By Nathan ‘Jolly’ Green. August 18, 2020

So as we fully understand what I am writing about here, we must first understand what decency means. What is the state or quality of being decent?

The Cambridge English Dictionary describes decency as; behaviour that is good, moral, and acceptable in society.

The Oxford English Dictionary describes decency as; behaviour that conforms to accepted standards of morality or respectability.

Both so similar, not unlike my description, and probably what any decent person reading this would believe and understand as decency.

I, therefore, decided to look at indecency and first looked again at the Cambridge Dictionary. They describe it as morally offensive behaviour. Not much of a description really. So I looked at the synonyms and related words that went along with that description. It turned out to be a multitude of words, many we will recognise as attributable to the ULP regime currently ruling Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Many others and I have used most of these words in the past when writing about Ralph Gonsalves or his actions.

Abhorrent, amoral, bad, base, rotten to the core, cankered, criminal, dastardly, debauched, decadent, degenerate, demonic, depraved, devilish, diabolical, disgraceful, dissipated, dissolute, enormity, evildoer, flagitious, godless, grotesque, grotesquely, heinous, immoral, impure, indecent, inglorious, malevolent, malignant, monstrous, no good, obscene, outrageous, psychopathic, rotten, satanic, scandalous, scummy, seamy, seedy, shocking, sinful, sleazy, sordid, squalid, subhuman, tawdry, force of evil, unconscionable, unethical, unprincipled, unsavoury, unscrupulous, vile, villainous, wicked.

Ralph Gonsalves has degraded the norms of Vincentian political civility so profoundly, for so long, that it is easy to become numb to each offence.

Is there no bottom for this prime minister? That question has long since answered itself, but here is another: Is there no bottom for the ULP? Where is the outrage from the parliamentary colleagues? Where is the simple, crucial declaration from Gonsalves own side of the aisle that his behaviour is unacceptable, where exactly is the decency from within the party, are they all indecent? There is nothing left-versus-right about this; it is all very clearly right versus wrong.

Yet what all the nasty episodes have in common — apart from indicating a textbook personality disorder — is the roar of silence from most ULP supporters in response. Gonsalves treats the Unity Labour Party as if he owns it lock-stock and barrel; he manages the country in the same way. He has championed all policy priorities, makes speeches and declarations for every ministry, and that is reason enough for the once-proud promoters of “family values” to countenance behaviour from the bully pulpit that none of them would tolerate at their dinner tables.

Every time Ralph Gonsalves sullies the national discourse, he makes the ULP’s already-contentious politics a little meaner. To confront that behaviour does not require abandoning one’s partisan principles. It just requires acknowledging higher ones.

Never one parliamentary ULP member has ever said publicly that Gonsalves should apologise for some of his behaviours. Most have remained silent. At the same time, others have shown support which in itself is an indecent failure and speaks volumes about the state of the ULP today.

During this time of a pandemic, the Vincentian nation needs constituency leaders who bring us together; Ralph Gonsalves continues to divide SVG with actions that defy both logic and decency. For a long time now some ULP ministers have called for violence to be used against NDP supporters, talking of setting the ULP dogs on them. It happened in Kingstown at the House of Representatives, parliament; the NDP opposition leaders were thrown out of parliament by police officers, some thrown down the stairs, resulting in one sustaining serious back injuries. Not one ULP parliamentarian had the decency to speak out about that. Could that of happened without the approval or a nod from Gonsalves, remember he thinks he owns SVG, so I suppose that includes the police and parliament.

On the part of the police, this was an act of gross indecency, on the part of every ULP member of parliament, including Gonsalves, it was even worse. Because as well as being an act of gross indecency is was also; abhorrent, amoral, bad, base, rotten to the core, cankered, criminal, dastardly, debauched, decadent, degenerate, demonic, depraved, devilish, diabolical, disgraceful, dissipated, dissolute, evil, flagitious, godless, grotesque, heinous, immoral, impure, indecent, inglorious, malevolent, malignant, monstrous, no good, obscene, outrageous, psychopathic, rotten, satanic, scandalous, scummy, seamy, seedy, shocking, sinful, sleazy, sordid, squalid, subhuman, tawdry, unconscionable, unethical, unprincipled, unsavoury, unscrupulous, vile, villainous, wicked.

Let us be clear — there was nothing holy about tossing protesting NDP MP’s and Senators down the stairs. On this day, parliament was opened with a prayer but closed with a sin. The act on that day was indecent and worse than that un-Christian. Gonsalves, the prime minister, can do a Bible-waving photo op whenever he can, but not on this day. This was more in the vein of a day of Obeah, all decent Vincentians of good conscience should have spoken out against what happened in parliament to the NDP. Which may be seen by some of those who were struck dumb and stayed silent as Ralph Gonsalves bullying, an assault on our constitutional democracy, and the continuing destruction of both our democratic institutions and our shared sense of common decency.”

But be fearful because Karma will take its course, always does, and always will.

END

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