Crossing the floor and living to tell the tale

Dear Editor,
To many Guyanese reading this article, Sir Emmanuel Neville Cenac is just a name; or, to stretch it a little further for those of us who are familiar with Caribbean history and politics, he is the Governor-General of St Lucia.
But of even greater importance is the fact that this very same gentleman was someone who crossed the floor to join another party in the House of Parliament here.
Before I delve into my main point today, I shall endeavour to give you a brief overview into that crossing-of-the-floor event. Sir Neville Cenac was a member of the St Lucia Labour Party (SLP), and Sir John Compton was a member of the United Workers Party (UWP). In that election, sometime in the 1980s, Sir John’s UWP won the election in a one-seat majority with 9 UWP seats versus 8 SLP seats. Now, Sir Compton was not comfortable with such a narrow win, and in his own words, he “wanted a more decisive win, so that when certain major decisions are to be made in the house, he would not be impeded by an unpatriotic opposition.”
In this regard, Sir Compton called another election that same month, which yielded the very same result: 9 UWP seats to 8 SLP seats. At this juncture, the name Neville Cenac came to the forefront. He crossed the floor, giving Sir John the majority he badly needed, which now amounted to a 10-7 win.
Before I move on, I would like to make two very important points. The first point is: The St Lucian Parliament, which holds 17 seats, is founded on a winner or “majority” being 9 seats of that number. A similar situation exists in the Guyana Parliament, which is made up of 65 seats, wherein a winner or “majority” is 33.
In the St Lucia situation, there was no mumbo-jumbo disgraceful fiddling around of the figures, like what obtained in Guyana. The constituted majority was a foregone conclusion, which is an accepted fact here.
The second point is: as one side of the house is increased by the crossover, the other side decreases very similar to the Guyana scene when Charrandas voted with the Opposition in that no-confidence vote.
Now I turn our attention to the main facts of my case: When Mr Cenac made that bold step out from his party and into the fold of another, he was not issued any death threats like had obtained in the Charrandas case. No punches were thrown at him, or anything of that sort. Sir Neville was free to move about in his native St Lucia as a normal person would. He was hailed as a patriot for crossing the floor, and lives to tell the tale, even to the point of being conferred with the post of governor-general of that country.
Rightfully so, there was some disgruntlement shown by party comrades and the constituency which he represented: that he has betrayed them; but no threat or harm was meted out to the gentleman. Disgruntlement also never boiled over into death threats, or him having to run for his life into another country. None of those shameful deeds was ever contemplated. It shows the maturity and civilised thinking of the political parties and the electorate in that country — something that is alien to the PNC and their supporters in Guyana.
Sir Neville was never put on a party’s lynch list, nor was he under investigation for bribery, nor was a call made for his immediate arrest for making that decision.
The point I want to bring to you is: PNC members have to look themselves in the mirror and come to the realization of how indecently disgraceful they appear in the eyes of the civilised world when it comes to their behaviour in the face of a validly passed no-confidence vote. The threats and violence that are intricately bound up with that grouping speak volumes of that party in or out of power.

Respectfully,
Neil Adams