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Public Bashing Act 1

10/30/2009

The recent tongue lashing by Owen Arthur of the Opposition leader will go down in political history as one of the quickest and finest dressing down of a leader. In the space of ten minutes, the former BLP leader reminded Barbados of his fire and brimstone political nature. Owen shredded Mia’s political past in that one press conference. He opened up his war chest as he eloquently “unmek de woman in public.” The recent public display of political tribalism must be worrying to the past leaders of the Barbados Labour Party, as the untold stories make their rounds.

Mia has been wounded by the comments coming from Arthur but she is getting little assistance from her Chairman, in this respect. The chairman, George Payne in his address last week was all mouth, as he called for members to rally behind Mottley. “We have an elected political –an undisputed leader. We are rallying behind our leader.” Where is George Payne when Mia needs him most? It is clear that Mia has been set up to fail by her parliamentary colleagues. The secret meetings that are been held to spur on the war of words taking place between Mia and Owen will soon come to light.

Owen’s admission that there is a challenge of leadership in his party is probably the most insightful comment coming from the interview. His assessment of her leadership capacity has been known by many for years. The fact that her former boss has now taken issue with it is somewhat puzzling. It was Owen that promoted her to deputy Prime Minister, despite these glaring short comings. What exactly was Owen seeking to achieve as Prime Minister when he made his move?

We warned Mia about the mad rush to popularize herself by hoisting candidates on the party structure. The body of support in any political party will come from the membership. The show of support for Arthur at the last annual conference should be a lesson to Mia that she needs to change her strategy. Mia must tell Barbadians, the contrasting response she got compared to Owen’s. The rank and file members of Barbados Labour Party love Owen Arthur not Mia Mottley.

The “come Tuesday, this issue must be resolved and we must go forward” statement was a knee jerk reaction to a problem, according to Arthur, that does not exist. Arthur’s reading of the situation would have further endeared his adoring fans in the Party even more. Arthur knows what he is up against and has picked his cherries very careful. He knows how George Payne behaved on Sunday and how the man of the cloth attempted to stir up some support for his good friend Mia. They had all the political weapons cocked for poor Owen last Sunday.

It came to us as no surprise what occurred on Sunday October 25 2009, a day that is now referred to as ‘Red Sunday.’ A day, when political blood was spilled on the floor of the Barbados Community College gymnasium. The desire not to see politics as a blood sport is one which Arthur spoke very strongly about. It is clear that those words have come back to haunt him. The past week shall be remembered by all, as an occasion when the glue that kept the BLP together became the agent that split the political atoms. The jury is still out on where is Elizabeth Thompson in all of this is and one final question, who is the political Brutus that roams the corridors of Roebuck Street?

Indices

as of close 9/15/2009


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