Ten years ago, on October 23, Barbadians at home and abroad mourned the passing of Prime Minister David John Howard Thompson.
Only 48 years old, Thompson succumbed to pancreatic cancer after just two years as political leader of Barbados. Following losses at the 1994 and 1999 polls, Thompson and the Democratic Labour Party defeated then Prime Minister Owen Arthur and the Barbados Labour Party in the January 15, 2008 general election. Thompson was the island’s sixth prime minister.
But the joy of victory would be short-lived as by late 2009 there were concerns being expressed about his health. By the start of 2010 the signs that something was wrong started to become self-evident.
Following medical consultations at home and in the United States Thompson revealed to the nation in May 2010 that he had health issues but tests had proved inconclusive. Though he remained in office his physical appearance had started to deteriorate. By September of that year when his diagnosis was officially made public Thompson was a shell
of his former self.
His subsequent death proved particularly painful for thousands of Barbadians who had watched him developed before their eyes from a gangling precocious teenager with a passion for political debate, into an imposing figure on Barbados’ political landscape.
His parliamentary confrontations with Arthur were often bruising affairs with neither giving or asking any quarter. Indeed, they stirred the emotions of the party faithful on both sides of the traditional two-party divide and provided remarkable theatre.
Thompson had first come to public attention as a Combermere schoolboy on the television programme Understanding when he locked horns with BLP stalwart Hutson Linton. Linton, perhaps unprepared for the depth of Thompson’s questioning, did not emerge from the programme in a very favourable light.
When Thompson ended his secondary education, he initially taught for a brief period and then entered university where he first read for an economics degree before switching to law. Thompson joined the DLP in the late 1970s and remained unswervingly committed to the party during his lifetime.
His adulation of Barbados’ father of Independence, Errol Barrow, was enhanced when he worked with him as an attorney-at-law. Barrow’s death in 1987 saw Thompson, then a Senator, beat out other young democrats such as David Comissiong as the preferred candidate to contest the vacant St John seat, which he duly won and retained until his death.
During the tenure of Prime Minister Erskine Sandiford, Thompson served as Minister of Community Development and Culture from 1991 to 1993, and as Minister of Finance from 1993 to 1994. He replaced Sandiford as DLP leader when the latter resigned following a successful no-confidence motion brought by Arthur.
As parliamentary representative for St John Thompson had a love affair with the constituency that lasted over two decades. There are many who will attest that he was more popular among St John folk than his political mentor.
His sojourn as political leader of Barbados was undeniably brief but during that time, he set in train legislative changes with respect to employment and financial regulation and the development of a national youth policy.
He introduced free travel for schoolchildren on state-owned buses, as well as constituency councils to deal with parochial matters that avoided the red tape associated with central government.
Thompson’s association with youth organisations and sports clubs in St John made him a household name in every nook and cranny of the parish.
His Family’s First programme in St John not only enhanced the importance of family and community, but it provided an avenue for change in the lives of many young persons in that parish. It was a template born in St John but unfortunately not replicated across the country.
Thompson saw the importance of strong family values and often preached this as a deterrent to the development of criminality within families.
As an Opposition MP his concerns about crime and violence had often been scoffed at by his political foes. On becoming Prime Minister in 2008 he made a concerted effort to push the strengthening of families as a viable response to tackling deviant behaviour.
Thompson was not fortunate to be granted the years he would have surely desired to make a greater contribution to Barbados. But the thousands who lined the streets and shed tears on the occasion of his funeral on November 3 were an indication of the affection with which he was held.
He was not only beloved by his wife and children, but by legions of Barbadians young and old. His legacy will live up and on. (BT)
