Walters, Estwick silent of DLP Shadow Cabinet snub

Prominent Democratic Labour Party (DLP) member Ryan Walters is mum on his exclusion from party leader Dr Ronnie Yearwood’s Shadow Cabinet which was named on Saturday.

“I reserve comment at this time,” is all Walters would tell Barbados TODAY on Monday, when asked for his response to being left out of the team. Walters was a former DLP spokesman on small business.

The new team also saw notable exclusions such as former DLP cabinet minister Dr David Estwick who garnered the second-highest number of votes for the DLP’s presidency in last August’s elections, and Kemar Stuart, who has tangled with Dr Yearwood on the way forward for the 69-year-old party that was twice voted out of the House of Assembly.

Dr Estwick told Barbados TODAY he was not in a position to comment at this stage and Stuart could not be reached.

Former Minister of Tourism Richard Sealy who is included in the Shadow Cabinet was only able to muster 29 votes in his bid for presidency when compared to Walters’ 188 votes.

Political scientist Senator Kristina Hinds expressed surprise at Walters’ exclusion.

“I think that he is probably the stronger candidate, not necessarily in terms of performance at the polls, but in terms of what he has to offer to the Democratic Labour Party,” said Dr Hinds, who heads the Department of Government, Sociology, Social Work and Psychology at the University of the West Indies Cave Hill. “I thought that he played a reasonable role in speaking about business and other economic areas. He had a decent performance in this area, let’s put it like that. I was surprised at not seeing him included. Ryan Walters is someone that I would have wanted to see in that mix because I think he is a pretty good candidate.”

She suggested that the party leader may be trying to shun some of the DLP’s “old guard” in not appointing Dr Estwick, a former Minister of Economic Affairs.

The political scientist argued that Dr Estwick’s popularity is not the only important factor for the party. She suggested that fitting into the dynamics of the team must be a serious consideration.

“I don’t know if it is that some of these individuals have not been included because of the dynamics that it could create,” Senator Hinds pointed out.

Her take on Stuart’s exclusion was that Dr Yearwood may be attempting to send a unified message, in light of Stuart’s public pronouncements leading up to last year’s presidential elections, in which he spelt out a vision for the DLP that appeared in stark contrast to his leader’s.

“Kemar Stuart is an interesting one to think about. He has a good public profile, but I am not certain the extent to which the profile that he generated publicly aligns with the DLP …and its president, in terms of putting together a team with a singular message,” the senior lecturer in political science underscored.

“He has slightly maverick tendencies. And, within a political party, there is control that you must still want to achieve…. In particular, this Democratic Labour Party, I would think, needs to provide the public with a set of messages that are unified and that are similar.

“We don’t really know what the DLP is about at this stage, and they are not providing any clear messaging. If the team is able to do that and provide some interesting policy perspectives, useful critique and to be a coherent group, it would be beneficial for them. So, they may wish to avoid some of the individuals that may not line up well, [and] may not want to put forward that kind of coherent message. But this is all speculation on my part, because I do not know much about those individuals that make up the Shadow Cabinet.”

However, she said that the naming of a Shadow Cabinet may be the DLP’s way of structuring a team of potential candidates to face the polls whenever a general election is called.

“Some people have been saying you don’t have an idea of what the DLP team looks like,” Dr Hinds said. “I can’t particularly speak to the abilities these individuals have regarding their roles, but in looking at certain areas that are covered by Cabinet, we are yet to see how the DLP will respond to these issues. These are some positives. It shows that effort at putting together a team…to shadow as one.”

Without identifying anyone, Dr Yearwood told the news conference at which the Shadow Cabinet was announced that some of the excluded individuals had been approached but had declined, while others had not received any invitation.

“They’ve made it clear that they have other priorities at this time, and I wished them well, we wished them well. The door is always open when those priorities are cleared, there is room for those persons to be part of this team,” the DLP leader told reporters in response to a query as to why the likes of Estwick and Walters were left out.

“Some of those persons, if I am honest with you, were not approached, and I would not pretend otherwise…because…in mixing the old with the new, we have to be very clear about the signal we’re sending into the country and what represents this party and what we would accept as acceptable behaviour and what would be the conduct of all persons going forward.”

emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb