Politicians and reconciliation

by Roy George 18.JAN.11

Can politicians be responsible for bring about national reconciliation? Can the same people who spend millions of dollars and expend monumental efforts to create division now turn around and call for unity? Are we to believe that the creation of a ministry of national reconciliation is enough to heal the rift created by our politics? I ask all Vincentians to seriously consider these questions.{{more}}

Let’s face it. The business of politics is divisive in nature. It is a popularity contest that puts one against the other, struggling for the support of the larger fraction of the population; creating rifts in families, communities and nationally; using whatever devious means to manufacture these divisions, in order to garner support for oneself. We could even say that the more skillful politician is the one who has the ability to lie, cheat or bribe his way into political office.

Our new administration has created this ministry of national reconciliation, of which Mr. Maxwell Charles was made the minister. While some were quick to commend this initiative, this writer finds the move rather ironic or even hypocritical. Reconciliation requires more than lip service or a scant gesture. What are our political leaders willing to do to bring about national reconciliation? Or is this another portfolio created that just sounds impressive, but really means very little? Much like the ministry of national mobilization, whatever that meant. I guess time will tell.

Reconciliation is serious business. It requires humility, it calls for a penitent heart and an earnest commitment to change. Bitter and sweet water cannot flow from the same fountain. Politicians have done considerable damage to our social fabric, through acts of victimization, slanderous remarks and at times downright evil proclamations, such as the promise to make S.V.G ungovernable, for which no repentance was made. Our political leaders must take responsibility and speak to the intolerant attitude, along with the tribalism they have created among our people. Meanwhile, they continue to encourage these attitudes every day, via their insidious radio shows. You cannot put a plaster over a bullet wound; it would only get worse.

However, to put things into their proper perspective, the fault doesn’t only lie with the politicians. The drivers have fallen asleep at the wheels. It is this writer’s humble submission that the only recipe for reconciliation is found in the word of God and with the people of God. It is time that the true gatekeepers of our communities and our nation wake up, take back our places and come out of the pockets and from under the drunken influences of politics and politicians. Come let’s humble ourselves under God’s divine will and not our own. It is time we realize we are the only true custodians of unity in our nation; reconciliation lives or dies with us, not the politicians.

May God bless our nation.