#BTSpeakingOut – Sheep will still sing: How great thou art

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the author(s) do not represent the official position of Barbados TODAY.

by Roderick P. Harris

I read with great disdain early this morning a story penned by your journalist Anesta Henry, in which she reported that two of the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) candidates in the January general election will now be facing disciplinary charges.

To add insult to injury, the powers that be are sending them on six-months leave where they will only receive half of their salary. But could this be in 2022 and yet Bajan sheep will stay silent as they are led to the slaughter?

First it was nurses opposing the current regime’s handling of their plight that got their pay docked, now we are on to teachers who hold opposing political views and seek to represent their country at the national level.

Then people fool themselves that we are not in an oppressive or dictatorial time? Whenever the word dictatorial is used people think of the era of Hitler, Stalin, et al. But there are varying degrees of dictatorship. There are varying degrees of oppression. Things can be done overtly or covertly. Mind games or the silencing of critics are also the tools of oppression.

Democracy is NOT alive and well in Barbados. In Bim, “who the cat likes he licks, who he dislikes he kicks”.

As reported by your newspaper, the charges laid against the two goodly teachers, Alwyn Babb, who ran in St Peter and former BUT leader Pedro Shepherd, who ran in St Michael South East, are apparently rooted in General Order 3.18.1 of the General Orders for the Public Service 1970 which states that officers and employees are expressly forbidden to participate actively in politics, including the following:

(a) Being adopted as a parliamentary candidate;

(b) Canvassing on behalf of any party or candidate for election to the House of Assembly;

(c) Acting as agents or sub-agents for any candidate for election;

(d) Holding office in party political organisations; and

(e) Speaking at political meetings.

A few silly questions I have to ask: Were there no public servants speaking on the platform of the Barbados Labour Party? Were there no public servants canvassing for the BLP? Were there no public officers whose voices were used in Ads or on the platform? Were there no public servants who were not on their respective jobs but working day in and day out for the BLP? The public needs answers from this so-called “transparent and anti-corrupt” Government.

There is a video clip making rounds that shows a rather rotund woman speaking on the BLP platform during the January general election campaign comparing the two political parties to homes. She reportedly worked in the public service then and continues to do so now. Is it that one can be a public servant and take part in a general election but one must belong to the party that wins to avoid sanction?

As cantankerous and distasteful as the woman sounds, that is not the argument here. Are charges being laid against her? Are charges being laid against the many public servants who did the BLP’s bidding publicly? I understand there is one schoolteacher who was an election agent for a Government minister. Is she immune to the rules?

I will be the first to admit that the law which prohibits a large portion of the population – public workers – from being involved in general elections, is archaic and must be revisited. But what is good for the goose must be good for the gander. This constant show of two Barbadoses is disturbing and no administration has perpetuated this more than the current lot. And Bajans accept it like sheep.

There is to be no opposing this motley crew. There is to be no standing up to this motley group. There is to be no alternative to this motley band. There is to be no showing up of errors or flaws in this motley bunch. Any attempt to sing from a different hymn sheet is done at the risk of possible victimisation.

Both Babb and Shepherd lost and by thousands of votes. Their party has no seat in or out of parliament. Neither pose a political threat to anyone. But someone, somewhere, believes that they must be punished while others
go unpunished.

The Government of the day continues to wield its might but what saddens and irks me most are the sheep who follow blindly. The sheep who stay on the sideline and chant: “Best Government ever; well done, great job!”

The sheep who sing in unison: “How great thou art” while another section of the society continues to smell hell and be victimised at every turn whether publicly or privately.