Contributed by Victor Lalmansingh
All is not well with Dominica. At this moment, there is a superficial calm about this island, except, possibly for the pitter patter of rain in the tropical forest and birds enjoying the nature isle. The history underlying this disquieting serenity germinated almost 20 years ago and, like an adolescent spurt, exploded regionally and internationally in the past 5-10 years. The island nation now has factual situations that leaves no one proud. The governing DLP administration has plunged this nation into despair. Poor health care, collapse of the agricultural industry while those in other EC nations are growing, no foreign exchange other than sale of citizenship, high youth unemployment, involvement with international crooks and criminal through diplomatic passport sale among other issues. Concurrently, we have a few individuals who claims the island is flourishing and all is well. This latter sector include perrenial DLP Freeloaders (Roosevelt Skerrit, Colin McIntyre, Reginald Austrie, Vince Henderson and others) and their close-knit friends and supporters.
Most Dominicans on island and abroad are familiar with several of the abuses of public funds that has occurred over the past 15-20 years; these include Bin Bobol, Fertilizer Bobol, Land Transfer Tax bobol, Diplomatic Passport Sales etcetera. While all of this is 'old news', these events set the stage for what now confronts Dominica. With one of the weakest economy in the entire Eastern Caribbean, Dominica has been rocked by huge misappropriation of public funds without accountability, Entanglement with International crooks and scoundrels and now its forth Rigged Election in fifteen years. Dominicans spared the rods on past transgressions and in the process created disgusting rotten monsters and Demi-Gods (DLP Freeloaders, a corps of lazy lawyers) and a cadre of close-knit DLP hangers-on who have disproportionately benefited from financial resources of a needy nation. The country is being disemboweled by persons who have been entrusted the privilege of managing its resources. Things are made worse by deep ideological and structural divisions on the island into DLP Camp and Others. If you support labor party, things are going fine and the island is developing. If you have an alternate view, a vision for island development, you are victimized, ostracized by those who holds power and by a corrupted police administration.
Many, probably greater than 50% of the population on island, are angry, feel cheated and are disillusioned. Several have vowed to leave the island by any means possible, but many have no where to go and are not able to leave. Some are of the view that they are obliged to stay and fight on to fix their nation. As of the December 2019, the DLP, through thievery, cheating and manipulation of government resources may have won the Battle, but the War is not over. The question is, where does this end? How will these deep wounds be healed? How can we fix this broken nation? At the moment, no one knows. People are incensed that sale of Dominican Citizenship and their Diplomatic Passport has been used to repeatedly cheat them out of a fair electoral process and a government of their choice. Many feel that they have been abandoned by the International Elections observers and regional governments; this latter group sent contingents of RSS goons to gas, shoot and intimidate them during the recent general election. But, alas, out of the ashes, the phoenix shall rise and, in time, it is anticipated that Dominicans will rise to rid the nation of this modern pestilence known as the Dominica Labor Party that has divided the nation, pitted neighbor and neighbor while getting rich in the process.
Dominica is in crisis and, the sooner this is realized, the more likely that a catastrophe will be averted. If Dominicans do not rid themselves of this group of Pirates by any means necessary, Dominica is doomed for oblivion. Without a doubt, it will be relegated to the archives as an island that once held developmental promises till elections were mysteriously stolen by a group of bandits who now feel that, to protect their hides, they have to rule the island for the rest of their lives. The options available to remedy this situation are limited. The naive response is to state that DLP broke Dominica so let them fix it. However, that will not happen because their success depend on keeping the nation broken. We are now hearing of hollow request from Skerrit and his deputy Austrie for Dominicans to unit to build the country! Are these guys really serious. Roosevelt Skerrit and Reginald Austrie are the chief architects of division in Dominica. How can they call for calm and unity when their existence and continuance in government depended on sewing disunity? More practical options include use of the (weak) Caribbean Court system which has never failed to disappoint, Civil Disobedience and rallying the International Community to impose restrictions /punitive actions on the aforementioned Dominican bandits (for example, by freezing / seizing assets and rescinding diplomatic recognition etcetera). However, the folks with the ultimate power to determine Dominica's fate reside in Dominica; the Public Servants, Teachers, Farmers, Fishermen, Truckers, Bus Driver, College student, Seniors, disillusioned Police Officers. They are the ones who will make the largest difference and unite this divided nation.
The hierarchy in DLP and their close-knit conspirators in Dominica and Barbados have engineered a strategy to maintain power. Their major, insidious strategy is to keep the population divided between us (Labor Party Supporters) and them (Others). In so doing, they have made the island poor, unstable and deeply divided, while simultaneously enriching themselves off the island's resources. Now these same individual are calling for unity! There can be no unity without atonement and justice. Sane-minded Dominican who truly care about the future of the country should do everything so that those responsible for pillaging the island's treasury for personal gain and to maintain political power, are not be allowed to get away with these atrocities. 2019 was rocky for Dominica. The world needs to take head! In particular, hypocritical Eastern Caribbean leaders Gaston Brown (Antigua and Barbuda), Mia Motley (Barbados) and Ralph Gonsalves (St. Vincent and the Grenadines) should caution their sister Labor Party Administration in Dominica about being overly smug and vindictive. They should be mindful that what starts in Dominica will inevitably spill over into islands, especially Antigua. Year 2020 holds many perils for this once promising nature gem, Dominica, that is rapidly being rendered a wasteland by those charged with managing its resources. Before Dominica can be fixed, those responsible for breaking it must admit their error, face the consequences of their action and seek the Nation's forgiveness. Anything less will not be palatable!
