{"id":319472,"date":"2024-04-02T13:47:02","date_gmt":"2024-04-02T17:47:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/?p=319472"},"modified":"2024-04-02T13:47:02","modified_gmt":"2024-04-02T17:47:02","slug":"commentary-an-elders-portrait-of-pm-skerrit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/homepage\/homepage-carousel\/commentary-an-elders-portrait-of-pm-skerrit\/","title":{"rendered":"COMMENTARY: An elder’s portrait of PM Skerrit"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

We live in dangerous times: right passes for wrong, lies for truth, deceit for intelligence. Too many of those once considered astute Public Servants have been transformed into zealots.<\/p>\n

\n
I study Dominica’s political leaders. The current Prime Minister is so far gone that he is predictable. The dark side delighted in, the wrong road selected, reveled in, traveled.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
From his words, his postures, his reactions, I compiled a sketch. Incomplete it is. But one sure to embody some of his essences. Many may disagree. But this I owe the Dominican people first, with Mr. Skerrit next.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
My impression is of a stubborn man, someone who is uncommitted to addressing matters, making moves according to his own clock. He’s not the soaring fluency of an orator, so he sticks to the basics, content with his mental scripts.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
On the issue of the highly hailed national CBI patrimony, there are those who believe that\u00a0 Mr. Skerrit has been lacking in push and power; unable or unwilling to pull others along with his explanations at accountability. I am one of those with faded expectations. His chosen way has been the slow, slippery step, a leader carving out his narrative in his own style.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
I struggle to detect if there’s a method to the seeming sluggishness, awkwardness. There are positive days, then there are most days that leave empty. Often, the latter commands both clock and calendar.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
One does not need to be a linguist or a soothsayer to so discern. His most recent pronouncement, however, as regards accountability for monies allegedly kept outside of Dominica’s Treasury, especially since some five years earlier, speaking publicly, he had promised to make a fool of then leader of Opposition, Mr Lennox Linton–after the competent and distinguished professionals of the Finance Ministry [does] the tabulation. This has not materialized and I am still kept in the dark. Indeed, the entire Nation awaits with anticipated breath.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Regardless of whether he has been hearing the tumults and dismay from the local environment, including those who matter the most to him, or came from deep inside of himself, as a matter of conviction, he has failed to deliver. And I paused and looked at him again. This time differently.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Differently, because the PM, the most senior leader has edged around this issue of accountability, and made himself small. When the hopes of despairing citizens are a matter for which war should have been declared, he has drifted, done deep dives out of contention.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
My position is simple and sharp, possibly searing too. If this CBI wealth cannot be the best of life for ALL Dominicans, (every single one of them), then let there be the death of it.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Mr Skerrit should be listening, is old enough, to do all the absorbing necessary. Most regrettably, (most shamelessly), he has wrapped himself in a white towel, raised the white flag. Without a scintilla of decency and love for one of the most fundamental principles of a democracy–ACCOUNTABILITY– Mr Skerrit has surrendered in the most abject, deplorable manner conceivable. He’s condemned Dominicans–including the connected that are connecting– to rank captivity, prisoners of a new colonialism, an extended slavery.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
As a descendant of human trafficking–often referred to as slavery–I am enraged at this 21st-century outrage. He too, a descendant of human trafficking, I would have thought that Mr Skerrit would have been more enraged than I. Cumulatively, he has been too uncouth, untruthful, and condescending in his public pronouncements.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
This is an hour for the foreign exploiters, who call themselves PARTNERS to recognize the simmering sentiments, feel the heat of our passions. Incidentally, partners represent sometimes,\u00a0 an assault on senses, intellect, [and] capacity for understanding.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
I look around and await that fire that is seen, heard and felt during the passions of national elections. Goddamn it! Dominicans are fighting for economic freedom, not for giving power to leaders who subjugate them to…their foreign partners and their Chinese friends.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Let those same passions and power demonstrated during national elections be brought to bear on the vandalizers of this country’s dignity, the profaners of the true destiny of the Dominican people.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Dominicans have shown themselves capable of that same degree of commitment during elections, why not now, when the promise of the people is being drained away and diminished?<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
We disregard it at our own peril.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We live in dangerous times: right passes for wrong, lies for truth, deceit for intelligence. Too many of those once considered astute Public Servants have been transformed into zealots. I study Dominica’s political leaders. 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