One of the unfortunate facts of life of governance in our neck of the woods is the permanence of the temporary. Politicians make pledges that remain just that. Pilot projects seem never to gain flight; promised results are vowed and never heard again. That temporary added tax implemented “for the time being” remains as certain as death itself. In this tyranny of the temporary, the more cynical among us would suggest that we should have figured it out for ourselves.
It is in this same light that we view the announcement by ministers of a truce between warring gang factions. A more extraordinarily foolhardy approach by the competent authority to the maintenance of peace, order and security in the land could not have been taken.
Every fibre of the commonsense, pragmatic Barbadian must have sizzled with alarm, for truces come to an inevitable and eventual end. And so with the fevered rash of a disease-riddled body, the end of the armistice between violent thugs in the wee hours of Saturday, September 14 in the Majestic Bar on Nelson Street has come to pass. At least three people are dead. Eight have been terribly wounded. We’ve been left to figure it out.
The result is the mass shooting many feared would follow from the placing of a band-aid on a gaping wound.
Too often, performative politics takes the helm while governing performance takes a back seat. It is a pox on both houses of our main political tribes. But this pox threatens to become a cancer on the body politic if it is not adroitly seared.
There can be but one message sent by the Nelson Street murderers: nothing and no one is safe. Make no mistake, this was an act of terror of the most egregious kind. Thus, there can be but one response to this message: not ‘bout here again.
We find it difficult to believe that in this small island, the law enforcement authorities are clueless as to the identity of the minions of murder and their overlords. In the face of a deadly virus, an army colonel dressed as a minister of health declared “no retreat; no surrender”. It was swift and sure – and credible, no less than the American army’s Brigadier General Anthony McAuliffe’s response to an ultimatum in the last major battle of the Second World War before the Allied occupation of Nazi Germany: “N U T S!”
The parallels of the current situation in Barbados in September 2024 and the Battle of the Bulge 80 years ago this December are not lost on us. While German troops encircled the Americans bogged down in the town of Bastogne in eastern France, the German commander was confident that he had outnumbered and outgunned the enemy, who were running low on supplies and ammunition. The prospects were bleak, to say the least.
Three days before Christmas 1944, December 22, the US troops were sent an ultimatum from the German Army massed outside of the town, demanding its “honourable surrender” within two hours. Then came McAuliffe’s brief and to-the-point reply.
Despite German hopes, the American paratroopers held Bastogne until they were relieved, and although the Battle of the Bulge raged on with heavy casualties, by late January 1945 the Allies had reclaimed all lost ground and were advancing towards Berlin. The war would be over by the spring.
To the ministers of justice, national security and crime prevention, we suggest that we find ourselves at a critical juncture in Barbados 2024 no less than poignant or relevant than Bastogne 1944. The recent events have exposed the folly of negotiating with those who hold our nation’s peace hostage. This “truce” was not a solution, but a dangerous gambit that has backfired with brutal spectacle.
The time for half-measures and political theatrics is over. Our people demand – and deserve – more than empty promises and temporary fixes. This mass shooting that has shattered our national community’s sense of security is a stark reminder of the consequences of putting optics before effective governance and the rule of law.
We call upon the attorney general, home affairs minister and minister for crime prevention to act with the resolve and determination that this criminal crisis demands. Let your response to these merchants of terror be equally unequivocal: “It ends here and now.” The people of Barbados are no longer interested in grand gestures but in decisive action. There is already a ‘peace programme’. It is called the Constitution and Laws of Barbados.
The battle of the Barbadian bulge may be daunting, but do we have any choice? Is it one we can afford to lose? Show the same courage and conviction in confronting these domestic enemies as we would any foreign or viral threat.
It’s time to put up rather than shut up, to both declare and demonstrate that in our republic, the rule of law is not negotiable, and the safety of our citizens is not conditional. We urge you to act now, act decisively, and let your actions speak louder than any truce or temporary measure ever could.
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