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By Will Johnson
Had I read Naipual's book "The Suffrage of Elvira" earlier I might have decided not to make politics my occupation. As it was it was some thirty years after I had been in politics that I had occasion to read that classic on West Indian politics.
I have learned many things from reading Naipaul. In the latest one which I read "Literary Occasions Essays" he describes the relationship which he had with his father. In his book a House For Mr. Biswas he tells the story of his father in more detail. In the Essays he describes his fathers last years. IN an interview with his mother he asks her:" What form did my father's madness take?"
"He looked in the mirror one day and couldn't see himself. And he began to scream."
Sometime before I read that something similar happened to me. I was shaving and always thinking I am still sweet sixteen I called out to the wife:" I see an old man in the mirror looking at me." She called out;" You better take a closer look, that person might even be you."
Before that two Statia girls fixed me on Winair's plane. I heard the two of them arguing and then one said to the other;"Why you don't go up and sit next to the old man nuh." I looked around for the old man and then I realized it was me they were talking about.
Time for reflection. We tend to glorify the things which seem important to us. We often forget that our time and place here is of very little importance in the whole scheme of things.
We are brought back to reality when we indulge in good literature which puts us to think about life and our time and place in this troubled world.
The native Americans were known for their eloquence of speech. The famous Chief Seattle after whom the great city of Seattle was named described man's place in the universe as follows:
"We know the sap which courses through the trees as we know the blood that courses through our veins. We are part of the earth and it is part of us. The perfumed flowers are our sisters. The bear, the deer, the great eagle, these are our brothers. The rocky crests, the dew in the meadow, the body heat of the pony, and man all belong to the same family."
In contemplating on why and how I became involved in politics and made it my life's work, I often turn to great thinkers for guidance and for peace of mind in a turbulent and thankless profession. Why did I not become a teacher, a horse whisperer or a well poisoner, but instead take up a profession which is a combination of the three (or any three for that matter).
As a child growing up on Saba life was not easy. No electricity, roads, cars, airport, harbour. No nothing of all that.
I remember going to the store to buy two cents worth of fat for an old lady to put in a vegetarian pot of wild mustard. The fat was to give the soup a bit of flavour. The problems we have on Saba the last years are those brought on by plenty and not those of having too little.
From early on I felt the need to bring change. When I was growing up there was much despair. As an altarboy I was forever going to funerals to bury people. Women seemed to be always dressed in black. A black and white dress seemed to liven up the place. People were going to the U.S.A. and other places. Houses remained unpainted, others were falling down. As a child I worried constantly as to what was to become of me. I realized that I certainly could not get educated and make it on Saba.
Today those who want can plan a college education and even plan to return to Saba and make a living here. People from all over the world come here now .When I was a boy nearly all of the people living here had not only been born on Saba but their ancestors had been here for hundreds of years. One day flowed in to the next and decay crept in like a mudslide.
By the time I entered politics there certainly had been some changes. But old timers will tell you that WIPM brought meaningful change to the lives of working people on Saba.
In l969 there was a mini revolution on Curacao. The Government resigned and called for new elections. On St.Maarten in l968 I became friendly with the late Mr. Alrett Peters who had returned from Aruba and had started the General Workers Union. I helped him with the newspaper "The Labour Spokesman". This was a monthly paper under his name but even the roosters knew that it was my paper. The "Spokesman" was not government friendly. In fact it was downright hostile. In addition I also had the "Saba Herald" and together with my boyhood friend from the boystown James Maduro we also had "The Emporium Review."
on St.Eustatius.
In l965 through l968 I was also the newsprovider and announcer for PJD-2. I had replaced Sydney Lejuez. Brother Mayer used to pick me up and take me down to Fort Amsterdam twice a week. He refused to take me in the car with a beer in my hand. Once on the airport returning broke from Santo Domingo he loaned me ten dollars on condition that I could not buy a drink with it. Boy did those rum and cokes that I boiught with Brother Mayer's ten dollars seem like visions of paradise.
Anyway by l969 I had built up enough bad points for major warfare with the Democrat Party. Alrett and I had also caused problems when we submitted a request for the Union to hold a peaceful demonstration in sympathy with the workers on Curacao. Clem brokered a compromise at the beach bar at Passangrahan Hotel (my second office). We settled the matter by having an afternoon off for the workers on St.Maarten. The invincible Democrat Party had been caught off guard and had shown its first sign of weakness. That too was not taken well.
