Restoring the Essence of the Nation

Welcome to this column. I previously shared my thoughts with you under the "Freedom Speaks Column". But as many of you would know by now, I have resigned as the Political Leader of the DFP but I will remain actively engaged with the public in political discuss and actions. As an element of that, I am starting this new weekly column – Restoring the Essence of the Nation. But what do we mean by restoring the essence of the nation? Read on to understand.

"Think logically, and you have a chance to solve a problem. Reacting emotionally to it prolongs and worsens your dilemma". The forgoing was said by Stewart Stafford. Certainly, we in Dominica do have a huge problem on our hands – the soul of our nation is being sapped and we all know it as we observe that: our economy is weak and crumbling given the lack of sound economic management and the lack of economic dynamism and resilience; our democracy is being subverted; and the social cohesiveness of our society is worsening while there is much moral decay.

We all wish to solve this problem. We all want a better life for ourselves and our future generations. We want to preserve our Isle of Beauty and splendor; we want to continue to toil and to create a prosperous country; we want our people to remain strong and healthy and full of Godly reverent fear; and we certainty want the theme "all for each and each for all" to reign supreme! This is the essence of the nation and its is reflected in our national anthem. But our problem is that we are losing the essence of the nation.

But when one has a problem, talking about it raises awareness which is the first step towards a solution, but solving the problem goes way beyond that. Beyond awareness of the problem, there must be a determination of the root causes of the problem, and this must be followed by a determination of the best possible strategy to address those root causes (the true underlying constraints) in order to solve the problem. But the process must go further and requires that the implementation of the strategy must be planned and this must be followed by implementation actions! This is the essence of logical thinking and the constraint management processes.

Central to logical thinking is a determination of what are the root causes of a problem. I believe that at the core of our problem in Dominica is a corrupt ruling political regime that wants to hold onto power at any cost including through the use of military force and electoral fraud. They have employed every diabolical strategy that they can muster to subvert our democracy and subjugate the people and they seem to have no limits. The strategies they are employing include economic repression, bribery, corrupting public officials, compromising officials, subverting the institutions of good governance, installing leaders in the police force who would do the bidding of the corrupt regime while sidelining those leaders and officers who have integrity, victimization, divide and rule, brain washing and other psychologically perverse games.

There seems to me to be three critical interrelated strategies that are highly important to removing the current ruling regime from governance as removing them would clearly present the best opportunity to restore the essence of the nation. These three strategies are: attempts to unite the electorate towards success at unseating the current corrupt ruling regime and subsequently building a thriving nation; efforts to break the economic stranglehold that the ruling regime has on the people of Dominica; and continued and enhanced efforts to share information with our people as part of efforts to reach their hearts concerning appropriate political actions and overcoming bad politics such as the use of hate as a political strategy.

Let us begin to look at the details in relation to the first area – the need to unite the electorate. I concur with J. K. Rowling who noted "We are only as strong as we are united; as weak as we are divided". But as noted by another writer, even the weak become strong when they are united! The current ruling regime knows that very well and this is why they are actively seeking to divide and rule our people. But as Jay Weatherill puts it, "you don't get unity by ignoring the questions that have to be faced.

In the next article we will deepen the discussion on the need to unite the electors.

Please spread the word about this new weekly column in which we will be taking about the various strategies that can be employed to restore the essence of the nation which spans the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development and its link to good governance.

Kent Vital Economist