#BTColumn – Is there Moore to all the fuss?

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

by Michael Rudder

As I sit to write I glance to my right and I see pictures of my father, my aunt and my daughter hanging on the wall. Those pictures represent three wonderful souls. They each made their contribution to their place of work and so to this country.

The presence of those pictures aroused in me a query, actually a number of queries, and they are about people who give service to this country.

First, do we laud them because they provide a good photo op?

Second do we also not expect them to offer critical or full support, as appropriate, of any proposal or programme on which they have to give an opinion?

Third, must those who always point their index finger at others forget that three fingers are pointing back at them?

These and many other questions come to mind when I hear and see stringent comment, sometimes bordering on virulent directed at the General Secretary of the Barbados Workers’  Union, Ms. Toni Moore, who recently accepted to be the candidate in a by-election for the Barbados Labour Party for the constituency of St. George North.

A question was asked whether Ms. Moore, who serves in the Senate at the pleasure of the Governor General (GG), had apprised her of any political party affiliation?

I don’t believe that the GG would ask any person whom she wished to nominate for a Senate seat about their political party affiliation.

I am sure that she would have assessed their independent points of view or be certain of their commitment to the organisation(s) they represent.

I would want to believe that all the persons she has nominated would have voted in an election in Barbados for one party or the other at some time, as is their right.

Whether Ms. Moore has fulfilled the requirements of the Party’s constitution to be an acceptable candidate is a matter for the Party.

As far as her place in the Senate is concerned the GG now has no need to enquire of Ms. Moore’s affiliation.

It is public.

What, however, is disquieting to me is whether these attacks on the General Secretary are more stringent, consciously or unconsciously, because it’s a female officer of the union.

I don’t recall any such strong negative points of view of the male officers when they previously became candidates and subsequently representatives.

Would her attackers prefer that she be just a picture and not a political advocate as well as a trade unionist?