Jose Lake then called me and reminded me that I had told him that if there was a threat of another non-election that I personally would oppose Claude. In what must have been a reckless suicidal moment I said yes that I still thought that way. Thinking it was a private joke among friends. The next day the Windward Island's Opinion came out with the headline:"Will Johnson to oppose Claude Wathey", and boy the fight was on. I had no money and a friend ( from Nicaragua lets say) loaned me the thousand guilders with which to pay my deposit to enter my list. Clem is still wondering where I got that money from. If anyone knew how broke I was it was Clem. As a matter of fact I must still owe Clem.
And then came the hard part. Besides my good friend Alec "The Butcher" who was one of the first to sign me up I still needed 44 more signatures and only St.Maarten could provide them. The next day a scholarship granted to one of Alec's 48 (forty eight,yes) children was cancelled. To get signatures after that was like pulling one tooth at a time the way my uncle Reuben Simmons used to do it. Tie the tooth with a piece of fishing line to a nail in the door and wait for a strong wind to blow the door shut and hopefully take out the tooth.
Miracle upon miracle and with help from the Union the signatures came in one by one. One of the last to sign me up was Alrett's father. He used to come and sit with me at the Union Hall in Cole Bay when I was turning out the newspapers. I did it on an old mimeograph machine that the Teamsters Union had provided us (Jimmy Hoffa them).Old Mr. Peters used to get a kick out of seeing all of the stuff I would put on paper. Things like "Rumors that Wathey plans to buy the Caribbean are totally false. Your reporter interviewed him and he confirmed that at this time it was only Puerto Rico that he was thinking of buying, and that he did not know where people got their news from."
Anyway at the last minute I got the signatures and the heat was on. St. Eustatius backed me strongly in that election. I would have won but Wallace Peterson after being dispatched to St.Eustatius told Claude, "That boy is going to embarres you there if you don't spend heavy on the elections." People who come to mind who helped me were the late Mrs. Laura Rouse, Mrs. Christine Flanders and her husband William, John and Max Suarez, Bengie Schmidt, Orlando Berkel and many more. They even organized a rally on my behalf on Saba and I did not even know it until a week later.
The first political rally which I held on St.Eustatius I was welcomed at the airport by my friend Mr. Vincent Astor Lopes with a pamphlet. Welcome to the United Russian Alliance.
My party was the URA a branch of a party on Curacao.
The day before the election bets were being placed by the Democrats on St.Maarten that I could not get 40 votes on the three islands. Jocelyn who went so far as to say that I would get 75 was laughed out of town by the pundits.
The results of the l969 election was as follows:
| U.R.A. |
St.Maarten |
Saba |
St.Eustatius |
Total |
| Johnson, W.S. |
138 |
222 |
232 |
592 |
| Pietersz, E.M. |
2 |
5 |
3 |
10 |
| Jesurun, E.A.V |
3 |
7 |
1 |
11 |
| Johnson, J.B.. |
0 |
2 |
0 |
2 |
| Total |
143 |
236 |
236 |
615 |
| DP |
St.Maarten |
Saba |
St.Eustatius |
Total |
| Wathey, A.C. |
1172 |
163 |
66 |
1401 |
| Rogers, S.N. |
14 |
9 |
159 |
182 |
| Anslyn, W.C. |
7 |
91 |
1 |
99 |
| Arndell, A.J. |
124 |
8 |
5 |
137 |
| Lake, J.H. |
33 |
0 |
5 |
38 |
| Woodley, C.A. |
6 |
2 |
31 |
39 |
| Total |
l356 |
273 |
267 |
1896 |
Considering the odds against me when the election started up, the following day I was greeted on the streets of Philipsburg as if I had won the election.
Several things must be mentioned from that election. Brother Stanley Rogers who is still alive on Curacao came to find me on St.Maarten. He said he could not return to Curacao before shaking the hand of the little white boy who had beat him on his native Statia. Also
it was so that I could not find shelter on St.Maarten. Finally Mr. Melford Hazel sent Sam to pick me up. I used to live out of a suitcase anyway. Melford put me to live in the Sea View Hotel for nearly two years rent free and challenged the world to dare and take me out of his hotel. From there in the then Taj Mahal upstairs I found refuge, except when I spent time in Her Majesty's goal on backstreet.
I owe you more than one Sam. When I heard that Melford was not doing well I went to see him. We spent a long time in his garden reminiscing on those days.Wherever he is in heaven he will smile when he reads this.
After that showing all sorts of offers came in. I remember in the Zanzibar on Backstreet being offered a position in the Antillenhuis in Holland where I could have used the occasion to study law. I declined and hanged in there. In November l970 a group of us started the WIPM party. People like Camille Bailey, Edgar Lynch, Jocelyn Arndell, Ralph Berkel. In l97l we took 8 of the l5 seats on the Island Council of the Windward Islands. But that part of the story will have to wait until next time.
(To be continued).
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