Dear Editor,
I am becoming more and more fed up and sick of the Prime Minister Gaston Browne.
The PM acts as if every Antiguan and Barbudan who has gotten a scholarship during his tenure owes him something personally, or owes his party loyalty.
I stumbled upon one of the videos posted on this very site, of PM Browne speaking about the internal conflict in the UPP. There are moments in his monologue where he discusses what he considers to be his “magnanimity” and the “magnanimous” nature of his party.
One such example which he chose to use on national radio was the fact that (according to him) the son of an opposition member and former candidate obtained a government scholarship to study. The young man is also a vocal member of the youth arm of the main opposition party.
The Prime Minister is heard saying, “We could have taken the position that you can’t be bashing the government everyday and get government money, but we didnt take that position. We don’t hate anybody. We are not vindictive.”
His comments demonstrate one of the many diseases at the core of the party politics in this country, and that is that politicians see no separation between themselves and public resources or public office.
The personalisation of power and authority once they are elected and the personalization of public resources is a sickening norm in Antigua and Barbuda. How low are we as a nation when the Prime Minister says publicly that he ought to be commended for not victimising the children of members of the opposition / youth who are themselves vocal against his government???
The PM said, “We could have take the position that you can’t be bashing the government everyday and get government money.” What in the hell is that supposed to mean? Does that mean that citizens ought to fear that speaking against leaders or policies which they do not support will result in their being blacklisted by the government, unable to access opportunities funded by the government? The fact that the PM even suggests that this is something that could happen were he and his Cabinet to choose to do so is an indication of how systemically ****ed our government is.
It is unethical, immoral, and ought to be illegal for any public official to take measures to restrict or deny any person access to public resources on the basis of their political affiliation or political views or their lack of support for any administration.
And we know it happens all the time. Victimisation by politicians is nothing new to Antigua and Barbuda and its citizens know it well. It is so ingrained in our culture and in the expectations we have of our mostly worthless politicians that the Prime Minister can say that for him and his government not to victimise persons where they had the opportunity to do so should be seen as “magnanimity”.
They treat government and state resources as if they belong to them. They act as if any benefit you receive from the state are benefits which came to you by their personal favour.
They are so accustomed to intervening in what ought to be an unbiased merit and needs based system of distribution and manipulating it so that they can distribute benefits on the basis of favour, that they have forgotten that that benefits given to citizens from the public coffers ought to be given in a transparent, unbiased, merit and needs based way in the first place.
The have personalized every state asset, programme and resource. Check you minister to get that done, Check your minister for the simplest of things.
They have destroyed the public service, making it inept, bloated with unqualified personnel, corrupted with politically biased hires, and total incapable of impartial and unbiased administration. You are encouraged to check a politician for access to everything.
This is not the first time that Browne has done this. Anyone who speaks ill of his behaviour, his policies, or his administration, he knee jerk reaction is to suggest that are hypocritical because they enjoyed “xyz” benefits from “my administration” and are therefore somehow ungrateful.
By that pathetic logic, every pensioner should support him, everyone who uses medical benefits should support him, everyone who bought land from the government should support him, everyone employed or contracted by the state should support him, everyone who bought a government hom should support him, etc.
The sad sad thing is that this is how politicians in this pathetic country legitimately behave. They act as if their purpose is to “sell” public resources in exchange for political support.
They have been doing it for so long that they talk about it openly as if it were an ethically acceptable norm. And citizens have been turned into shoeless, ravenous whores, selling their support whoever comes offering the biggest inducements and whoever “helps” the most.
These disgusting politicians don’t feel citizens are entitled to a fair opportunity to access state benefits on the mere basis of being citizens. The concept is totally lost on them. Gaston literally believes that every opportunity to wrongly victimise someone that he does not take is a bragging right that demonstrates his virtue.
There is something fundamentally frightening about a public official who routinely says that he has many opportunities for wrongdoing, and ought to be commended for not taking them. What kind of third world, banana republic, keep us poor and backward, kind of politics is that???
I once witnessed Cutie Benjamin do the same thing. He got up in Parliament extolling the virtues of hi party and said its success was due to what it “did for people” and then began to list public servants BY NAME ON LIVE NATIONAL TELEVISION saying, “We educated so and so, and we educated so and so.” These people act like a ****ing mafia. You cannot receive any benefit whilst they are in office without them feeling that you owe some sort of debt of gratitude and loyalty.
If I am a citizen and I apply for a scholarship, and am approved by a board, and go a study, why in the hell is the Prime Minister of the country calling my name on public radio as an example of someone he could have victimized, but chose not to??? And he wonders why I might not support him and his pack of hyenas??
This place is sick and dangerous. So what, all government homes for sale are Gaston Browne homes? All scholarships for citizens are Gaston Browne scholarships?
All small grants for businesses are Gaston grants? All land for sale to citizens from the government are Gaston lands? Does anyone not see how sick this is?? And when you run into the roadblocks created by the ineptitue of the system which they themselves engineered or failed to properly engineer, you are encouraged to “check the minister” thereby instituting a personal relationship of clientelism where you find yourself begging politicians for benefits for which there ought to be an effective unbiased process.
And even when there is such an effective process, you still run the risk of people having your name on public radio on their Saturday Jack & Ass Show speaking about you as if it is by the grace of Gaston Browne that you have known progress in your life. Absolutely low and sick. It is mind-boggling to me that Antiguans and Barbudans want to live like this
And the way he carries around this useless pack of backside lickers who call in to worship him is pathetic and saddening. They jump online to attack anyone who expresses frustration with affairs in this country. Grown ass men and grown as women acting like a possie of teenage brats. Undignified sycophantic idol worship. Who sings the loudest a supper must get the most pie, I suppose. They dare not express a contrary thought for fear of censure. What a shameless joke.
Gaston wants a medal for each time he does not victimize. But any right thinking citizen should be concerned that the thought occurred to him in the first place, or that the opportunity for him and others to do so freely exists without legal restraint or repercussion. When he has these asinine outings on his station where he speaks this horseshi**, he is essential reminding us that he sees himself as untouchable. It’s basically, “I could have screwed you over, but I didn’t. Remember that and be thankful.”
William Moore
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