Last Updated on September 1, 2024 1:00 am by Editor
|Guest Editorial|
The last week of August 2024 found the Democratic Labour Party, one of the so-called established parties in Barbados, unravelling under the pressure of internal conflict.
The ruling BLP, the other so-called established party in Barbados, has had its share of dissension and factional fighting over the years but, to our recollection, not to the extent of having to call in the police to regain “constitutional order” at an annual conference. This is new low for a political party in Barbados.
The resignation from the party of several members, former senator, Irene Sandiford-Garner and Stacia Browne as well as the revocation of the senatorial appointment of Tricia Watson, are just a few of the sparks flying from the flames fanned by Ralph Thorne’s controversial defection from the ranks of the ruling BLP this year and his return to the largely unwelcoming fold of the DLP as political leader and opposition leader.
The developments above follow the expulsion earlier this month of Dr. Ronnie Yearwood and Steve Blackett, President and General Secretary respectfully of the DLP, in the wake of Throne’s elevation to the throne of political leader of the party which has had zero elected representatives in the parliament of Barbados since 2018.
There are those who argue that the 69-year old DLP is too important a fixture in the political landscape of Barbados to fail. Therefore, hope is enjoined that it will “settle down” as Second VP Walter Maloney has implored.
Telling Words
But this hope must be weighed against some telling words penned by Irene Sandiford-Garner regarding her resignation and statements made by Tricia Watson in response to her ungracious removal as a DLP senator after six months of quality service.
Together, both ladies have invoked two words that have become flashpoints for another democratic party in another place in the turbulent environment of a presidential election. These words are “principles” and “values”.
Sandiford-Garner put her position this way: “I serve organizations based on if their actions confirm with my principles” (Saturday Sun, August 31, p.5).
On the other hand, Ms. Watson made reference to “values” implying that the behaviours of the party suggested a change in values (whatever those were).
There is long-standing myth that a party’s constitution is identical with or at least, indicative of its values. Nothing could be further from the truth because important moral values are seldom stated in the legalistic language of a party constitution but understood to underlie the constitution and party practices as well as stem from the society in which it exists. But that is another subject for another time.
Identity Politics
Ms. Watson also used the interesting term, “worldview” in reference to Mr. Thorne’s stated preference to have “a younger man to a woman in her fifties” in the Senate (Saturday Sun, August 31, p.5)
Those who are following the ideological developments in the world beyond these 166 square miles understand quite well that Mr. Thorne and the “new” DLP are invoking, deliberately or otherwise, the concept of “identity politics”.
The expression, “identity politics”, means that people are perceived to have or are assigned importance, power and/or opportunity based on their gender, race, age, religious or other identity or distinctiveness instead of merit and performance.
In the USA, identity politics has been coded into public policy as DEI: Diversity- Equity – Inclusion, a policy framework that has virtually put merit and performance out of business, pun intended.
Identity politics works hand-in-hand with the wokeness and cancel culture that are spreading across the world like the conflagration Mr. Thorne has sparked in the DLP. In identity politics, if your identity is not valued, then you get cancelled.
If we interpret Ms. Watson’s fall from grace through this lens of identity politics, the analysis is simple: having devalued her age and gender, Mr. Thorne has “cancelled” Ms. Watson from the Senate and inserted the “younger” male Andre Worrell in her position. That is how identity politics works.
If our analysis is correct, what we are looking at then is an emerging, woke DLP. No wonder it has little respect for law, order and constitutionality. In essence, it is becoming a copycat of its namesake party in the USA especially now in the run up to the election of the 47th president of the USA.
Quid Pro Quo?
Of course, there is a parallel explanation for Mr. Thorne’s holding out the senatorial sceptre to Mr. Worrell. Reading between the lines, that explanation inheres in the background horse-trading that probably occurred between Mr. Worrell and Mr. Thorne.
In other words, this may be nothing more than a quid pro quo or a you-scratch-my-back-I- scratch-yours transaction; Mr. Worrell is, after all, the Acting President of the DLP and Mr. Thorne will need his support to weather the internal conflict in the party and cement his political leadership.
A third alternative explanation is that it may be a bit of both of the above interpretations. In which case, the 64 million dollar question is this: are we beginning to see the “real” Mr. Thorne emerge?
Going Forward
While all of this is going on, Mr. Thorne wants to give us the impression that he is still sticking to his guns by highlighting the state of the economy and crime. We can accept that.
But the focus on the cost of living and crime may not be enough to sustain interest in Thorne and his DLP because more Barbadians are becoming aware of the global issues and threats we are facing or will face sooner rather than later. The DLP is nowhere close to focusing on these crucial issues.
In the meantime, the ruling BLP is busy replacing Mr. Thorne as a candidate for the Christ Church South in the next election, a move they had begun before his defection. Will Mr. Thorne be the DLP’s candidate in that constituency or will he be shunted to another constituency? What are the chances he will retain a seat in the parliament?
It is a big gamble and he can only win under certain conditions which we will not discuss since we are not the DLP’s consultants.
We find ourselves, therefore, back to square one; that is, the need to deal with the fundamental issues in our country as raised in our March 25 article, Beyond the Cathartic of Thorne’s Intervention available here. In two years or less there will be a general election. Will the DLP be ready for that election or will they be out in the cold for a third time?
From our perspective, it would seem that a lot more of the old guard may have to be jettisoned from the DLP before it can do penance for its misdeeds while in office and begin to focus on the hard issues such as the looming international financial crisis, the national debt and the vexed problem of our outdated political system that we addressed in our March article.
