Many moons ago, an old politician for whom I had a great deal of respect cautioned me to watch what politicians do rather than what they say.
It is entirely possible that in those salad days, I may have been overly impressed by the rhetoric and sophistry of certain local demagogues and ignored what they may really and truly have been trying to achieve.
Over time, however, a couple of political statements, one unfortunate and the other insightful, helped to remove the self-imposed blinkers and I came to see politicians for what they really were.
In the first instance, the late Asquith Phillips, a one-time powerhouse in the Democratic Labour Party (DLP), who was, however, unable to translate that high standing in the party to success at the polls, confessed in a moment of rare candour for a politician that they sometimes have to prevaricate.
It was a public admission that some people felt made a not insignificant contribution to his demise as a politician and he never stood for public office again before he passed away.
And it was another former DLP top-ranking member, Dr Richie Haynes, who would later leave that party to form his own (now defunct) National Democratic Party (NDP), who in a not completely cynical observation, insisted that in politics, perception counted for more than facts.
It is against that background that I have sought to weigh certain developments in the Opposition Barbados Labour Party (BLP) within recent weeks.
Those developments have raised suspicions that political leader, former Prime Minister Owen Arthur, could be on a mission to purge the party of certain elements that he may have concluded were undisciplined and divisive and therefore could be detrimental to its efforts to win the next general election.
We have all watched former Leader of the Opposition Mia Mottley being effectively sidelined in a series of developments that have severely battered her political image – some patently self-inflicted – and which have impacted negatively on her chances of succeeding Arthur as leader of the party.
But since retaking the political leadership from Mottley on October 18, 2010, a reinvigorated Arthur has clearly adopted an uncompromising stance on issues of governance within the party and has set about to restore the primacy of its constitution in all procedures relating to its business, particularly so in candidate selection.
“We are governed by a constitution, just as we would wish to govern Barbados by the rule of law. Our constitution does not recognize the concept of perpetual candidacy.
So there is a requirement in the institution of the BLP that anybody who wants to be a candidate in this party, has at every election to be nominated and endorsed again,” Arthur said during a nomination event in St Michael South for former Cabinet minister Noel Lynch.
He also announced that Deputy Opposition Leader Dale Marshall, who has been a long-standing representative for St Joseph, would be entering into this process some time this month.
It is a matter of historical record that Arthur has at various times sought to influence the selection of candidates in some constituencies but was publicly rebuffed by the branches which insistently voted for their own choice rather than the political leader’s favoured son or daughter.
It no doubt constituted a setback for a popular leader who so anxiously wanted certain individuals on his “team for the times”.
But it also served as a timely reminder, if one were needed, that the BLP’s constitutional provisions were to be adhered to and its procedures followed – a lesson he has demonstrated within the past few weeks that he has not only learnt but has also not forgotten.
Whatever else might have been aback of the Rawle Eastmond nomination debacle in St James North with rival groups pushing their favourite candidate publicly, while unseen hands were trying to guide the process in a particular direction, Arthur stated his clear intention of allowing the party’s constitution to work and insisted that its prescribed procedures be followed, even if it meant that the candidate he might have preferred would come out the loser.
What obviously is at stake in these early soundings within the BLP is numerical control of the parliamentary group with its clear implications for the leadership of the country should the party be successful at the next general election.
The leadership votes were lined up going into the challenge against Mottley and, following her ouster, it became even clearer to the public just who was standing shoulder to shoulder with whom and who could be counted upon in the pursuit of the longer term objective.
For example, in the build-up to the St James North nomination, St Thomas MP Cynthia Forde publicly stated her support for the incumbent Rawle Eastmond who, after initially declaring he would step aside for his friend and protégé Edmund Hinkson, suddenly made an almost last-ditch about-turn and indicated he wanted to return to the electoral fray for a sixth general election.
Eastmond had prefaced his puzzling volte face by laying out public claims about an “impure” voters list that was then apparently purged to his satisfaction and that of the other prospective candidates, and then appeared to seek support for his late decision through an emotional argument that an incumbent should not have to seek nomination, which it was demonstrated was a clear requirement of the party’s constitution.
Maybe, just maybe, if Eastmond had communicated his intentions to run again to the party through the correct channels at an early stage, he could have helped to prevent some of the controversy that attended the process which has now returned him to his original position – an end to his decades-long political career. Pity!
Now, it is being suggested in some quarters that Arthur is going to use the same constitution that denied him his choices in previous general elections to insist on nominations in all constituencies – even his own St Peter riding – that could create the perception of punishment for those who have not publicly declared their support for his leadership.
Is it possible that BLP general secretary George Griffith was speaking out of turn, or is it more likely that certain events will cast a long shadow?
At the height of the recent furore, Griffith used the NATION’S Facebook page to make this startling comment: “The time might very well come when the party has to purge itself of the indisciplined self-serving malcontents. A word to the wise is . . . .”
If Arthur succeeds now with his strictly constitutional approach to candidate selection, where he had failed when he wielded the power and patronage of the office of Prime Minister, there is no telling what the line-up of BLP candidates would look like in the next few months before the election bell is rung.
