Political picong all part of the game

23.FEB.07

Editor: I have waited a very long time to say my piece on a matter that is making me feel as though I am no longer in the Caribbean, where politics and name-calling are no longer synonymous.

From time immemorial, ‘fatigue’, that is, giving jokes; calling each other names and saying some of the most hurtful words to ensure the joke is not on you, has been the order of day in our society.

It has always been that way in beautiful SVG and persons who come here are amazed that every Vincentian has an alias.{{more}}

Cato was ‘Mc Goffy’; Joshua was ‘Twist foot’. Remember ‘Winking’, Bliking’ and ‘Nod’? That was how Sir James, who is known as ‘Son’, characterized the leadership of the ULP in its infant stage.

There was also the ‘Damm Foolish Men’ as Cato described Kenneth John, PR, Kerwyn Morris and others when they moved from the ‘pressure group’ the Educational Forum of the People, EFP, to the political party, DFM, the Democratic Freedom Movement, and don’t forget that it was the NDP who used the name ‘Red Rat’ to describe ULP supporters.

So when I hear the NDP taking issue with the term ‘Snatty Nose Gel’ as coined by the Comrade, I am truly amazed. If someone were to play tapes from EG Lynch’s programme, dating back to 2001, one will be amazed at the amount of names he tagged on to the Comrade; and I have never heard anyone from the ranks of the ULP make a fuss about the names they are called.

In fact, it is a credit to the ULP leadership for turning the Red Rat name into a fighting call for their dedicated warriors to stand up against anyone who dares to challenge their beloved party.

But just step back a while and you will see why the NDP should be termed ‘cry, cry, baby, walla, walla dumplin!’

How they would like everyone to forget that it was they who started the name calling when they hung a painting at most of their political meetings in 2001, depicting the Comrade in the most despicable way.

Sir James, Arnhim, Dr Lewis, Leacock, PR, Yvonne-Francis Gibson, Jerry Scott, et al, all stood on political platforms with that painting hanging behind them.

Not a word of condemnation came from the lips of those who are now crying foul.

Was it not the NDP in 2005 that printed a poster of the Comrade in a manner that the Comrade later turned into a joke, when he stated he looked much better than the way they tried to portray him? And that he had the most beautiful wife in the world; therefore, he could not have any resemblance of the picture on the poster?

How the members of the NDP clapped at their Convention when Trinidadian Ramesh Maharaj more or less likened the PM to the former dictator of Haiti, Papa Doc! And so the term ‘Papa’ was tagged on to our beloved Comrade and the call was made to make him “one term, Papa.”

As usual, the ULP accepted that as fatigue and turned it into “Long term Papa!”

Oh, how they grimaced when the ULP placed that sign on the Party Headquarters for the world to see.

But my beloved party should have gone a step further and make it “Long live Papa!”

Does anyone have a recording of Paper (see, here is another alias for a Vincy!) during the last elections, when he moved through the town with his microphone on a truck, driving at snail’s pace during rush hour?

Members of the NDP need to listen to Paper in his element. I don’t think he meant any malice. It was just fatigue at its highest and you can bet your last dollar he will be out again describing the Comrade in the most despicable manner whenever elections are called.

The PM used the phrase ‘herd thinking’ and the NDP is up in arms. Snatty nose gel makes them even madder, or so they would like the nation to believe.

At their last public meeting at Sion Hill they brought out an effigy of what seemed to be the Comrade. Their political leader, whom Lynch has tagged Mr Clean (you see how hypocritical they are, they are even giving themselves names), can be seen smiling on the platform.

No one from the ULP picked their height; and that is how it’s going to be from now until the elections are called.

The coming on stream of the airport at Argyle is an irreversible process the NDP cannot do anything about, so they find every little thing to complain about, even talking under their breath that fresh elections must be called.

That is just a ploy since the likes of ‘Idiot Boy’, the ‘Convicted Felon’, ‘Bounced Cheque’, ‘Stone Church’, the man who was arrested in the US and was placed in the same jail with the drug convict, Daniel Noriega, and the ‘Snatty Nose Gel’ does not have the constitutional belly to test the Comrade and the ULP, so they must bide their time in opposition.

We all heard Eustace loud and clear when he stated drug dealers have approached his supporters, wanting to make contributions to his NDP.

He says he refused to attend any meetings with these drug dealers on a matter of principle.

To Eustace’s credit he never makes a sound when he is called ‘Crazy bald head’, and like Bob Marley said: “We gonna chase them crazy bald heads outta town.”

A Proud Red Rat