Sense Mek before Book!

After 18 years of NDP ‘rain’, de people of SVG had grown tired of an Administration dat needed an injection of new blood wid new I-dares. De Awe-position Party read de pulse of de nay-shun and wasted no time befriending de dissatisfied Trade Unions, Public Workers and de people who wanted something new. De ULP won de General Elections in 2001 and foh reasons still unknown, de Go-venom-mint was sworn in on “All Fools Day!” of all de days on de calendar, At de end of de ULP’s first term, voters were satisfied and further endorsed de ruling party wid ah clear-cut mandate of 12 to 3..

It was during the third term, de NDP had bounced back and reduced de ULP to its original one seat majority that is still standing. But by den de sheep skin dat was covering de ULP wolf was clearly visible. About mid-term de Speaker in de House, my namesake, dealt our De-mock-we-see ah nasty blow, when de People’s duly elected Awe-position in SVG, decided to challenge (miss-behave) in Par-liar-mint, He would have none ah dat and displayed more power dan ah President, ah Governor or Prime Minister. He ordered the Police to throw de Awe-position members out ah Par-liar-mint. De troops literally tossed dem down de stairs causing serious damage to de Hon Daniel Cummings, who is still nursing back injury after major surgery. Lie-Za will tell you dat was de day when “all began to fall down!”

Things kept going from bad to worse. Ah few months ago de Awe-position brought to Par-liar-mint ah More-shun of No-Confidence in de Go-venom-mint, even wid de Go-venom-mint’s weakest one-seat majority, dey was no way dat More-shun would have carried in de House. But Prime Minister Gone-Soft made ah Co-more-shun to mek sure it did not even get started. I-witness News dis week reminds us dat “he ah-men-did de Awe-position’s No-con-fee-dense More-shun against his Go-venim-mint, turning it into ah Con-fee-dense. Lie-Za arguing dat by his powers he turned de More-shun of No Con-fee-dense into ah more-shun of con-fee-dense. And so de people’s duly elected Awe-position was made “TO SHUT UP!” At dat point Lie-Za said “things falling apart!”

Ah think de Too! Too! hit de fan ah few weeks ago, when Awe-position NDP supporters did an impromptu march around de town in protest of de High Court’s Ruling in de Election Petition Case. De Police was ready like Freddy wid heavy weapons to crush any semblance of a demon-stray-shun. To ensure everything went to plan, de Police boss was on street duty dat day, to greet Dr Fry-dey face to face. De PM was in full praise foh de Commissioner’s quick response dat wuk like an Ah-men-ment to de March, it was turned around. And Lie-Za’s comment den was : “We putting ah lot ah straw on de people’s… sorry… de Camel’s back!”

Fuelled by some of Justice Stanley John’s recommendations in de same Petition Case Ruling, de people’s duly elected Awe-position tried to mek good de one opportunity dat allows dem to present ah Private Bill in de House. Ah timely Bill to deal wid Elect-shun Reform. But before it even got started, de Prime Minister was back to his Par-liar-men-try man-o-ver again. He moved ah Co-More-shun to have de Awe-position’s Electoral Reform Bill guided by Common Sense, and de Go-venom-mint’s Ah-men-meant was clearly ah reversal of de Awe-position’s More-shun, and sadly dey were breaking wid decades of Par-liar-men-try practice. However, in Sir Louis Straker’s contribution to de Comedy of Errors, reminded de Speaker dat: “de Rules rather dan common sense, governs what takes place in de Nah-shun-all Ass-sembly.” Lie-Za wants me to remind Sir Louis dat Ole People say : “Sense mek before Book,” and as stupid as it sounds: “Common Sense is not so Common at all.” And wid dat is gone ah gone again.

One Love Bassy

Bassy Alexander is a land surveyor, folklorist and social commentator.