By *Jomo Thomas
This week, we want to talk about the importance of change. We want to talk about the Friday difference. Last Tuesday, our country could have seen a different Friday. By simply listening to the public, including opposition voices, and delaying debate on significant changes to the Constitution and the Representation of the People’s Act, PM Friday took one giant step for democracy. Dr Friday is the anti-Ralph, and our country is better for that simple fact.
The opposition ULP celebrated the government’s decision to shelve the debate to allow for broader and more citizen involvement, discussion and debate as a weakness and its first victory in opposition. On the contrary, PM Friday’s simple decision to pause the legislative machinery signals strength. His wise move will go down in the annals of Vincentian politics as a brave, statesmanlike act that has the potential to unlock the doors of reason, thus releasing forces that take us away from the hardened, hyper-partisan nonsense that has passed for politics since independence.
To understand the gravity of Dr. Friday’s pivot, we must go back to the heady days of constitutional reform and the failed 2009 referendum. If the NDP and ULP had placed the nation’s interests ahead of their cravings for political power, the issue of dual citizenship would have been settled more than a decade ago.
The week before the ill-fated referendum vote, Plain Talk published under the banner, “We are about to fail ourselves”. The People’s Movement for Change (PMC), in a televised address to the nation after the failed vote, charged both the ULP and the NDP with sabotaging the constitutional process. Addressing the nation on behalf of the PMC, I accused the NDP of irresponsibility and confusion with its no-vote campaign.
Harsher in his criticism of the ULP, I said then, “If the opposition committed a capital offence, Gonsalves and his team are guilty of nothing short of political treason.” The PMC called on citizens to find ways to punish both parties for their failure to place the nation’s future over narrow partisan concerns.
The joint constitutional endeavour collapsed primarily over disagreement about the concept of inalienable rights in the constitution’s preamble and compensation for property compulsorily acquired by the state. The NDP wanted the words “market value” included. The arrogant Gonsalves refused because, as he said then, his government always offered a fair value. Lost in the word “mush” was that the Constitution belonged to the people and was, at its core, a document pregnant with compromise.
Keen observers knew that behind the bombast, rhetoric and excuses, the real reason for the collapse was that both parties had an unpatriotic eye on the electoral political clock. To save the time, effort, and resources spent over the previous six years leading up to the 2010 elections, the PMC proposed postponing the constitutional reform process until after the elections.
Back then, Gonsalves’ ULP had a massive 12/3 majority in Parliament. Concluding that the new constitution would give a fillip to his party’s 2010 election changes, Gonsalves pigheadedly set the referendum date for November 2009. He knew it was destined to fail, but wanted to use the referendum as a test of his political support. It failed massively.
Friday, with a tremendous amount of goodwill and political capital to his credit, could have used his whopping 14-1 majority to ram through his party’s opportunistic endeavours. He and his party chose not to divide the country further and alienate many independent, non-aligned citizens who concluded that the proposed amendment, intended as an insurance policy to protect PM Friday and Foreign Minister Bramble, was a bridge too far.
Such a reasoned approach to governance and democratic best practices by Dr. Friday’s NDP administration augurs well for our country. Many of us still remember Gonsalves’ dictatorial approach to governance like a bad dream. We recall his wickedly evil vaccine mandate, his punishment of legitimate dissent, his penchant to label opponents in the worst ways, his tendency to bend the law to suit his political ends, and his defence of the indefensible.
We hope and trust that NDP’s thoughtful act ushers in a new style of governance. We hope that it will completely withdraw the proposed law or truly change and strengthen it to ensure that, never again, on the absurd reading of the current constitution, someone from some distant commonwealth country doesn’t end up with more rights to participate in our country’s electoral system and governance than a committed, patriotic, born and bred Vincentian.
Computers, trust funds, and audit
If proven true, the news that computers at the consulate office in New York were “completely wiped” and that persons formerly in high positions at the SVG High Commission in the UK are refusing to turn over crucial information about a trust fund run by the office is alarming, to say the least.
Such disconcerting news underscores the need for urgent attention to all government agencies. The government has a responsibility to understand what occurred during the ULP’s tenure. The former government occupied the corridors of power for 9,011 days, a few days short of 25 years. That’s a lot of time for high government officials to engage in misfeasance and malfeasance. There were huge projects costing hundreds of millions of dollars. There were many loans and grants offered to fund the many institutions of government. Every effort should be made to get a clear and precise understanding of how every cent of the nation’s money was spent.
Already, we are hearing that money earmarked to fix people’s homes and public facilities was disbursed to contractors, presumably ULP party hacks, but not used for the prescribed purpose. Money from the National Lottery, PetroCaribe, the Port Authority, Argyle International Airport, and other agencies controlled by the former government was recklessly, some say criminally, misappropriated. All too many state institutions were turned into ATMs for the benefit of the recently ousted political elite.
Only a thorough investigation will quench the people’s thirst to know. Plain Talk has been consistently calling for forensic audits with the firm conviction that once they are done, many persons, including some high up in the political chain, will have a case to answer. Many may land in jail for their corrupt practices.
The time for more of the same has long passed.
*Jomo Sanga Thomas is a lawyer, journalist, social commentator and a former Speaker of the House of Assembly in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
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