LaPlaine, the rural southeastern agricultural constituency, which has been represented by the UWP opposition leader, Mr Ron Green, for past fifteen years, was ‘ground zero’ in the recent Dominican elections. The Prime Minister pumped undisclosed huge sums of money into the constituency, airlifted Diaspora Dominicans and gave out handouts to voters in a vicious attempt to buy, win, steal or take the constituency and deliver a knockout punch to Mr Green. Skerrit’s trickery worked and today we have a pending political crisis due to his actions. The La Plaine folks and well meaning Dominicans are ready to fight back at this injustice and uphold their dignity and the integrity of their land just like Mr Pierre Colaire and his band of unarmed peasants did in April 1893, on a hillside overlooking the Sari-Sari River. They bravely and openly defied the British Crown in an unarmed and emotional protest to prevent an exorbitant, unfair and illegal land tax.
In 1893, Colonial Governor Hayes Smith decided to make an example of at least one individual in an attempt to quell the rising tide of dissent all over Dominica regarding the new tax. Peasant community leader Mr Pierre Colaire was chosen by Governor Smith to be the sacrificial lamb.
In 2009, history repeated itself as Dominica’s Skerrit in his quest to be supreme leader of the land, used his river of money (source and amount kept a secret) to defeat Mr Green by any means necessary and install his disciple, the pretentious born again Christian St Jean, as the representative. For now he has temporarily succeeded.
Skerrit and his gang used some fifty-one (51) overseas Dominicans to vote in La Plaine and if this was not enough, the night of the elections, after Mr Green was declared the winner, the next morning’s recount registered a loss for Mr Green by two votes. How could this happen? Remember Act V, Scene II in Shakespeare’s Othello: ‘Kill me tomorrow, let me live to-night’.
Mr Green has challenged the decision and method of winning in court. Dominicans of all persuasions should support Mr Green’s efforts in order to preserve our fragile democracy because this is a much bigger cause than the political players and characters that are currently on the scene. Failure to act is setting up a very dangerous and consequential precedence with far reaching consequences. We want our country’s affairs to be debated and dealt with in the halls of parliament by gentle ladies and honorable men — not in the streets by mobs and mayhem.
In 1893, La Plaine peasants were no match for a modern well-trained and heavily armed military. When the smoke cleared, four (4) barefooted peasants lay in a pool of blood and several were arrested. Commander Bailey and Governor Smith had won the day and in the process disrespected, humiliated, brutalized and ‘cut down’ peasants from a small impoverished mountain village.
Likewise in 2009, Mr Ron Green could not match the trickery, illegalities, irregularities, fraudulence, deceitfulness and the bending of the laws, which ‘the money Goliath’ Skerrit and his gang had perfectly planned and executed. Like our forebears 116 years ago, those of us who hail from this community felt cheated, humiliated, robbed and disrespected.
The OAS Election Observer Mission cited several irregularities leading to the elections. Among them are (a) bribery of overseas nationals to vote; (b) bloated voters’ list; (c) no voter identification; (d) media access on the state owned radio station among others.
Prior to voting day, the former chief justice of the OECS Supreme Court and a brilliant Dominican scholar, Mr Bryan Alleyne, noted the legal implications of contravening the country’s election laws through an act of bribery, alluding to free airline tickets as likely to constitute such an offence. Mr Ricky Singh, Caribbean journalist and regional affairs correspondent for the Caribbean News Agency wrote, “If ever there was the need for a serious review of the policy that guides the 15-member Caribbean Community (Caricom) team in monitoring national elections, the conduct of the observers this year in Dominica underscores the necessity.”
On election night a subdued voice of Skerrit (sensing the irreversible damage he had done) was heard on the airways pledging to continue to work with the opposition to move the country forward. He extended a hand of friendship and goodwill to the opposition. He said, “We recognize that we need to work together to move this country forward.” What do you mean, sir, and can you please explain and elaborate on your request?
What about the gross and open election irregularities which you and your gang engineered? Can we discuss the recommendations of the OAS Observer team first to begin with? Well if you care about our country and your legacy, this is the correct thing to do. But do you want history to just regard you as the man who occupied the office of the PM? Before your olive branch is accepted, the election irregularities ought to be agenda item number one. But do you really care now that you have ‘taken’ 18 seats ‘Dear Supreme Leader’ in the most fraudulent elections in our history’?
Like Skerrit, Governor Smith won the tragic day in the La Plaine highlands in 1893, but our people won the ‘war’ and restored dignity and hope to themselves and generations like this writer, that followed. British Crown colony rule and governance was seriously affected and ridiculed because of the La Plaine Uprising. The British government conducted a Commission of Inquiry into the incident, which resulted in the changing of the manner in which it imposed and collected taxes in the colonies. It also resulted in the punishment of some of the officers involved.
Will the court case against the election authorities bear similar results? What role will the OAS team play in the court proceedings? This writer urges any of his La Plaine Diaspora colleagues who were given a free flight to vote to please have a flip of conscience and provide an affidavit for the courts. You will be saving your country and preserving its democracy which is the highest civic calling for any patriotic citizen.
I often reflect on the events of 116 years ago in the La Plaine Highlands as related to me by my late grandfather, whose father was part of the failed negotiating team between the parish priest and Colaire’s small band of peasants. I also reflect on the events of December 18, 2009, and the manner in which ordinary La Plaine folks who left our small community for greener pastures, were used and made political mercenaries in a much larger game they did not understand.
I also reflect on Papa reminding me on a hot summer’s day during the August holidays in the third year of my high school career n 1976 while we were distilling Bay Oil not too far from Colaire’s small monument and the site where our folks laid dead in a pool of blood in the highlands. He told me to ensure that I relate the stories of that sad day in 1893 to my children in order to give them perspective of where we are today and ‘from whence we came’.
Today we stand on the giant shoulders of Mr Pierre Colaire and our determined peasant forebears who were humiliated and murdered by British forces while defending their impoverished community and meager life possessions with honor, dignity and purpose. Today we stand firmly with Mr Green for the very same reasons of preserving the truth and our fragile democracy and our dignity by exposing the evils by those in power like Skerrit who masquerade as good servants, noble and honest custodians of our land.
The story of that tragic day in the La Plaine highlands in April 1893 is matched by the December 18, 2009 election in which the La Plaine constituency was bought and snatched from opposition leader Ron Green with untold manufactured flaws island wide.
Anthropologists say that history is cyclical and repeats itself. Today, once again, my small agricultural community of La Plaine is viewed as a beacon of hope to preserve our dignity just like it did more than a century ago. Like Mr Pierre Colaire, Mr Green should not get discouraged in spite of losing the ‘day’ on December 18, 2009 in spite of condemnation from all those big and small profiteers and benefactors of the Skerrit gravy train.
In the end, like our brave forefathers, he will win the ‘war’ and leave a legacy of pride, purpose and a strong sense of destiny, duty and identity for generations to come. Yes, indeed, a good name is better than riches, fame, power and fortune. Regardless of the court’s final verdict, dignity, respect and history are on Mr Ronald Green’s side.
As my friend and high school mate Dr Irving ‘Eipigh’ Pascal writes, “May the spirits of our ancestors be pleased.
