Sorry, but once again I shall defer dealing with the now contentious issue of immigration and more importantly migration, as it relates to the enunciated policies of this Democratic Labour Party administration.
I suspect that when the dust has settled and all the facts have come to light, the person who will be credited for having broached the critical point worthy of focus in this entire debate, will be businessman, Ralph “Bizzy” Williams. He apparently saw through the shenanigans and alluded to the real issue about which Barbadians should be fearful.
I seem to believe that sooner, rather than later, the real sinister plot of those who contrived and facilitated mass, unchecked migration in Barbados will be uncovered. Timing is critical to everything and I somehow believe that there will be ample evidence, when the time comes, to prove the absence of naivety and the existence of a plot to “teach Bajan voters a lesson”.
I will say no more at this stage. What I will do, however, is share two recent experiences, in sister Caribbean states, upon which Barbadian voters should ponder.
Recently in the Cayman Islands, there was a change of government. An administration elected four years ago, with more than 65 per cent of the popular vote, went under to the party it defeated back then; losing critical support in its key voting district. Political scientists will attribute that loss to the impact of the current economic decline, disconnect of elected Members from their constituents, misplaced policy and project priorities and such like.
The dots that serious political thinkers are however beginning to connect pertain to the granting of “Status” (remember it’s a British Overseas Territory) to some 4, 000 mostly undocumented and majority Jamaican residents a few weeks before the 2005 general election and the fall out that the new governing party would have suffered as a result of its opposition to that move. Those “new Caymanians” could not vote in the 2005 election but several definitely could and did exercise their franchise in the 2009 election. The rest, as the saying goes, is history.
There is another Caribbean country where persons only need to arrive and reside for three years and they automatically can register to vote. Even without “permanent status” they are entitled to vote. This situation, I am aware, was exploited to the fullest by one governing party in successive elections until the challenger got wise and proclaimed a few days before an election, that should it be successful, it would regularize the residence or citizenship status of all these persons. Well which party do you think won that election?
I will not say much more on this issue at this time, because I need for the monkey to climb a bit higher before I expose his rear. Those latter day Pontius Pilates, with supposedly clean, innocent hands, can continue to believe that only they have brain and intelligence, and that because, like the proverbial ostrich, their heads are buried in the sand, their sinister plot has not been unravelled.
Of course, when the facts come to light, she, who is now in charge, will say “oh, I knew nothing about that. That is yet another example of how he handled these matters, without any of us knowing”. In turn, “he” will deliver one of his predictable broadsides against this writer and quietly claim that “she” was part of the plot and was actually given full responsibility for its implementation.
My advice to innocent and unsuspecting observers is ‘stay tuned’, for the worse of this sordid mess has not been revealed. This current debate has less to do with the thousands of Caribbean nationals who have made Barbados their temporary home and who, in large measure are contributing to the social and economic development of Barbados. It would do well for persons to recall that hours after the now-distorted Amnesty Statement was made, spokespersons for the nationality considered most affected, hailed the measure as the greatest thing since slice bread. Political operatives here in Barbados and their allies abroad put their spin on the matter, and ‘all hell broke loose thereafter’.
Emotions in Barbados are running high because the plotters have sought to divert attention from the real sinister plot. Overseas based Barbadians should not jump to conclusions and rush to error on this issue. There are sound arguments relative the social, economic and cultural impact of mass, undocumented and unchecked migration. But in this emerging controversy, there is more in the mortar than the pestle.
What I would say at this point is that Barbadians changed more than a government on January 15th, 2008. Evidence in hand suggests they rescued a nation from the claws and clutches of a modern day version of Burnham or Duvalier. If one does not understand the analogy then tune into CNN tonight and follow unfolding developments in Tehran.
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