The Naked Truth about State Capture and Antigua Labor Party (ALP) Tyranny 

By Kwame Nkosi Romeo

"From a political point of view, former prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda Lester Bryant Bird is a hollowed hero. He failed to govern his political and economic decisions by any ethical principles. He preferred to adorn himself with the cultural symbols of the radical 1960s and 70s while simultaneously rejecting the moral and revolutionary ideas of the period. Bird left a legacy of bad judgment and unethical decisions without being subjected to justice."

-Alvette E Jeffers September 6, 2021.

Many friends told me to resist talking ill of the dead, and I obeyed. But then again, this story won't Rest In Peace (RIP) with former prime minister Lester Bryant Bird passing! It has just begun since my sabbatical leave is over. 

Did the community express genuine grief on the passing of the Antigua Labor Party (ALP) former prime minister Lester Bryant Bird on August 9 and laid to rest on August 26, 2021? 

Bird was elected in 1976, serving 28 unbroken years, ascending to prime minister from 1994-2004. Before the 2004 election, Bird was outraged with the Hadeed Group of Companies (HGC) rotating support to the United Progressive Party (UPP). Bird's combative words about HGC backstabbing were straightforward:" Ah me mek yuh man, ah me mek yuh." No one doubted that statement.

What was Bird implying by these infamous words? 

In short, the naked truth about state capture! Bird makes known ALP's endless crooked procurements agreements consigned to Build, Own, Operate, and Transfer (BOOT) entire power generation entitlement and haul the loot from the Public Treasury into private piggy banks. Bird's fantasies of unlimited power were crushed on March 23, 2004, by people's power, ending the 'prime minister for life syndrome.' 

Knowing these transgressions, many refuse to bestow Bird with a lovely mortuary tribute; others contend there is no need to mourn. At the same time, the truth of Bird's legacy must be frankly told, not by pious platitudes, but by the objective reality of well-known misdeeds:

West Indies Oil Company (WIOC) rip-off 

Antigua Masonry Products (AMP) improbity

IHI debt dishonesty 

Mount St. John Medical Center(MSJMC) swindle

Land appropriation 

Barbuda underdevelopment

Racialized poverty 

Social Security deficits

The twin-island state situation corresponds to South African politicians looting the treasury, using offshore companies as laundry chains, and enriching partisan companies employing Indian nationals at the expense of local job seekers. #Gupta (gupta-leaks.com)

In South Africa, justice was swift, president Jacob Zuma stole from the public treasury and was convicted.

On the other hand, no one is accountable for the institutionalized plunder of the Antigua and Barbuda economy and the supplanting of local job seekers with lowly-paid Phillipino workers and high-paying tourism executives. The employers behind the scheme are most likely above the law, further exposing the two-tiered justice system.

Also, the never-ending crisis of structural discrimination and the ALP's general oppressive edict that subjugates the masses while using public money to amass their net worth and feed their belly:

'Them belly full but we hungry' (Bob Marley- Natty Dread 1974).

During Bird's inglorious tenure as prime minister, poverty, high unemployment, significant economic instability, the disempowerment of local people, and cronyism led to a crisis of leadership and the economy's collapse. Bird's lesson for inhabitants is a ferocious contempt for the poor, human rights abuses, deprivation, depression, and unrest.

Bird's final rite of Passage does not end the debate on his terrible legacy of insatiable greed and past-due reparation as atonement to the people of the twin-island state. Scrutinizing Bird's political cycle requires ongoing retrospection and is a work in progress. History will never absolve Lester Bryant Bird; the community gave Bird the middle finger of dishonor.

Consequently, the article, 'The Failure of Leadership,' was written during Bird's leadership and newly posted on my Truth to Power blog on July 15, 2021, was an anti-climax. Indeed, it was meant to be as I broadened the story to include the legendary Sir McClean Emmanuel (King Short Shirt) interview on the Antigua Observer program 'Have your Say on July 15, 2001.

