#BTColumn – Not singing in PM Mottley’s choir

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by this author are their own and do not represent the official position of the Barbados Today.

by Dr Derek Alleyne

Trying to respond to transgressions of this government has placed me on the bad list of some of my BLP friends. Of course that is not a problem but it made me aware of the extent to which loyalty to Prime Minister Mia Mottley or in fact keeping in line has become the reality of many Barbadians.

The recent complaints about the COVID-19 situation increased my concern for the nature of contemporary politics in Barbados.

Even when a matter was sufficiently troubling to men and women of some national significance, the need to remind people in general and Mottley in particular of their loyalty became quite evident and worrisome.

One cannot help but return to the Owen Arthur’s warning about investing in Mia Mottley. The warning did not only come from Arthur but was also given by other BLP members including George Payne, Gline Clarke and Dale Marshall who spoke with their feet in 2010.

Barbadians may wish to ignore the charges made by former Prime Minister Stuart and members of the DLP on the basis of the impressions transmitted by weak apologetic media personnel and an upper class that thrives on indirect control of the political machinery.

Stuart and his team did join Arthur in his warning of the kind of personality that hid behind the sweet-sounding phrases and clichés but alas a gullible electorate and a dependent group of BLP operatives gave way to the guile and veneer of the motley band, driven by a well paid advertising and political propaganda team.

Mottley gave Barbadians a glimpse of her disposition in her “all big things come through me” speech in St. George.

It has often been advanced that people get the leader and the baggage they want often to the detriment of the needs of the society.

Sometime last year former member of the Barbados Labour Party (BLP and cabinet minister in the Owen Arthur administration Anthony Wood resigned from the BLP and told the nation that the values and morals that govern his life did not allow him to remain associated with that party in its present disposition.

His announcement was instructive since it was on a charge of mismanagement and corruption that he led the onslaught against the Stuart-led administration.

The Mottley apologists seized the St, George North by-election to accuse Wood of crying sour grapes and of reacting to his omission from the Mottley Cabinet.

There was no need to respond to those accusations since inclusion in that Cabinet appears to be a signal of blind loyalty and condescension to one-upmanship.

Mottley has been able to corral around her an ensemble of followers driven by their self-interests and drawn to her by the promise of delivery.

The selection of the Cabinet, Boards, Committees, Consultancies provide ample proof that service to the nation comes through the Mottley tag and that the association remains personal.

Udogo in an article entitled “The issue of political leadership in the Third World: What is to be done” explained: “Third World nations continue to elect, select or appoint ineffective and selfish leaders, thus bad governance and ssociated problems of political instability, social malaise, corruption, lack of accountability, and transparency will persist in the developing nations.”

He went on to suggest ethnically diverse cabinets and quoting the Mombasa Manifesto noted good leaders provide their citizens with a sense of belonging to a national enterprise of which everyone can be proud. They knit rather than unravel their nations and seek to be remembered for how they have bettered the real lives of the governed rather than the fortunes of the few.

In Barbados decision-making at the highest level remains driven by the impact outcomes have on Mottley and her image and not on the national good.

The pandemic crisis facing Barbados is the current manifestation of the dangers of megalomaniac leadership and the extent to which a docile citizenry can create demagogues and despots.

My exposure to singing in a choir was shortened not because at 12 years I did not have the voice but playing cricket and football were more enticing than hitting notes dressed in angelic frocks.

As a consequence being part of the Mottley entourage has never excited this Black Rock boy who enjoyed good and lasting friendship with Michael Wood brother of Anthony. We were schooled at the institute on the Hill, where former Prime Minister Stuart was taught the same values of honesty, good manners, and service beyond self.

I opt to join those brave soldiers committed to building character, discipline, respect for human value and nationalism and remain buoyant in the belief that good will always trump evil even if it takes longer than we want.

Dr Derek Alleyne is a trade unionist, social commentator and member of the Democratic Labour Party.