Submitted by William Skinner
As we continue to grapple with the floundering of the Democratic Labour Party and the blundering of the Barbados Labour Party, the collision of hypocrisy with reality stares us in the face. The inescapable truths are now haunting the apologists and desperate assortment of political henchmen and women, who never put Barbados before George or Roebuck Streets.
Mia Motley is being politically slaughtered by Owen Arthur because he is teaching her the age old truth: you cannot run with the hare and hunt with the hound. Arthur is bitter because he is confronting the harsh reality that his so-called economic management has in reality left the country no better off than he found it. He did not transform the society; he merely managed it competently and that is no great legacy to leave. Transformation is what both Grantley Adams and Errol Barrow achieved. Arthur will never and can never be seriously elevated to such heights. To put it mildly: Arthur became a ruthless self centered politician and conned the unsuspecting into believing that there was something called inclusion when in fact we all know it was nothing more than seduction and the opportunistic machinations of a frustrated group of young DLP politicians , who just did not want David Thompson to become Prime Minister of Barbados. He also easily seduced most of the rising talent that had emerged from within the ranks of the National Democratic Party.
Having squandered the chance to reclaim the government in 2013, Arthur on the night of the election made it known that he honestly believed that his chance for a second bite at the pie of power was sabotaged from within the ranks of his own party.
We are clear in our minds that he blames Mia Mottley for this. How can a candidate be accused or believed to have deployed resources and operatives to defeat his or her own party’s candidates and then expect to be given a clear path to Illaro Court?
On the Democratic Labour Party side, Stuart is confronting the reality that there is method to Estwick’s madness. Estwick had some scores to settle with Thompson and they had a lot to do with the same wrangling within the Democratic Labour Party by the group that wanted to destroy Thompson. Estwick cannot deny that he was more than familiar with some of Thompson’s arch enemies. His vengeance was always there. Had Thompson been still around Estwick’s rampage would have been more pronounced. Like Mascoll, Estwick is learning that it is really impossible to “deal” with Thompson now and there must be a valve to ease such a huge disappointment. Mascoll is left to re write the same column every week and Estwick allows his political mouth to foam whenever the pressure of disappointment becomes psychologically over bearing.
The rank and file of both parties is now politically dazed. The gravy train has suddenly stopped and the jobs that were there for the asking and taking have all but disappeared and they have disappeared for ever. Those who enjoyed fourteen years in the limelight are now confronted by the harsh truth that their days of easy living are over. They know on both sides that “being in opposition is not easy”. The Democratic Labour Party opportunists are learning that it is perhaps better, in our system of politics, to be in opposition than in a government with an essentially broke treasury! Both sides are feeling it. One is powerless and the other is broke.
The Prime Minister who all the pundits wrote off from day one is reaping sweet revenge! He has ignored them and they are restless. What Stuart has decided is that the Nation newspaper’s shareholders are not going to have their bottom lines increased by him. His Charlie Chaplin approach has been effective in that his critics have been forced to actually beg him to say something. He has elected wise or unwisely to treat them with contempt.
Mr. Sinkler, the Minister of Fine Ants is now talking about germs. He has failed to eradicate the germs that have infected the economy. It is obvious that Mottley has failed to eradicate the germs that have infected her leadership efforts.
Germs are in both houses.
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