The Wrath of Their Tin God

It should be clear to all who have been paying attention to the socio-political landscape in Dominica for the past 15 years that regarding the current attention shown to the residence of the Prime Minister of Dominica, Hon. Roosevelt Skerrit, by a small but noisy and belligerent segment of our population, the only option that would be satisfactory to them is one that subjugates and humiliates Roosevelt Skerrit; in fact, any option that would denude Skerrit of any semblance of his authority, privilege, and personal appeal would suffice. The subjugation of Roosevelt Skerrit is what the United Workers Party (UWP) has been after. Recall some of the first statements uttered by certain members of the top echelon of the Party when Hon. Linton was anointed leader of the UWP and then when he won the Marigot constituency in the 2014 General Elections. It was suggested that he was heading to Parliament to halt what they perceived as the abuses and ills of Roosevelt Skerrit and the Dominica Labour Party (DLP) and “take back our country.” Of course, Linton quickly learnt that he lacked the prerequisites to launch a credible challenge to Skerrit and the DLP; the political authority, the political capital, and the political acumen. Still, Lennox Linton’s delusion about the extent of his power to force Skerrit to yield to his, and the “patriots’,” rants has never waned. Linton’s reign has therefore been characterized by a constant struggle, a fight to get the proverbial upper hand in power relations with Roosevelt Skerrit and the Dominica Labour Party. 

His recent investment in power resources to advance a narrative of financial impropriety in this residence matter is consequently, just another of his strategies to gain further advantage politically, this time not so much directly against Roosevelt Skerrit but for Lennox Linton, himself. The DLP has offered one explanation to Linton’s obsession with the rental for the PM’s residence; that the UWP must engage in activities that will be adequately convincing to its foreign backers that it maintains relevance and political capital in Dominica, especially in light of the December 6, 2019 calamitous election campaign that Linton led. This may be so, but it ignores a few key features of the local political context in which Linton operates. It is the position of this analysis that the recent series of public utterances taken by the Opposition Leader, Hon. Lennox Linton, are intended to make him appear to be the only political leader currently capable of standing up to Roosevelt Skerrit and representing the voices of the “true patriots of this land” in the hope that this image will secure his re-election as party leader at the Party’s upcoming convention, which should be held in November 2020, we have been told. His activities are all, therefore, motivated by private self-interest.

Structuration theory can help us better understand this thesis. In a nutshell, proponents posit that socio-political outcomes are a result of a constant interaction between agential features and structural conditions. There is perpetual bouncing back and forth among actors and between actors and the structures that encompass them. These structures could be institutions, culture, laws, or broadly speaking, the “environment.” The actor influences the structures and vice versa. From this perspective, Linton’s manoeuvrings and utterances since the Dec 6, 2019 polls are meant to interact with and influence the laws, institutions, actors (his supporters, the Police, the judiciary, his opponents)etc in such a manner that this interaction will influence their outputs in his favour, viz resurrect his image and engender his eventual re-election. Let us more closely examine the conditions, the environment, in which he operates in order to elaborate this thesis. 

Powerless to hold on to his base, incapable of designing and maintaining an informed and coherent national agenda that appeals to most Dominicans, impotent in the face of Skerrit’s political appeal and the DLP’s political capital, struggling to boost his national appeal as a leader who is adequately prepared for the challenges that Dominica faces, Hon. Lennox Linton is fighting for his political survival. First, he and the UWP have created the structural conditions that constrain his appetite for political power. The UWP has campaigned on a promise to limit to two terms the length of time that a political leader can serve as PM. The number “two” has therefore been implanted in the minds of the electorate as significant to the tenure of a political leader, at least from the UWP’s perspective. Not surprisingly, the very same night of the last General Elections members of his party were already suggesting that Linton’s back to back defeat at the polls confirm that he lacks the wherewithal to lead the Party to victory and therefore has lost legitimacy to continue as Party leader. Additionally, although the results of the December 2019 General Elections are remarkable in their defeat for the UWP, it is the overall political temperature that is not reflected in the results that Linton must have felt. On the ground on Dec 6, the overall sentiment was that Linton had overplayed his hand, badly handled the campaign, and had “gone too far” in his exuberance, indeed desperation, for the seat of the Executive; and this was expressed not only by Labourites. There was simply a general sentiment of distaste and anger at how Linton’s UWP had sought to transform the political landscape. This observation was later reinforced by the former Deputy Leader of the UWP, Counsel Joshua Francis, when he admitted on a radio talk show that “mistakes’ were made during the campaign that had costed the UWP severely. Linton’s leadership and tenure as leader were further under scrutiny. Third, following that December 6 defeat, his second at the hands of Roosevelt Skerrit and his worse defeat of the two elections over which he presided as leader of his party, there have been calls even from within his core support base for a change in direction and for new leadership; at one moment, Linton , himself, was engaged in a public dispute on social media with some of his most ardent supporters! This takes us to a fourth element, the rise of the Alternative Peoples’ Party (APP).  Few have denied that the rise of the APP is a direct consequence of that abysmal performance by Linton. The Party’s executive is essentially a rebellious clique of former very active members of the deep core of the UWP! Linton is therefore immersed in political quicksand that sucks him deeper with each action. And there have been actions, all of which have seen a high investment of power resources! 

