An Opposition Barbados Labour Party (BLP) snub of British political consulting company, Cambridge Analytica, had – unknowing to her – earned Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley and a colleague a racial slur.
Mottley was on the Opposition benches and leader of the party when in 2010 the racially charged insult was made in reference to this woman who in May 2018, became this island’s leader, and Lucille Moe, who was in June appointed a senator.
According to report in the British guardian newspaper of Oct. 8, quoting from leaked papers it obtained, “Alexander Nix, the former chief executive of the elections consultancy … appears to refer to Mia Mottley, who was elected prime minister of Barbados in May, and senator Lucille Moe, who is the country’s information minister, as ‘niggers.’”
Nix was apparently unhappy that the Mottley-led BLP eight years ago had turned down Cambridge Analytica’s and sister company. SCL Elections, courting attempts to mastermind the party’s political campaign.
Senator Moe, confirmed to the Barbados Nation newspaper that the company representative did come a-courting but her party thought better of the idea of engaging them.
“When we considered their proposal and saw who they were, we were not comfortable working with them and so we declined their offer. There are people you are willing to work with and there [are] others you are not,” the Nation quoted Moe saying.
The UK Guardian newspaper reported that apparently in response to the BLP refusal to engage them, “a member of SCL’s team wrote to Nix on 15 October, saying: ‘I get the distinct impression they don’t want to talk to us.’ To which the SCL Elections boss replied: ‘they just niggers’”.
SCL and Cambridge Analytica came under scrutiny and were forced into closure earlier this year when it was revealed that they had manipulated data on millions of Facebook users to target potential voters with specific information that gave an advantage over opponents to political parties including the US Republican Party in the last presidential elections.
SCL and Cambridge Analytica once boasted of having political party clients in some 30 countries – including many in the Caribbean – and to have worked for them in elections about 100 times.
According to the British Guardian newspaper, executives of the company including Nix have regrouped under other unnamed company brands and are again seeking national political parties as clients in the Caribbean.
“Last month, the Guardian has been told, Nix made contact with the opposition party of St Kitts and Nevis,” the paper reported on October 08.
“According to a senior source from the Saint Kitts and Nevis Labour party, Nix offered to manage its next campaign. A general election is expected to be called in the coming months, with opposition leader Denzil Douglas hoping to oust the prime minister.
“Nix said although the company has been changed, the people who work there are the same and so they were available to provide services in campaign management,” the source claimed. The offer has not been accepted by the party.”
This revelation of Nix’s slur which point to his true thoughts about Caribbean political leaders, should be enough reason for regional politicians to shy away from him, his new companies and their dirty tricks.
