He’s so confusing

By *Jomo Thomas

Unless I am terribly busy with court or other important matters, I commit to making daily ‘sunshine’ strolls. It might be a visit to the coconut vendor or to break my fast with the purchase of a banana. In either case, I am brought into contact with people. They question me about the law or politics, and I get to gauge the nation’s pulse. My body is all that I have, so I care it with sunshine, good nutrition and exercise. Know this much: my morning or afternoon meandering through Kingstown is neither aimless nor mindless.

Earlier this week, I made one of my many stops at what we jokingly call “Clans Man Alley”. The area is so-called because supporters of both major parties gather there to engage in serious jesting about cricket, calypso, the changing face of Kingstown, life, and, of course —  politics, local, regional and international.

Sugars, the chairman of Clans Man Alley, informed me that as I was walking pass, a banana in hand, a lady confirmed with him that I was the one passing and uttered, “He is so confusing. One time he is criticising Labour, and another time he is after the NDP. Whose side is he really on?”

The truth is that I have long stopped playing partisan politics, and even when I did, my critical faculties were never suspended. Such objective thinking allowed me to write columns such as “The Things I Like About the NDP”, “We May Have to Save Gonsalves from Himself”,  “The Time Has Come for the People to Punish Both ULP and NDP”,’ “The folly and Irresponsibility of NDP”,’ or to proclaim that Gonsalves’ 25-year rule was the most corrupt in the history of governance in SVG’s history. Credit ULP educational policy. Same writer, same voice, different views. Some harsh, others complimentary. I am what you might call a thinking man’s man.

There is a further truth. Cricket is my favourite sport. As youngsters, all of us with a little bit of ability had no bigger dream than to represent SVG. What I did not get to do in cricket, I have the chance to do in national life. I now play for St. Vincent. So don’t ask whose side I’m on. I am here to tell you I am on St. Vincent side. I firmly believe that for SVG to thrive, the political tribes must die. I will lift you when you are acting in the national interest, and you are sure to get a tongue lashing when you place politics before people and greed and selfishness before the nation. 

Gonsalves and his clanmen had to go because they had become a burden on the nation, wrecking the economy, and were more concerned with getting rich and living the high life than with solving the pressing problems faced by the majority of citizens. 

Similarly, the NDP government came in for harsh criticism when it sought to change the Constitution not to advance our polity but to secure an opportunistic insurance policy, thus protecting PM Friday and Foreign Minister Fitz Bramble from challenges to their eligibility to contest elections and hold high political office in our country.

The unsavoury ruse, sold as an attempt to provide clarity, was pounced on and rightfully criticised. And then an honourable streak, not seen since Eustace honoured the agreement brokered by Mitchell and Gonsalves in 2000 and called elections 2.5 years early, cleared the dark and ominous political clouds. The NDP administration, with a powerful 14-to-1 mandate, refrained from pushing through with the constitutional change. 

Unlike Gonsalves, the political gangster, PM Friday, by a single act of allowing for more citizen participation and debate, demonstrated that the NDP was not prepared to engage in the tyranny of the majority. Such a move would have registered a pyrrhic victory. More importantly, it would have signalled to Vincentians that the new government, in the use of its parliamentary majority, was prepared to disregard all criticism and pigheadedly do damage to our young democracy. 

And so, I criticised the proposed constitutional change as opportunistic and unwise and praised the decision to place the proposed amendment on hold pending further democratic discussion as democratic, statesmanlike and possibly epoch-changing. 

It is this nuanced approach to national politics and issues that tends to confuse people. They have become so mired and overwhelmed by partisan drivel that they unthinkingly engage and eventually marry one or the other major party, and soon become divorced from the country.

As the last election approached, a female ULP supporter was overheard expressing her disgust, “Look at that short crutched F!&#@er. He is making so much trouble in the country.” Some say I don’t know what I want or that I am confused. Years ago, while serving as a ULP senator, another lady (ladies tend to voice their political opinion) called Star Radio to inquire why Jomo sues his own party.

I plead guilty to being a contrarian. I highlight the inconvenient truth. As the revolutionary Muslim brother Khalid Mohammed of Nation of Islam fame once said, I pride myself on being a “truth terrorist, a knowledge gangster and a black history hitman”. 

You’d better watch out!

*Jomo Sanga Thomas is a lawyer, journalist, social commentator and a former Speaker of the House of Assembly in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

The opinions presented in this content belong to the author and may not necessarily reflect the perspectives or editorial stance of iWitness News. Opinion pieces can be submitted to [email protected].