The Meaning of Hammie La

Hamilton Lashley began his political career in the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) camp in the capacity as one of Delisle Bradshaw’s "right hand men". He then switched allegiance to the Democratic Labour Party (DLP), before switching back to the BLP, and last week made his most recent switch back again to the DLP!


But Lashley is far from being alone in this capacity to jump back and forth between the BLP and the DLP! There is, for example, the case of Clyde Mascoll, who jumped from being leader of the DLP one week, to being a minister in the BLP government by the following week. And there are several others, including Kerrie Symmonds and Wendell Callendar.


The question the Barbadian people should be asking themselves about all of this is:- "Why is it so easy for a politician to jump from the BLP into the DLP and vice versa?"


Well, the simple answer is that there is no real difference between the DLP and the BLP! Thus, "Hammie La" and Clyde Mascoll were not required to change one iota of their political philosophy or ideology as they moved between the BLP and the DLP! Indeed, Lashley and Mascoll can feel equally "at home" in both the BLP and the DLP!


And so, the real meaning of the Hammie La version of political musical chairs is that it really does not matter much whether a politician is in the BLP or the DLP, since there is no significant ideological or programmatic difference between these two parties - the only difference is one of personalities!


It is high time therefore that the Barbadian people stop fooling themselves. Clearly, the fate of Hammie La, or Clyde Mascoll for that matter, is a political triviality - part of the comedy that passes for politics in Barbados.


For sure, we in the Peoples Empowerment Party (PEP) found it extremely comical when Hammie La identified the policy of free bus rides for school-children and the establishment of constituency councils as key reasons for his opportunistic switch.


Hammie La could read the DLP’s General Election manifesto from cover to cover, and he will not find a single reference to "free bus rides for school-children". Indeed, if he wants to discover where this policy truly came from, he would have to consult page 20 of the Nation Newspaper of 10th January 2008, and the report on the PEP published therein under the headline - "PEP Offering Free Bus Rides And Medicines". The Nation reported PEP’s Bobby Clarke as follows:- "We (a PEP government) are going to take out (abolish) bus fares for children .... It should be free..... The Government doesn’t gain anything from the $1 schoolchildren pay".


Similarly, the proposal for the establishment of constituency councils first appeared in PEP’s widely distributed leaflet entitled - "Bajans, Take Back Your Government!" - almost two years before the DLP manifesto was published. The only difference is that we proposed that the Councils be elected by the people, and be given significant resources!


And these are not the only purloined policies! For example, Minister Sinckler continues to prattle on about the proposed establishment of a "Department of Elder Affairs". Once again, there is absolutely no mention of this in the DLP manifesto, while page 12 of PEP’s manifesto states as follows:- "We will establish a specialized government "Department of Elder Affairs", with a mandate to secure the welfare and well being of our Barbadian elders and to create national structures and initiatives for the expression and utilization of the collective wisdom of our elders".