Things the people should know in defense of the vote and calypso
This article was first published at the end of the first week of the Lenten season, observed by Roman Catholics in the year two thousand and nineteen. It is meant for a Dominican audience in lieu of heightened partisan polarization and bickering coming out of the Carnival-Calypso season, a period which saw unprecedented partisan rhetoric very much common to such climate. The struggle to gain votes and to redefine Calypso away from its oversight responsibility and place it in a sort of bias partisan point of view gave rise to this response. This is an election year in Dominica and I argue that both the vote and Calypso have been paraded as scapegoats of a status quo which is unrelenting in its opposition to the people’s conscious demands for a new social order.
There are a few people who cared enough to teach me what they thought I should have known at an earlier stage of my life and I do the same today for those who are now at the stage that I was. It is also my hope that those who helped in nurturing me and have seemingly lost their way will receive the same “good message” of civic responsibility and nationhood which they once cared about so passionately.
Back then, I was not always willing to listen, but I heard and I certainly remember. I may not have heeded what I heard at certain times, but in time certain things made a lot more sense to me. Younger Dominicans, this is your time to hear and probably to listen, because the days remaining for Dominica to catch the wave of pragmatic success seem to be running short.
Let me begin my reflections by stating what I believe is the present political status of Dominica. The government of Dominica appears to be a quasi-authoritarian led democracy. By this I mean we have a form of governance which appears to have strong centralized power, which is focused on one individual, Prime Minister Skerrit.
There are obvious shortfalls in constitutional accountability and an overreaching encroachment on individuals’ political freedom in addition to disproportionate treatment re the rule of law. This is my view of things based on several observable instances.
This article is copyright © 2019 DOM767
