ROSIE DOUGLAS

1942-2000

 

A CHAMPION FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

 

Express

October 3, 2000

Page 9

 

Dominica's Prime Minister, Dr. Rosie Douglas, who was found dead at his home on Sunday, had often described his crusade in life as fighting for human rights across the globe.

 

The 58-year-old Douglas told Cana just before the January 31 general election that it was this desire to eradicate injustice which got him into trouble while a student at the then Sir George Williams University in Montreal, Canada.

 

He went there to pursue studies in agriculture in the 1960s, but his studies were cut short in 1969, when his participation in a protest against racism at the university's computer centre landed him in jail.

 

Douglas, who was deported to Dominica, said he had no regrets about the incident and would have done it again if he had to.

 

After his deportation to Dominica, Douglas entered politics, following the footsteps of his father and that of his brother, Michael, although he did not join the Dominica Labour Party (DLP).

 

Instead, he chose to form the Popular Independent Committee (PIC) in 1975, which he said sought to educate Dominicans about political independence from Britain.

 

However, he joined the Labour Party in 1980 and won his first seat in 1985.

 

Douglas suffered his first elections defeat in 1990, but was re-elected in a by-election in 1992 in the Portsmouth seat, which was previously held by his brother, after his death.

 

Douglas went on to become leader of the DLP a year later, lost the 1995 general elections, and was Opposition Leader in Parliament.

 

Since then, he had said his aim was to make the party attractive and to fashion policies which would give it its broad appeal.

 

He had also been highly critical of the United Workers party (UWP) regime of Edison James, which was defeated in the January 31 election, especially over its handling of the Dominica economy.

 

The end of the Cold War, Douglas told Cana, meant that ideology was no longer an issue for election campaigning in Dominica.

 

"In this new uni-global situation we are no longer in the Cold War, there are not very large variations in policy in terms of the international global situation that we all have to face," he had told Cana.

 

"So we have pursued a policy over the last five years, which allows the Dominica Labour Party to include within its ranks quite conformably, members of the Dominica Freedom party (DFP) and even members of the United Workers Party (UWP)".

 

Douglas had spent a lot of time focusing on the importance of his relations with the British Labour Party, a party which he helped to campaign for in the last British general elections, whose members have on various occasions joined his political campaign in Dominica, and which funded aspects of the campaign, such as the party's manifesto.

 

"To a large extent the price of our produce, the terms of trade - the metropolitan countries, they take many of those things.  But there are people in the British Labour Party who think very close to the way we think, in terms of better prices for our commodities, in terms of the sharing of technology and so on," he said.

 

Douglas had often met with criticisms from the government, that his meetings with foreign leaders were no more than posturing and hand-shaking photo opportunities.

 

Douglas, a single father of four children, had been a target of criticism from his political rivals, for the fact that he was not employed in any professional field, an accusation, which he casually brushed aside.

 

His last election campaign focused on the need to stimulate economic growth through investments in strategic sectors and generating an enterprise economy driven by private sector activity.

 

Apart from economic matters, Douglas had said a change of government was needed to clean up alleged widespread government corruption, and provide a government of integrity.

 

Prior to the election, Douglas was described by his party's manifesto as "a modern leader of a modern party ready to meet the challenges of the new century".

 

But he readily admitted that he had to face many challenges, in getting the party on a sound footing to make another bid for government.

 

Since he took over the leadership of the Labour Party after his brother Michael died in 1992, Douglas managed to shift the party from left of centre to an ideological centre ground.

 

"The DLP is now electable, it is no longer a fringe left party or the mismanaged party of Patrick John.  It is a serious centre party which attempts to be amenable to all sectors of society, from the private sector to the working class, to the unemployed youth," he had said.

 

That was a far cry from the 1995 general election when he had to defend his dealings with Cuba, at a time when many Caribbean countries shunned the socialist Caribbean nation.

 

- Cana

 

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