Newly elected president of the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) Dr Ronnie Yearwood has pledged to unite competing factions within the political organisation, as he attempts to lead the development of a viable alternative to the government of the day.
In an extended interview with Barbados TODAY, the University of the West Indies (UWI) law lecturer dismissed pundits who have questioned his groundings within the party and the extent to which he can fill the role of political leader, while carrying out the administrative functions associated with the role of president.
With the ink barely dry on Yearwood’s victory on Sunday, political scientist Dr George Belle and analyst Devaron Bruce identified the new president’s greatest challenge as forging unity within the party.
Dr Belle was pessimistic of Yearwood’s chances, citing a lack of “institutional depth” in comparison to more established actors like his predecessor Verla DePeiza and his former opponent for the post, Dr David Estwick.
“I don’t even know if those kinds of things require responses, because I just won the election,” Dr Yearwood told Barbados TODAY.
“I don’t think I could have won the election if I didn’t have a sense of grounding in this party, an understanding of this party, and a respect and love for the people of this party, and the same has been shown to me.
“The reality is we’ve had an election, the elections are over, and it is now time to get on with the business of managing the affairs of this party for the interests of Barbadians, because that’s what this party is about,” he added.
Rumours of divisions within the DLP date back to the so-called Eager 11 within the Freundel Stuart administration. Those divisions became even more apparent as DePeiza attempted to rebuild the party between 2018 and 2022 with no representation in Parliament, following two consecutive 30-nil election losses.
But Dr Yearwood has not backed away from the reality that he will have to confront those divisions in the near future.
“Every single political party will have varying and competing interests. That is normal. What may be problematic is if those competing interests get to a point where it affects the normal day-to-day functioning of the institution,” said Dr Yearwood.
“But you have that in every institution, whether its corporate institutions, civil society institutions; whether it’s parties here, overseas, or even the ruling party, but it’s about how you manage these varying interests so that you can achieve that goal.
“I see myself as a unifier who can reach across all varying interests and understand that people may want a particular thing and someone else may be trying to achieve a particular aim – both of them love the party, both of them want the party to succeed. My role is to bring those varying interests together and make them work on behalf of the party,” he declared.
Dr Yearwood also addressed suggestions from political strategist Hartley Henry that the DLP needed a political leader more than a president.
“I think that is one of those narratives that the media would do better than to buy into,” said the academic.
“The party has a leader, the party has leadership, the party has a team, the party has committed persons who believe in the ideals of this party and who will drive this party to the stage of excellence that it needs to get to in order to become that fit, fighting election machine, because in order to be a government, that’s the first step.
“We need to regain the trust of Barbadians and I assure you that the party will do that. Under my leadership, that is what this party will do,” said the new DLP president.
He continuously declared that the doors of George Street, under his stewardship, would be open to all and sundry for the promotion of ideas to move the country forward.
“This is a challenge like every other challenge in life. There are Barbadians who cannot put food on their tables, they cannot put gas in their cars. Their challenges are as concerning to me as the challenges that this party may face in its revival, and a lot of this will be focusing and trying to understand what Barbadians want of the Democratic Labour Party in the future and how do they want the party to reflect and feel and sound like them and that will be a lot of what we will be doing going forward,” he said.
“It’s not just about rubbing shoulders and trying to use buzz words, but we want to really get to people and engage with them, understand where they are, and then have that reflected to shape the policies that are important to the party, because the priorities of the party have to be the priorities of Barbadians,” he added. kareemsmith@barbadostoday.bb