Short Shirt's dissatisfaction with the ALP prompted me to write an article in his defense, 'The Handwriting Is On The Wall,' in the Daily Observer on Saturday, July 28, 2001. That article will be posted in a few days for readers to review.

After more than 20 years and 24 days, Sir Mclean Emmanuel sees a similar injustice and the same ALP organization trampling people's rights. Today, another generation opposes the ALP tyranny of violence against the community and decides to Get Up, Stand Up for their rights (Bob Marley -Burnin' 1973) as Jamaica's national treasure and global hero Bob Marley narrates Concrete Jungle from the Catch a Fire album:

No chains around my feet

But I'm not free

I know I am bounded in captivity

The political command was given to the police 'dressed in the uniform of brutality' to use excessive force against a peaceful protest on Sunday, August 8, 2021, the start of the government's dictatorial mandate perpetuating a reign of force terror. So it's time for Short Shirt to connect those dominant lyrical songs of the past, such as Not by Might, to denounce the evilness unleashed on August 8:

For wherever a people 

Are oppressed and downtrodden

They shall rise with a vengeance.

That will change the world

And no power

Not by might

These verses serve as a present-day condemnation of the ALP dictatorship! People still remember Short Shirts' vast music discography collection and regularly chant the songs against absolute power and grasp every revolutionary word igniting our struggle for change.

Nevertheless, there is no visible change from the exploiting and oppressing Bird rule to the guilty style of political and economic oversight of prime minister Gaston Alfonso Browne. State terrorism continues against people protesting for their human and civil liberties, which is relentless as ALP leadership handled public protests in 1968, 1979, and 2021! 

On August 8, 2021, the wave of youth resistance met the police force tsunami of rage that mercilessly teargassed, violently attacked, arrested and shackled the hands and feet of human rights advocates. These are instances of why people lose faith in a so-called democracy, and this occurs when people hand over their sovereign rights to politicians, giving them absolute Power and Authority over lives and livelihood:

When they have power and authority

They don't give a damn.

About nobody

Nor is anything done to make leadership accountable since politicians consider themselves above the law while others are prosecuted daily. Leadership needs to be democratized and deal with the disadvantage of the people's high economic vulnerability since, as Short Shirt sings:

The more we try to economize

The more cost of living rise

Yet salaries remain low, and those with vested interests support this wickedness. ALP uses state propaganda and public funds to censure dominant media, fund affluent business people, and employ partisan messaging. In addition to bankrupt people opposing ALP policy and readying police to stifle peaceful protest to hide their hopelessness and sustain power. The intellectuals' voices are silent; the Grabby Grab All and the political elites are not considered bandits to the playwrights who celebrated socially conscious dramatic scripts but are now enslaved by the double-dealing system they most despised:

"adorn themselves in the cultural symbols of the radicals 1960s and 70s while simultaneously rejecting the moral and revolutionary ideas of the period."

Let's now call on the forces of Harambee to free us, giving rise to our victory.

Hopefully, the calypsonians' voices of consciousness will also arise to strengthen the revolutionary spirits and people's resistance to reclaim our sovereign right as the fight against injustice continues.

Some calypsonians cannot criticize the ALP draconian policy, which draws attention to Watchman's famous song 'Leader of the Opposition' commentary on Sugar Aloes' support of the People National Movement (PNM) Trinidad and Tobago:

Now that the PNM win

Aloes have naught to sing

He can't bite the hands that feed him

(The subversive power of calypso music by Benjamin Ramm, October 11, 2017)

In the final analysis, according to Transparency International (TI), 65% of citizens concluded that "a few private interests run governments."

75% of Antigua and Barbuda citizens agree with TI data and concur the ALP government's adverse public policies must be challenged by the disappointed since we have more power than the people in power to overthrow those injustices. (Building political integrity to stamp out corruption: Three steps to cleaner politics- Transparency International- January 23, 2020).

We must collectively let prime minister Gaston Browne know; we draw the line. We will never again be captives of foreign capital or economic mercenaries. Never again be enslaved by a neoliberal agenda of underdevelopment, pauperization, and dependency.

A change is coming; the Handwriting Is On the Wall.