THE STRUGGLE FOR POWER AND THE POTENTIAL UNDERMINING OF LEADERSHIP
One is reminded of the popular political science media series of Alex Pawol Bruno that he referred to as "Politics & Power." One cannot but draw some lessons from the series that the United Workers Party (UWP), as a 32 year old, supposedly mature political organization can learn from.
The dynamics of power and politics in any organization is a reality and no organization including a political organization like UWP, a supposedly mature political party can ignore it. Professionalism in the management of an organization, political or otherwise helps reduce the potential negative consequences of the struggle of power and politics within a team but even among the most professionally run organization, one cannot conclude that there are no individuals or power centers without vested interests and a willingness to fight to preserve such power irrespective of the harm done to the larger body.
The thing is, the power and politics struggle is as old as human nature and recorded history. Therefore, it always find ways of raising its ugle head. We cannot be naive and ignore the fact that by nature the primal urge to resist those in power and in some cases to challenge or undermine authority. This interplay of forces within any organization could result in devastating consequence for the organization and everyone associated with it.
In that regard, reference is made to the comments of serveral individuals who have commented both privately and publicly under a post advertising a meeting of the UWP Marigot Constituency Association. Florence Attidore Stedman, Tanya Dickson, Ferdinand Lawrence and others have raised concerns over what appears to be the absence of the political leader on the poster advertising the meeting in Marigot.
Florence asked a simple but important and legitimate question- where is the Political Leader?
Viva has advanced some uninformed opinions but the onus is on the organizers of the planned meeting to answer. They need to provide an explanation as the supporters of the UWP have a legitimate and reasonable expectation that the political leader of the UWP would be part of the planning of such a meeting and in fact ought to be featured as a participant at such a meeting, especially as this is the first public meeting in which the deputy political leader of the party will be speaking following his ill-advised "YES" vote in parliament for the passage of the Electoral Reform Bills.
One notes that the meeting is just a constituency meeting but others are suggesting a more sinister motive. They are suggesting that the leader of the party may have sidelined, blindsided or not involved in the planning of the event. If that is close to the truth, it would not be a positive development and such conduct must be rebuked and immediately sanctioned by the party's executive.
There has been an uncomfortable sense out there of a small but deepening pocket of resistance within the UWP that aims to undermine the party's current political leadership. That cannot be allowed to persist.
It is high time that the UWP as a supposedly mature political party starts exhibiting a higher level of professionalism, competence and maturity in manifesting a sense of internal unity and cohesion in building strength to forge ahead as a serious political organization .......if the party truly expects to achieve any political succes in the near future.
How long can this appearance or real divisive power struggle continue just to salvage spent power and/or to rehabilitate the potential leadership of another?
These small but frequent signs of potential disunity cannot be good for the party.
They are ill-advised and cannot be sustained..... if the party expects to achieve political success. How long will this be allowed to continue.?
Clearly, some individuals within the party are refusing to accept the outcome at the last delegates conference and efforts are still being made to undermine the authority of the political leadership of the party, some overtly and others more covertly.
Those who are creating and repeatedly facilitating this appearance of disunity within the party structure must be singled out and dealt with swiftly and appropriately. This is urgent and imperative. It must be addressed.
The executive of the party must ensure that its management structure is aligned and singing from the same hymn sheet as we rapidly approach another election campaign.
Having observed the above, one is certain that if the organizers of the meeting have involved, planned and discussed the meeting with the political leadership and executive of the party, everyone will be more than prepared and willing to join in solidarity with the individuals on the poster, who are promoting the meeting.
At this juncture, Hon. Delbert Paris has some explaining to do to the people of Marigot as an independent senator in parliament re his ill-advised "YES" vote but to the extent that he is the Deputy Leader of the UWP, the political leader of the party should be part of the planning of this meeting and MUST be invited to be part of this meeting.
Anything short of this would further damage his image and standing within the party to his own detriment and potential aspiration of leadership within the party. It is said, one who fails to be a good followers and who is incapable of accepting defeat cannot be a good leader.
The focus at this late juncture cannot be so solely on advancing and/or rehabilitation of the self inflicted damaged of a potential leader. The mission ought to be bigger than that and some people need to come to terms with that sooner rather than later or face the consequences of their selfish actions.
As supporters of UWP, we must privately and publicly call on all officials of the party to stop the childish unproductive games. The public is watching and taking note. These actions has and continues to reflect bad on the party negatively impacting the chances of the party's success and by extension the country's development.
Some people seem unable to, refuse to realize the negative impact of their conduct and even their deliberate, conscious conspicuous silence/absence on the party or perhaps they simply do not care.
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