#BTColumn – Has clutter hijacked governance?

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by this author are their own and do not represent the official position of the Barbados Today.

by Walter Edey

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe – a German-born American architect – crafted elegant simplicity into his designs. This became his trademark. Miesian’s code – “the skull and bones construction” – later birthed a masterpiece, the 1921 Glass Skyscraper.

Beyond architecture, minimalism, popularly known as less is more, is a universal notion. This expressed attitude inspires and enhances ideas. It is a practical path through clutter. It makes diamonds shine. It turned sticky paper and paperclips into formidable businesses.

Barbados had and continues to have, large cabinets. When compared to Canada, the ratio is high. Canada’s Federal government has 35 Ministers.

What if the size of Barbados’ cabinet is 12? And, what if five elected members of parliament (called City Commissioners) coordinated and facilitated urban community matters? Would a local government commission be necessary?

Truth be told, Barbados, at times, is its worst enemy. The Social Partnership, conceived during the 1990s pain, is Bajan. It has been lauded and copied by other islands. Research papers also confirm its value.

Two cases in point – Senator Monique Taitt’s 2004 study, A Tale of Two Companies – Barbadian Industrial Relations Under the Social Partnership, argues that industrial relations literature supports the positive direction of the body’s work.

She hailed the collaboration, consensus, and partnership agreement.

Listen. “This trend in industrial relations is both new and innovative. But there appears to be a paucity of formal research on the topic in relation to Barbados.”

The Social Partnership also impressed Wayne Soverall and Jamal Khan.

In Social Partnership – New Public Management Practices in Barbados (N-P-N), the duo called the social partnership: “A paragon of innovative expression for the developing world.”

The scholars went further and spoke to the partnership’s future. Growth, they said, depended on a willingness of members to: “(a) engage in social dialogue, (b) achieve national consensus, based on pragmatic solutions, (c) place national interest above all else and (d) make bold decisions.”

It boggles the mind that the resolve
which Soverall and Khan recommend and expect, is stillborn. It is outside the social and economic partnership.

Dialogue is unfocused, consensus evasive, interest secular, and haste unidirectional. Meanwhile, a beautiful adolescent partnership remains abandoned, crying loudly from underneath rubble made of doublespeak, goggles, goggle, and twaddle.

“Put Barbados First” are just three, yet powerful words. They need a permanent think-tank and watering hole.

With economic survival margins small, this vision will grow if it is fed with world-class ideas and best practices. That’s where the partnership comes in. The reason? Politics is very partisan.   

The art of public leadership remains simple. It must breathe justice and fairness. Policy makers must engage the people, as equals, on an open platform.

The elective politics of survival must be short-circuited. That way of life favors a different few, every cycle.  Barbados, less will always be more. Set the Social Partnership free.