Disasters often have the effect of offering political leaders the opportunity to really reinforce their legitimacy as representatives of the people. COVID afforded Linton this opportunity; much as Erika, Maria, and Rexit (the departure of Ross) did. Unsurprisingly, he squandered each. One of his first significant attempts at a power play to resurrect his image was to insist upon a stimulus package to provide relief to Dominicans during the COVID pandemic. At that time, leaders across the globe were doing likewise and it seems, he concluded that this was precisely what was needed for Dominica, at that time. In typical UWP flair, in early April, not long after Dominica began implementing its COVID management strategy, the UWP launched its “Dominica COVID 19 Response;” which, curiously, was a hodgepodge of current Government handout (the same “handouts” that Linton criticizes with so much contempt), concessions, already existing Government initiatives, and phantasmagoria. Linton estimates that the response would cost approximately $300 million and would be financed by CBI funds “less amounts used for public housing and other State projects.” Normally, a structured presentation by the Leader of the Opposition of a modern democracy could be appreciated, but Linton’s was ill-timed, typically uninformed, contradictory, and ill-advised. It was so out of place that it stood out as an obvious attempt by Linton to use the power resources of his party and his position as Leader of the Opposition to make himself look prime ministerial, i.e. to advance his own private interest.

Linton then saw a second opportunity for him to draw attention to himself and gain an advantage by using his favorite radio station to announce another “bomb” that, once again, did not burst: The Melissa Skerrit land transfer matter. Using the same histrionics that propelled him to national limelight in his years as a broadcaster, he claimed to have once again, caught Roosevelt Skerrit in financial impropriety. Again, he was so inebriated on hatred for Skerrit and so desperate to appear rich in knowledge, as a power resource, that he did not ask some of the most basic questions regarding that matter and so, within a few days, that “bomb” was defused and we have not heard about it since.

Linton’s most recent, and third, attempt at using the power resources associated with his political office (as Opposition Leader and Party Leader) to advance his selfish aspiration is his attack on the decision of Cabinet to rent  a residence for the Prime Minister and his family that is befitting of the status of the Head of Government, the most important political office in Dominica. Using as many variants of political rhetoric as possible (misinformation, emotionalism, disinformation, lies, and propaganda, for example), the UWP invested large amounts of media time (via Facebook, its usual local media outlets, and live Parliamentary broadcasts) and conceivably, some financial resources, to advance a narrative of malfeasance and an infinite number of ills against the Cabinet, specifically, Roosevelt Skerrit; moving from the factual ($32,000 rent) to the ludicrous ($64,000/rent). Vintage Lennox Linton! The subject matter is new, but the tactics, their packaging, and their delivery are all the same. It is almost as if he is saying: “I am the same Lennox whom you trust to dayclarway Skerrit and to keep him in his place!”  There is nothing in Cabinet’s decision to rent that edifice for the official residence of the PM of Dominica that warrants this investment of energy, emotions, material resources, and political capital by the UWP and it can only be explained as a desperate Linton fighting to condition the minds of his core supporters, whom he fears have started to turn against him, so that they will choose to re-elect him as party leader in a few months. 

It is not surprising that Linton’s recent antics have been motivated solely by his private interests because there is no record of Linton working for or on behalf of Dominicans, especially when it mattered most to them; neither after Erika, Maria, Rexit, or COVID. It has always been about him! In fact, while the Government and the DLP as an organization were busy attempting to protect and comfort persons during the implementation of emergency COVID-related measures, the Opposition Leader was showing off his cane eating and stationary bike riding skills. Lounging! Whenever he has had the opportunity to represent our collective voices and interests, he has pursued the promotion of his party or himself: his meeting with the Polisario and Almagro, the Secretary General of the OAS who seems to believe that his position affords him a veto over the constitutions and the Governments of certain member countries of the OAS; his signature (he has never denied that the signature is his) on a letter not asking for help for Dominicans but making promises on behalf of his party and himself; and, of course, his interviews with international media groups CBS and Aljazeera. The central focus in all these exploits are the private interests and political legitimacy of one man; the oft rejected Lennox Linton. At no time does the well-being of Dominican citizens feature in his work! So, no surprise here, just lingering disdain that a political leader, an aspiring Prime Minister of Dominica would be so absorbed in using political power enshrined in our Constitution to advance his interests over that of the people whom he has sworn to serve.

Unfortunately, we can predict that as the date of the UWP convention draws nearer, Linton will seek to invest more heavily in a public presence that, he hopes, will boost his image and secure his re-election. The noises will increase, the provocations will increase, the same antics that brought him national prominence and has won him core support will increase. This time he is not fighting nationally for a vote for the Office of the Prime Minister. This time, he is targeting the party faithful and he is using all his resources and that of his position as Opposition leader and party leader to structure the climate to his advantage. He knows what his core supporters want. Those core supporters want “boots on the ground” and they still believe (naively) that “international” actors will protect them against an imagined enemy. In the meanwhile, the UWP cannot, as yet, put forward a worthy alternative to Linton. Ah yes, he is sitting pretty! Maybe the Committee for Concerned Lawyers will nominate a candidate? Maybe.

In 2013, on the eve of Linton’s coronation as leader of the UWP, an actor who has strong ties to the UWP hierarchy was advised that a Linton leadership would be bad for the United Workers Party, bad for Dominica, and very good for Skerrit and the DLP. Since, the United Workers Party has lost both succeeding elections; the 2019 defeat being the worst in its history notwithstanding the reckless and near treasonous political investments of Linton and his gang of “patriots.” Moreover, in 2020, Roosevelt Skerrit has publicly stated, twice in the space of three weeks, that he is delighted with Linton as the Leader of the Opposition.  It remains to be seen if that simply worded and not-so-hidden message in that public declaration by the Hon. Roosevelt Skerrit is lost on those who support the UWP and the wider voting public. Meanwhile, the Tin God is busying himself waging his war that Dominica will lose.

Writer: Dr. Gerard Jean-Jacques (PhD, Political Science)

Areas of Specialization: Democracy, public policy, public management and governance, and power relations. The writer also has research interest in political parties, social network analysis, political speech, inter alia.