The Dominican.net

By Constance Dominique

Dominica has struggled with the issue of sustainable development over the past 30 years of independence. The island, like many small states is subject to geographic, economic, social and technological constraints.

There are however, many elements within the gamut of constraints mentioned, which are within the island’s ability to alleviate.

There has been several calls for the resignation of Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit.

With limited resources, any national development effort must be predicated on sound management principles and practices. The subject of good governance then becomes an issue of paramount concern. This principle has formed the linchpin of the development model of small states such as Barbados, Malta, Switzerland and many others.

In 2000, the people of Dominica indicated that they wanted to move along the path of greater transparency and accountancy in the affairs of their government. There was much debate on the subject of integrity in public office legislation.

It was expected that the process of developing this new paradigm would take some time, given that the country was moving into uncharted waters. The process was however, taking much longer that the public had anticipated.

After waiting patiently for eight long years, a widely held perception among Dominicans was that the passage of the integrity legislation had in fact been conveniently derailed.

The ruling party had pursued an alternate agenda, which enabled some public officials to amass wealth at the expense of the public coffers. The registration of the Prime Minister’s land below par, depriving the Treasury of over $50,000 still did not resonate a strong enough signal to the an unsuspecting nation that our country’s leadership had gone amiss.

The revelations of the ‘Bin Bobol’ however, have without any shadow of doubt, astounded the nation. People are wondering how this could possibly be; recurring scandals involving such callous accounting practices by the designated primary guardian of the nation’s purse, the country’s Minister of Finance and Prime Minister.

The wanton disregard for well established and documented tendering and procurement polices and practices can be summarized by an 1887 quotation from John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.”

The nation anxiously seeks to address the current ‘Bin Bobol’ impasse and plot a new path forward; a path which recognizes the moral imperatives of transparent and efficient governance in which citizens feel that elected officials are accountable and working on their behalf.

In setting the new standards for our leaders, we can draw some advice from the words of President Ronald Reagan ‘Trust, but verify.” In pursuit of the ideals of justice and fairplay for our beloved nation, the Prime Minister must step down, allow an independent investigation and save the country from any further embarrassment and suffering.

The people of Dominica are fed up with malfeasance in government and the blatant abuse of power for political and personal gain will not be tolerated. Not this time Mr Skerrit. You must resign.

Now is the time for all honest men and women of this land to come forth and show the testament of their true character. This is an opportunity to write yet another chapter in the annals of Dominica’s history.

The President must call on the Prime Minister to resign before he himself looses the respect of Dominicans at home, abroad and throughout the global community. Some of the founding fathers of our nation envisioned the need for honesty and integrity as key tenets for a prosperous nation. In the words of W. O. M. Pond “Come ye forward sons and daughters do the right, be firm be fair.”

Given the languishing economic performance of our country in the recent past, coupled with this ‘Bin Bobol’, nonchalance and apathy on our part can only result in unmitigated disaster. We need all hands on board.

Instead of seeking to alienate our natives through the use of concocted homeland definitions, persons of influence need to encourage our leadership to harness the power of its human resources at home and abroad.

The object must be to build a better Dominica, a virtue extolled in the last two stanzas of our National Anthem “In which everyone rejoices, all for each and each for all.” Let this moment going forward mark he dawn of a new beginning for our beloved Dominica.

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