Ideally,
a nation is expected to “fight for” not “fight against” her “freedom”; therefore, was
something intrinsically wrong with the twin-peaked Helen of the West (the island who is now renowned as the
Land of Nobel Laureates) when she “fought against” her freedom from
colonialism in 1979?
Was it unfortunate
that Helen attained her political
freedom from Britain under a massive cloud of
industrial unrest? Was it true that the electorate was genuinely pitted against "freedom" to the point that three months after its historic
achievement, the heroic “Father of the Nation” who led us into it was booted
out of power with a vengeance by a margin of 12-5.
As
untenable -
and as unlikely - as
the electoral loss by a margin of 12-5 was, it seemed to have signalled the
beginning of the end of an infinite, unfolding “anathema” in a finite time
and space.
At
the height of SLP’s electoral
euphoria, the news of a “secret pact” between the new Prime Minister (Sir Allen
Louisy) and his magnetic deputy (George Odlum) surfaced
and exploded like an IED when the former (who was a former High Court
Judge) refused to relinquish the prime minister-ship resulting in a crescendo of
national chaos.
The
Government of the SLP eventually "self-destructed" and three years
later in 1982,
fresh elections were held resulting in the easy return to power by the Father
of the Nation for another 15 years.
Despite
all the irreversible
chaos that characterized the reign of the SLP between 1979 - 82, it was believed that workers (especially
Public Service workers) made
unparalleled gains by way of better salaries
and improved
conditions of work.
There
are parallelisms and lessons in 2014/15 which suggest we may have gone full
circle.
Firstly,
the deep divisions that characterised the SLP government now seem to be
haunting the opposition UWP, seemingly exerting a greater “centripetal push”
than “gravitational pull” on members and supporters.
Since
Stephenson King was ousted as political leader, a series of major “fault lines”
has emerged and continued to fracture the UWP causing apparently irreversible
displacement from its central axis. Hence, stalwarts like ex-prime Minister Hon
King and Mr Michael Floyd; indomitable dynamos like ex-minister of Housing, Hon
Richard Frederick; thinkers with proven intellectual expertise like Dr Preville
and now even the women like the Catherine Sealy are all pushed to the periphery
by Chastanet’s centripetal force.
Secondly,
trade unionism (this time the CSA) is in the limelight again. The CSA which was
an overwhelming force on the battlefront in 1979 is now subject to
self-destructing “anathema”. The politics which seemingly empowered the
organisation in 1979 is now haunting it and threatening to bring it to its
knees - thanks a fatal political miscalculation by its president to join the
UWP and become a senator.
Let’s
not deceive ourselves: invariably, there has been strategic alliances between
the Unions and Political parties. However, thirty six years after Independence,
Mary Isaac (by her acceptance of a senatorial appointment) took a crazy
political quantum leap resulting in the crystallisation of the historically
“strategic alliance” between a trade union and political party into a public
love affair with the UWP.
The
intensity of the dissensus among the rank and file CSA membership caused by
Mary’s senatorial quantum leap in 2014, perhaps approaches the intensity of the
national strife between the Unions and the government in 1979, if not greater.
As
drowning Mary strives to clutch at a straw using a counter-petition designed to
breathe fresh life into her presidency, the fault lines which characterise the
UWP seems also to be rocking the CSA with Mary being the epicentre. The CSA is riddled
with problems and issues and Senator Mary and her executive are apparently the
two prime ones.
Mary’s tenacity may well not only hurt her; but
equally her party. Her actions are providing boundless energy and ammunition to
her distractors and not helping the cause of her party. The Labour Party must
have completed the an effective and comprehensive campaign dossier on her and
despite her contrived “testicular fortitude”, she has not shown that she has the
right hormones to guide and sustain her intellect in a political death bull
fight with the SLP.
Unlike her predecessors like Calixte George, David
Demacque and Raphael Kingsley St. Hill, Mary amply demonstrated that she is not
much of a thinker; but more of a “grabber”, (grabbing a senator position,
acting as General Secretary while president, etc). At the rate she is going, it's
a matter of time before she begins to contend with her own self-destruction.
The
outcome of the CSA meeting today was predictable; and it will be the outcome which will finally
nail Mary on the Cross.
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