Disowning oneself
DEMOCRATIC LABOUR PARTY COLUMN
The debate on “race” which has suddenly warmed up is nothing new. There are those who feel that the debate over the removal/placing of Lord Nelson’s statue has suddenly made us a nation. Of course, it has great psychological value for our nation’s development that we start the process of redefining our country consonant with respect for the divergent ancestry we claim. In that exercise, much of the dominance of one cultural/historical form over our current idiolect and physical representations, not to mention absent African symbols, has done great damage to our people. This generation has seen the need for balance. The establishment of a National Heroes Square is an important development and one with which we cannot quarrel. On the other hand, the statements by senior officials of the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) on the matters of Nelson’s statue, economic enfranchisement and the establishment of the Pan African Commission need to be carefully scrutinised. For inherent in them is a hit and miss theory that one only needs to respond quickly to any idea which appears to receive public acclaim. As to the sincerity of those statements in pointing to a new Barbados in which race will no longer determine function, I have serious reservations. But time will tell. This, however, is not the first time that the acts or statements of a political leader or government on matters relating to “race” have caused alarm. The statement by Erskine Sandiford some years ago that the old Harrison’s building would be bought by the Democratic Labour Party government and that it was time that there was adequate representation by black businesses on Broad Street caused a similar alarm. Those who benefit most from the status quo circle with their wagons in the face of such threats. But when all is said and done, the debate often turns out to be superficial, throwing-up only an opportunity for some new historical theory to be tested. The funniest aspect of the entire debate is the way in which the Director of the Pan African Commission has found himself thrashing around to define himself. Mr. Comissiong has now distanced himself from a document which links capitalism to racism. Did anyone believe that he could do so? Has he changed his political skin once again? Such theories of capitalism have long been promulgated by Comissiong from the fringes of Barbadian politics. And he has influenced a few adherents. But now that the BLP has found for him a place close to the power structure, this “radical” has disavowed views which he has spent over 20 years spouting. The Barbados Advocate, through its editorials, has been suggesting that the BLP and Comissiong are in some kind of loose alliance which is limited to the “politics of inclusion” agenda - a phrase which that newspaper claims it introduced. (See Advocate Editorial of June 13, 1999). The competing claims for such authorship predate the Advocate’s intervention by almost five years in the American political firmament. The truth is that Comissiong is not some temporary convert to the “politics of inclusion” who was pulled in but has kept his identity as has happened with many of the other victims of this kind of BLP politics. 
|