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by David Brathwaite
As I was reflecting on the just concluded general election, it suddenly dawned on me like a bolt of lightning, the extent to which Prime Minister Mottley has been light years ahead of all of us. She has been playing multidimensional chess, while we were playing Snakes and Ladders.
There has been a lot of talk about our transition to Republican status, with the main argument being that there was no consultation, though the issue has been debated for decades, agreed upon in public consultations, and determined to be the way forward by both major political parties. It just needed to be done.
To make sure that there would never be a jot or comma in the history books about our Republic, she held the ultimate referendum just seven weeks after the transition and received a resounding endorsement from the electorate.
This must silence the critics who were trying to create disquiet and discord over something that was simply a necessary step in our evolution as a nation. If there had been any real dissent on the issue of the republic, the result of the election would have been quite different.
It might have been her plan all along to have a validating election immediately following the transition to Republican status, or maybe she did not anticipate the political disquiet that arose or that was fomented by her opponents, and she therefore had to respond. Either way, we won’t know unless she chooses to give us that insight into her thinking.
Nevertheless, any student of history can appreciate that the risk she undertook in calling the election benefits the longterm honour of the Republic of Barbados.
Another viewpoint would be that she wanted to safeguard her legacy and not have this signal achievement of hers forever tainted by controversy. But the two goals need not be mutually exclusive.
Having settled that potentially destabilising issue, she and her government can now get ahead with confronting the multiple challenges and opportunities that must be resolved in the first decades of the new republic.
Well played, Madam Prime Minister, well played!
Our children and grandchildren will thank and praise you for your historical foresight.
