DISCLAIMER: All views and claims expressed in this article belong solely to the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Dominica News Online.
The resignation of Olive Strachan as the President of the DAIC has almost gone unnoticed. In a country where the media barely functions as an organ of examination, that is no surprise. At a time where Dominican social media is heavily skewed towards a particular narrative Olive Strachan was a casualty of ‘oh well’.
It is important to show why this resignation is a significant story and sign of the times, and indeed a clear display of old style plantation politics.
First let us start with the Dominica Business Forum. What is it really ? It isn’t a Business organization. It may present itself as one, but the Business Forum might more accurately be named “The Dominica Pressure Group”. That is essentially what it is (and that would not be a problem if it stated it outright). It has never released or put forward any business policy paper or even attempted to guide Government policy on business with credible white papers. It has attempted to present itself as ‘civic organizations’ appearing to represent the consensus of people within and outside the country.
The DAIC is different. Regionally and internationally the Chamber of Commerce tends to be taken seriously. Therefore the idea of a politically agnostic Chamber or, even one which works with Government, is seen as something of a cardinal offense in Dominica.
This is actually the standard globally, but maybe Dominica is extraordinary.
Olive Strachan is well known to be an accomplished and well respected leader, both on a regional and international stage. She was named in the top 100 black women business leaders in Northern England and she was granted an MBE in the Queen of England Birthday Honors List of 2018. Readers can google her name for more.
I don’t know of any local business leader with her credentials as recent DAIC President, though in our culture and country, there are some who matter more than others in deciding who is credible and who isn’t.
In the last few weeks, the Dominica Business Forum, issued a letter, jointly with businessman Gregor Nassief, which was addressed to a number of regional and international bodies, lobbying for support for a 3 month extension to the voting confirmation deadline. The DAIC did not join in and for this, businessman Yvor Nassief, the brother of Gregor Nassief, signaled his dissatisfaction. It is this dissatisfaction, backed by a named faction within the board, which led to Mr Nassiefs resignation from the Board.
This is reminiscent of a well known move in chess called a ‘sacrifice’, where a player gives up a piece to gain tactical or positional advantage. By resigning and stating his displeasure at Ms Strachan for not acting to his and his groups’ wishes in a supposedly indecisive DAIC, Mr Nassief forced the resignation of Olive Strachan.
As a seasoned professional she would have seen the letter penned by Yvor Nassief and noted his resignation as a sign of a lack of confidence in her leadership. Ultimately though, her resignation was the most professional act in the whole saga.
But what advantage was gained ? Mr Nassief (and Mr Nassief) and their group surely knew that under the rules of the DAIC that the vice president would immediately be elevated to president after the resignation of Ms Strachan.
The subject of the elevation is the GM of Tropical Shipping, a company which is in Dominica coincidentally operated by Archipelago Trading, a company owned by Yvor Nassief.
A simple question. Having seen the effect of Yvor Nassiefs reaction to Ms Strachans’ reluctance to allow the DAIC to issue a statement in conjunction with the DBF and his brother Gregor Nassief, does anyone believe that someone his company has influence over would hold out against the same or any other intent ? Does anyone really believe that this whole debacle is a coincidence ?
Forget about the conflict of interests, far less the so called good governance and transparency hypocrisy. Think about the thought process that went into deposing a functioning black woman leader with an excellent CV and reputation with little or no fanfare from the usual social justice warriors. It was that easy, and no one has raised an eyebrow.
And here lies the rub. The so called ‘intellectual class’ in Dominica are extremely fearful of any real criticism or examination of the more powerful elements of the business community. Government gets criticized every day without fail as they should be when warranted and I can imagine a leader of same stature being railroaded by Government would meet criticism (and rightly so) for being a power play. But to critique the group involved in this particular brand of power incest is beyond most people.
And that’s the real story here.
Olive Strachan was quite frankly hung out to dry and not one Dominican has come out in the public domain for her.
As a recommendation, the entire Board of the DAIC should in my opinion resign, and a special AGM be called to elect a new Board. It may be that the very same people will win the representation of the DAIC membership. Having said that, it would at least ease the implication that a small group of people could conspire to force a sitting President to resign to fast forward someone managing one of ‘their’ companies, to become President of the DAIC ahead of time.
Of course, in the plantation, life will go on, but there are many international and regional observers watching and it could relegate the DAIC voice mute and impotent, counterproductive to the aim of this whole smash and grab.
Lastly it is very important that organisations like the DAIC and DHTA and others are seen to not be under the control of a few powerful business people in the society who may or may not have agendas, especially when their voices can be amplified during the political season. The result they may be trying to conjure may end up stunted and create a blowback that damages more than respected professionals like Olive Strachan.
Happy Independence Dominica. Maybe.
The author Kenneth Green is former President of the Dominica Chamber of Commerce and former Board member of the IN+ Icom Ad Agency Network, the largest of its type in the world.
