‘I don’t do party, drugs and gays!’

Why I am not ready to make nice in a losing attempt to save NNP, Emmalin and Peter

 

IN THIS ONGOING debate about the New National Party leadership, transition and all other assorted issues, have I personally not endorsed anyone for leader.

  I don’t think it is useful or desirable.

  I just thought the point had to be made, after a mutual friend of ours sent me a “how dare you” whatsapp note, suggesting that I have turned my back on one good friend Emmalin Pierre for another good friend Peter David.

   Emmalin, Peter and whoever else -- paid-up member of the NNP -- have a right to aspire and run for leadership – or for that matter – any other position of the party – in an open, fair and transparent contest.

   In fact, incumbent leader Keith Mitchell has a right to change his mind and declare he will run again too. Nothing’s wrong with even changing your mind. We all do that sometimes.

   On the personal level, you never take sides when your sister and brother are in the same contest. That doesn’t mean you don’t harbor reservations, and will use your back channels to convey those, outside of social media chatter and click-bait declarations.

   Both Emmalin Celina Frank-Pierre and Peter Charles David have a rich history of ignoring my advice anyway – which is their respectful right. They are in the kitchen, not me. So, I always concede that.
    

  In my view, neither of them should take part in the unfolding farce. But I suspect again, they will both disregard this latest advice.

   My ongoing concern and criticism have been about the virtual hijack of all organs of the party, and the internal coup carried out against its democratic processes by the “general”, and that which is shamefully aided and abetted by a handful of enablers who will whisper discontent, but in meetings where it counts, nod their heads in agreement of Doc’s action. Even when he dares whoever disagrees to take him to court!

   And it is not just the undemocratic illegal acts, but how that very process sets up the party for failure in the next general election.

   I get it; that in this environment, most people tend to personalize, every comment and every position, while missing the broader principle of the debate.

   If you complain about the lack of transparency and democracy, some will declare you’re taking someone’s side or campaigning against someone.

   But I dare say, watching all this unfolds: Quos Deus vult perdere, prius dementat. For Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad, (William Anderson Scott – 1854).

    A delegate NNP member and hardcore supporter from birth from the Happy Hill (my second home) area, forwarded me a whatsapp message that he was sending around to fellow party members and delegates. It made useful reading, and with his permission, I publish here unedited in italics:

 

"You folks are really undermining your own. You may not support Peter or whoever for party leadership but to have a campaign to swift boat and  destabilize him is unbecoming. Let whoever the delegates vote to be the leader, be the leader. Remember, after the convention, you’ve a party to build back and an election to win. Keep on eating your own. I’m an NNP supporter and will always be but what I’m seeing here and the fake pages on FB is a big turn off. I’m not dumb. So stop trying to dumb us down. The party machinery is out now to destroy one of your own."

   A few months ago, when Emmalin declared she was running for leadership, weeks after Peter did – a good friend called me and asked “well who will you back now.?

    And my response, without skipping a beat, or even previously thinking about it was: Democracy.

   I have always maintained that the process must be open and fair, devoid of personal attacks – and then everyone should rally afterwards around the person who comes out the winner.

    It was always a long shot however that this would have happened, knowing the mindset of the general.

   The question must be asked aloud though: Given all that has gone in the recent weeks – what kind of party will either Peter or Emmalin “inherit?”

   Is it fair to them all? Or has Doc, with his shenanigans, soaked up all the oxygen and possibly irreparably damaged a movement?

   I am worried for both Emmalin and Peter for in some ways different, and yet, the same reasons.

    The sameness is that they are being undone by Doc; Peter by being treated as a leper for being “too fast” to say he wants to run for leader; Emmalin because she is once again being set up by Doc in a grand machiavellian scheme.
   

  While I am usually right about those things – I pray for her that I am wrong this time – but my projection is Emmalin may “become” leader in a week, but would not be the one to lead the party in the next elections.

   Moving the convention now from the Trade Centre to the SAASS grounds in Telescope brings the coronation ceremony right to Emmalin’s back yard. It would have been a nice touch only if she was not being handed a crown of thorns.

   She will have to develop a new ruthlessness to stand up against any Doc inspired ‘palace coup’ a little over a year from now. (Will this be at the Happy Hill School convention next year?)

   Doc of the “you see man” and “give me the thing its mine” varieties still covets Mt Wheldale and those two black vehicles. He has not gotten over the fact that he was beaten by “them little children,” and is determined in his attempt to go out on top.

    He has plotted an old-man comeback ala Donald Trump. Notice that he once again tagged along his saintly mother to the failed rally last Sunday, to make the very same point he tried to in the election campaign: You see genes!?

   A retiring politician would refuse to be fascinated with declaring “I never get weary yet.”

  If he sincerely believes this is Emma’s time, pull away from the spotlight. Trade Ajamu for Seargent H. On Sunday forget the “them ah go tired to see me face,” dance, and ensure that not another Bad Card is played. Having been the one to add the ‘Can’t Sit Down’ to his campaign playlist, I will love to propose a new track: Retirement Day

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmBJ-beXaW0

   As Doc embarks on his personal vanity project, he threatens to undermine the long political prospects at the constituency levels of younger people such as Emmalin and Kate Lewis.

   Kinda Mathurin Stewart and Delma Thomas quickly recognized he was up to no political good – and felt they had to be freed from that yoke of political vindictiveness, pettiness and salacious rumour planting. Pamela Moses wanted to quickly forget she was ever associated with that political character flaw. (A flaw that could not even bring him to attend the funeral of Pam’s mother).

    Where do you go with a man who touts the youth when its expedient and convenient – but stabs his two youngest senators because they had enough political morality to advocate against the scripted histrionics they were being schooled in pushing in the senate?

   I respect Emmalin and Peter’s position to stay and fight it out. But in time we will see how this turns out. Peter, maybe sooner than Emmalin. But both!

  Every human being will be nervous, when they see their siblings, niblings or brethrens walking into a wedding with a bad woman.

   Twenty-four years ago last month, on a November Friday afternoon, as the sun was going down relatively early, and while standing on the slight incline in the junction next to the Bakery close to the Tanteen playing field, with the odd vehicle passing by as if on the road to nowhere, a member of Doc’s cabinet then said something to me, which every now and then resurrects in my brain.

   I vividly remember the use of the phrase: “That Cat…”

   He said: “That Cat cares about no one in his political calculations. He will sell his wife and his son if he has to, if he thinks that will advance him politically.”

   At that time, I told the West Coast Major that he was being tough in his assessment of his boss. In long hindsight, he was right.

   “That cat” has not changed.

   Not that I did not know it. I refused to even think about it that way. It’s like taking a painkiller to numb the pain.

    A few years ago, when a good friend approached me  with a form for signing up to join the NNP, my joking, yet serious quip to him was that: “I don’t do Party, drugs and gays. Anything else is negotiable.”

   Maybe negotiable yes, but realistically for now, on this Sunday, I am in my Dixie Chicks moment.

   I am not ready to make nice!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pojL_35QlSI

 

 

I'm not ready to make nice
I'm not ready to back down
I'm still mad as hell and I don't have time
To go 'round and 'round and 'round
It's too late to make it right
I probably wouldn't if I could
'Cause I'm mad as hell, can't bring myself
To do what it is you think I should