“It is in such twilight that we all must be most aware of change in the air — however slight — lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness.” Justice William O. Douglas
In a letter to an Anglican Bishop John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton, 13th Marquess of Groppoli wrote. “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men…”, Most of us grew up hearing different versions of this very instructive warning, but do we understand the implications ? Do we pay heed to it?
If we did, we would do everything in our power to prevent any Government from attaining absolute power in our Governance, especially in the 21st century when men are led by unquenchable greed. When they misuse and abuse their power with no regard for the constitution they made their oath to, or no consideration for the people who entrusted them with their power. In Dominica they are referred to as hungry hyenas.
On December 6th ,2019 Dominicans went to the polls to cement their one party dictatorship state.By all accounts it was an election plagued with rigging, bribery, fraud, coercion, voter intimidation, and everything wrong and unacceptable in an election.
There was a lot at stake for the incumbent, the Roosevelt Skerrit Labor party and they made sure they retained power by any means necessary, including buying and selling of candidates, and using tens of millions of state owned and or money for dark undisclosed sources to bribe voters at home and abroad. Even with the unaccounted $1.2 B, and a myriad of other scandals including the sale of diplomatic passports which was confirmed by an Al jazeera documentary hanging over the head of the leader, the party made it!
Regardless of how they did it, the bottom line is they remained in power with an 18-3 majority. The reality is the opposition is severely weakened from 6 elected members to 3 presently. Not only is the opposition weakened in Parliament, they are also demoralized, both the leadership and their supporters.
So far, one opposition candidate has announced his departure from the political arena, and others are expected to follow suit. Many supporters have also dwindled away, and many will follow also. For some it is a matter of survival, you go red, or you remain hungry! Schemes are in the making to weaken the already weakened opposition ever further. It was clear that was a pre-election goal. Paving the way for a one party state with no mechanisms for any checks and balances of any kind. The opposition was the only hurdle since all other institutions were already corrupted and rendered impotent.
A lot has happened in the two months since the elections, the signs are clear, Dominica is now a one party dictatorship state, whether we want to accept it or not, it is the reality, and Roosevelt has made it abundantly clear that it is. It has moved from the state “Despotisme Doux” that is democracy disintegrating into a despotic reality within a democratic formality into a full fledged one party, dictatorship.
Within weeks after the so called “Overwhelming Victory” the Labor Party began settling scores with people who did not vote for them. People are beginning to understand what is a stake. Is it too late?
It is not as if Dominicans did not know before the fact, the writing was on the wall everywhere in big bold letters!
According to Nyaquoi Gehgan Bowman who analyzed the possibility of Liberia becoming a one party state A one-party state is undemocratic; it does not allow the electorates alternatives from which to make informed political choices. Decision making is often exoteric and vested in a small unit of the governing party and anyone outside the sphere of the ruling clique is considered politically irrelevant. Moreover, the state becomes dictatorial and supreme power is vested in the hands of one man. In such society, freedom is suppressed, and modernity is rarely achieved because those outside of the governing cliques do not freely contribute their quotas to the development of the state, and the overarching effect of that is that certain segment of society becomes disenfranchised, discontent and rebellious. End quote.
These signs were obvious in Dominica even before the last election but too many people turned the other way and instead accepted bribes at the risk of setting their country on this dangerous path.
Responsible Citizenship
We cannot blame anyone but Dominicans for what will befall Dominica. In this age of information ignorance is a choice. The consequences of corrupt and dictatorial regimes around the world are there for everyone to see. It defies reason that people would choose to support and enable a corrupt and dictatorial regime for our country, but lamentably many Dominicans did. Why?
There is a concept called responsible citizenship. Responsible citizens defined as having the knowledge about their role in their communities, their country, and their world. Responsible citizens participate in activities that make their world a better place. Responsible citizens are change agents that act out against social, economic, and environmental injustice. They guard and protect their democracy.
A responsible citizen must exercise Civic Responsibility which comprises actions and attitudes associated with democratic governance and social participation. Civic responsibility can include participation in government, church, volunteers and memberships of voluntary associations. Actions of civic responsibility can be displayed in advocacy for various causes, such as political, economic, civil, environmental or quality of life issues.
The adverse of that concept is irresponsible citizenship, where citizens could not care less about whether their Governance is corrupt, or the regime that serves them is dictatorial or not.
In light of the all that was clear, all that was obvious in Dominica due to the actions of a corrupt and dictatorial regime, one would think that people would have chosen to be responsible citizens, to protect their democracy, and save their nation from a one party corrupt dictatorial regime, but unfortunately in Dominica, so many, too many choose to help nurture and protect tyranny in their country.
As the saying goes, “A people deserve a government it elects for itself. Good luck Dominica! How will you explain your actions or in-actions to your grandchildren? You sold them out!