Reunification of UDP “A Good Thing” – Dean Barrow

The United Democratic Party remains in shambles since losing the general elections in November 2020.  Despite the meteoric rise of Shyne Barrow within the ranks of the political organization to become its new leader, internal strife has threatened to upend all efforts to reunite the deeply fractured party.  The latest attempt by the Leader of the Opposition to bring together factions of the U.D.P. to present a unified front in the National Assembly includes a change in seating arrangement that will see former Opposition Leader Patrick Faber moving up a notch.  Party Leader Barrow has also offered him a portfolio in his shadow cabinet in an area that Faber has proven himself most effective, education.  While Faber has accepted that position on a conditional basis, it is being viewed by members of the party as a step in the right direction.  Likewise, Barrow has extended an olive branch to Albert Area Representative Tracy Panton.  But how long will the pact last and what effect will it have on the momentum of the broken party going forward? That’s what we asked former Party Leader Dean Barrow whose son is also his successor. Here’s how he responded to the unification of the party that he once led.

Dean Barrow

Dean Barrow, Former Party Leader, U.D.P.

“That is a good thing. That would be the best possible thing that could happen at this juncture.  Look, I repeat, those that are part of this internal warfare in the United Democratic Party, as long as they continue as combatants, they are doing a disservice to themselves, to the party, but most of all to the country. We need at this juncture, forget the question of who will win at the next general elections, dealing with the here and now, our democracy requires a strong opposition and it is clear that in the current state of disunity the UDP cannot be a strong, effective opposition.  So the sooner the party gets its act together and in fact maintains and presents a united front, the better it will be for all concerned.  And we all know that the unity that is required is not necessarily monolithic. In fact, such a thing is an impossibility in any mass party, in any political party. You will continue to have jockeying for power, you will continue to have people with ambitions.  Whoever is leader will never be completely secure because there will be always those who are hard on his heels that would wish to in fact either displace him or to challenge him at the next convention. We’re not saying that you snap your fingers and all of a sudden all the tension, all the vitriol, all the… I am sorry, I have to call a spade a spade, all the hate that seems to have been prevailing in the UDP, it will not go away just like that.  But they’ve got to make the effort and even if it’s a kind of patchwork, a kind of quilt, a kind of stitch and glue operation to put the party in a position where it can regain credibility then that is what must happen.”