No congratulations to Friday. So what?

So what if the Leader of the Opposition designate, Ralph Gonsalves, chose not to congratulate our Prime Minister, Godwin Friday on his election to office? It changes nothing. Friday is now our duly elected leader. If anything, the omission simply reveals more about Gonsalves than it does about the new administration.

His posture reminds me of George Orwell’s” Animal Farm”, where the pigs taught the others to chant, “Four legs good, two legs bad.” Yet the election results proved that the Vincentian people are not sheep, and we are certainly not afraid to stand up when it matters.

Gonsalves spoke of his party’s defeat as “a setback”. That alone shows how out of touch he has become. Some might call what happened an annihilation. Who am I to judge? Perception is a funny thing — some see red, others see pink — but the truth is the truth. The people resoundingly rejected the old order.

His address also carried an ominous warning about the NDP’s future, almost as if predicting their downfall before they have even begun. Ironically, a man who sees himself as a political soothsayer did not foresee his own party’s collapse — at least, not publicly. Then again, perhaps he did.

The undercurrent among many Vincentians is that he asked us to “lift him up”, and while the people did exactly that, they also dropped nearly every one of his candidates. Maybe in hindsight, the request should have been, “lift all of us up”. I don’t claim to have all the answers.

It appears Dr. Gonsalves is prepared to go down with the ship — or the s**t, depending on perception.

He quoted William Ernest Henly, Dylan Thomas and Robert Frost, poets very close to my own heart. So yes, he is free to take “the road less travelled”, though in this new chapter it will indeed “make all the difference”.

Opposition is not new to him, but this time he walks that road with far fewer supporters beside him.

He also referenced his “unconquerable soul”. Sir, as you continue to “rage against the dying of the light”, remember that the light eventually dims for us all. That is a fate every human must face with humility.

So! To those who say he should have congratulated Friday — perhaps. But has Gonsalves ever been known to abide by the norms of courtesy or the standards expected of statesmen? I leave that for the public to decide.

Sometimes, in the end, the most humane thing we can do is leave people with whatever dignity they have left — and a warm cup of chicken soup for the soul.

The People Have Spoken

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