just over 200 years after the abolition of slavery in the British Empire, do the tenants of “be thy brother’s keeper” and “love thy neighbour as thyself” not also apply to the Caribbean political arena?
In more recent times, one only needs to look at the 2008 United States general elections to see what is possible when political propaganda and hate are put aside for real debate on real issues.
During the campaign, the now U.S. President Barack Obama could have brought a million curses upon his opponent, Senator John McCain, after the turbulent years of the George W. Bush administration. Instead, he chose to speak about health care, education and the economy.
McCain could have fed the fears of the religious right and questioned Obama’s ability to lead because of his ethnicity. Instead, when one of his staunch supporters at a town hall meeting incorrectly labelled Obama as “an Arab” (possibly implying him to be some sort of terrorist threat to the country), McCain rightly chose to tell his supporter she was wrong and should not spread lies about Obama. How many politicians in the Caribbean would do the same for their opponent?
Both Obama and McCain ran commendable campaigns based upon mutual respect and the belief that the American public would choose the best person for the job based on what was best for the country, not their individual parties.
The people of the Federation are just as intelligent as the people of the United States or any other country, so why should they not demand the same focus on message instead of persona from their own politicians?
More power than any politician
Dr. Warner believes that if the public demands more political debates and less party rallies from its politicians, the cycle of political propaganda may be broken and the chasm between the parties may be bridged.
“Political debates are a healthy exercise because it then forces the contenders for office to address issues. You can no longer address the personality, the person’s lifestyle, what the person did yesterday, who the person slept with-you must address issues.
“In debates you have to be realistic. In St. Kitts-Nevis, we have a highly politicised electorate, and I do believe very strongly that the electorate needs substance,” Warner said.
Just as a constant diet of fatty foods will eventually kill you by clogging your heart, a constant diet of political propaganda will kill a democracy by clogging the heart of true, intelligent debate.
“When you look at the polarisation, you look at the fear factor and you take all of these into consideration, you now begin to see why we have a society that is so politically maligned, and it is sad.
“We need leadership which is willing to chart a course and take us into another century. We don’t need the type of leadership that goes back 15 years and says, ‘oh, you did me this’. We don’t need that type of tit-for-tat leadership. We’re in an integrated world, and we need that type of leadership which would pull us up, not those who would divide,” Warner said.
As the general elections of St. Kitts-Nevis draw near, it is important for the electorate to ask themselves if they are more concerned with empty party slogans and personas or the issues that will be affecting their daily lives for the next five years.
Will “All 8” really create agricultural diversification and advance health practices? Will “The Wind of Change” really help children get overseas scholarships and reduce the national debt?
This election season, let the electorate demand that all of the politicians explain their plans for the country in the greatest detail, be they Labour, PAM, UNEP, NRP, CCM or any other party.
This election season, let the electorate prove that significant progress has been made since Independence and only the most capable, competent candidate in each constituency would be allowed to lead.
The beauty of democracy is that the voter is more powerful than any politician can ever hope to be. No party should be allowed to hold office based upon empty promises or what it has done in the past. The point of an election is for the parties to demonstrate how they will lead the country to prosperity if elected.
So, voters, demand that your politicians give you better, and they will have no choice but to do so if they have any hope of getting into office. Now is the time to start the diet of constant information and education.
