THE REAL MAN OF THE YEAR
(I Mean, Honestly…)
When 2021 started, our Man of The Year looked like he was under siege. Up against the ropes. Backed into a corner. And other cliches.
Chastanet’s ruling United Workers Party was painting him as a stuttering, half-witted idiot on social media. Supporters of his own party were pointing to his deputy (Ernest Hilaire) as the kind of prime minister the future demands. People on the fringes of partisan politics were being persuaded that our guy was a good guy, a stalwart, a great hand to have around…but not really leadership material.
DOESN’T LOOK LIKE A WINNER TO ME…
To anyone who didn’t know him personally, it looked like The Man was losing ground, his stock was dropping before it even went public and his ‘leadership’ career was over before it even began. He just didn’t look like a winner.
Where Chastanet was all flash and metropolitan accents, Philip J Pierre was dull and unsophisticated. Where Chastanet was as light skinned as a man with a black grandmother could get, Philip J Pierre was as dark brown as a man could get without actually being black skinned. Where Chastanet was full of visionary promises of a great leap forward for the island, Philip J Pierre was nothing more than an unspoken promise that things could get back to normal. Chas was a heavyweight and this guy was a middleweight at best, both physically and in terms of his presence. There was no comparison on a superficial level - which is where it matters most these days.
In the second year of pandemic protocols, Pierre held less political meetings and press conferences than any other political leader before him.
It was like The Man wasn’t really trying to win the election at all.
For several months in 2021, it looked rather like Chastanet’s UWP was running a successful air war, bombarding Pierre’s Labour Party with accusations against its leaders, boasts of their achievements and reminders of why they lost the last election.
And Philip J Pierre looked like he was taking punch after punch straight in the face.
Was this guy even trying to defend himself?
Perhaps we just all forgot who Philip J Pierre was.
WHO IS THAT BLACK MAN, ANYWAY?
Here was a guy who ran against UWP legend Romanus Lansiquot and fought one losing battle after another until he finally won. Here was a guy who turned Castries East, a faithful UWP constituency into a seat they can’t ever get back - at least not while he is still alive. Here was a guy who was now the longest serving Member of Parliament and showing every sign that he would beat the record holder within a few years.
Here was a man who was both a real life successful entrepreneur and a long serving public servant. (Unlike the then prime minister who was a fictional entrepreneur and a yes-man when he was in the public service.)
We all underestimated him, supporters and detractors alike.
And instead of being overwhelmed by it, he simply turned it into his most potent weapon.
While Chas and the UWP were busily dancing round the political ring trying to score headshots and knockouts, Philip J Pierre was working the body.
For one thing, he already knew that the tide had turned on the Chastanet government as it had on every single one term government since 2006. Before he even did anything, he was poised to win the 2021 election by 11-6 seats. All he had to do was not fuck it up.
It’s a brave politician who can admit when it is time to do nothing and let the enemy defeat himself. That level of politician is called a warrior and so far there had only ever been one of them in the history of Saint Lucian politics.
But apart from courage, The Man had Genius. Secret genius that had never shone in public before and so, no one even knew it was there.
He knew what many of us didn’t know and applied it in a way none of us would have.
MASTER OF MARCHAND ARTS
You see, while Chastanet’s UWP was trying to create rifts in the Labour Party, they had a couple of rifts of their own.
One rift was with a former UWP minister who was on radio and television attacking them every single chance he got, pretty much doing all of the Labour Party’s dirty work for them. He was smearing the Chastanet government with enough slime that anyone who was gullible enough to believe the government’s lies of success would also have doubts about the character of that government.
Another sat silently in Chastanet’s Cabinet, biding his time…biding his time…
When the right moment came, both of these former ministers of the UWP announced they were against the Chastanet government and would run against them. Chastanet seemed to be taken by surprise by at least one of them. Two UWP seats were now three way races, with the ruling party’s support split in two. The timing could not have been worse for Chas and his government.
But would the UWP faithful stick to their party or to their rebel candidates?
No one could be sure what the answer was…except Philip J Pierre.
The answer was, ‘It doesn’t matter how many Flambeaus defect from the party with their candidate IF ALL OUR VOTERS SUPPORT THEIR REBELS.
WHAT? The embattled leader of Labour was coming out of the corner with devastating body blows.
‘You mean you want us to vote for Richard Frederick?’
‘Yes.’
‘You want us to vote for Stephenson King?’
‘After all what they did when they were in office?’
‘Yes. Vote for them.’
‘You’re going to bring these people into OUR PARTY?’
‘No. Just keeping them out of that party.’
‘What…? Oh. Oooooh…’
It was genius. A winning party had never taken such a gamble before. Instead of taking a chance on winning the seat, they simply guaranteed that their opponents would lose it.
When the result came out, it was better than anyone who supported Pierre could imagine. His leadership had resulted in winning 13 seats - two more than any party in the last four elections. Body blow after body blow. But it wasn’t over yet.
Of the remaining four seats, he had deprived Chastanet’s UWP of two of them, leaving Chastanet with just two seats - the second most humiliating number of seats an opposition leader ever had to his name in our country.
Headshots.
The knockout punch of the century.
And you’re telling me you think that Philip J Pierre is not Man of the Year?
Are you smoking the bananas instead of eating them?
Are you still underestimating him?
Well, good. Because that’s what he wants. That’s how he’s going to beat you again next time.
