Kishore Shallow is the envy of many

It is said that if you fill a jar with red ants and black ants, left undisturbed, they will go about their business of colony building. Once you shake that jar, they will fight each other to the death.

Now picture this: young, intelligent, bright future, mind for public service. You take up the opportunity to serve your country, nation building, shaking the proverbial jar, and then the power of the entire government attacks. The leader of the country, government ministers, supporters at home and abroad. Constant attacks at your ability, character, intelligence.

This is the experience of Kishore Shallow, Vincentian political hopeful. This is an example of what may befall a young hopeful in Vincentian politics. If you are not financially secure, level-headed or stable, self-preservation is likely to rule the day.

It is quite easy to see why the younger entrants to politics have failed so abysmally. No independence of thought or action. Straightjacketed by the ULP machinery, afraid of becoming social and economic pariahs, afraid of rocking the boat, even with ever-increasing holes in it.

We often wonder why political parties have failed to attract the brightest and best, what has resulted in the apparent apathy towards representative politics in SVG. The answer is clear. Now, one may counter this by saying, “ULP has young people and attract the best”. If this is your honest opinion, we are even further removed from reality than initially estimated. The so-called best and brightest who have held on to the ULP coattails have allowed themselves to be dragged in the mud and have climbed down into the gutter to allow for their continued association with the political party.

Professionals who had begun building names for themselves have gone mum. Those who had not experienced enough of the world to form independent opinion have become the loudest voices, spewing vapid rhetoric all in hopes that they will never have to encounter real-world challenges and do real-world work.

The long and short of it is that the vast majority of young persons who have attached themselves to ULP have only done so for security, self-preservation, with the hope that they will be rewarded with a job or a trip for their loyalty.

Point the public to a progressive, independent of thought ULP youth, and your fingers will point back to you, a liar.

Kishore Shallow is the envy of many and rightfully so. He refused to enter into the ULP fold and the welcoming arms of Papa. A little black boy from Leeward who has refused to have himself or his ambitions buried. He remains independent and employed regardless of the many attempts focused on cutting down his breadfruit tree.

It is time that the youth of SVG awaken. The operation of the ULP machinery is our fault. We have encouraged and rewarded this bad behaviour for far too long, hoping that we too may become one of the chosen few, forgetting that many more of us can eat if we commit to removing those of largesse from the political table. Vote. Them. Out.

S. Smith

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