#BTColumn – Political legacy

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

by Ralph Jemmott

One of the most cherished texts in my possession is Peter Hennessy’s book The Prime Minister: The Office and its Holders since 1945. It covers the British leadership from Clement Atlee to Tony Blair and is a fascinating and very critical analysis of all the UK Prime Ministers during that period. Part IV of the book is titled: The inevitability of Disappointment.

It starts with a remark attributed to Enoch Powell which states: “All political lives, unless they are cut off in midstream at a happy juncture, end in failure, because that is the nature of politics and of human affairs.”

It is categorically untrue to say that all political careers end in failure. The success or failure of a leader’s term in office depends on the legacy he or she leaves behind, on what of value is bequeathed to the people and by extension to the human family. 

Some legacies are benevolently enduring, some less so, some not at all. With regard to Powell’s statement, what is true is that there is invariably something anti-climactic about the career of many Prime Ministers. One feels for example, that there was something sadly anti-climactic about the end of Owen Arthur’s political career. Many political lives are either overtaken by time and circumstance or the vision fades or fails, sometimes through no fault of their own. That as Powell notes, may be the nature of human affairs.

Grantley Adams, Errol Walton Barrow and Tom Adams left benevolent legacies. They made Barbados a better place. Sometimes these legacies are reflected in actual structures, the Deep Water Harbour, The ABC Highway, the Cave Hill Campus of the UWI, The construction of the Central Bank of Barbados, the Grantley Adams International Airport, etc.

More significantly, the legacies are enduringly represented in social developments that fundamentally ameliorate the nature of social relations and the culture of Barbados. Included in these developments would be Grantley Adams’ struggle for universal adult suffrage, self-government and the advancement of the black working class, post 1937.

Under Errol Barrow there is the movement toward political independence, the foundations of an economically and politically stable nation and the consistent expansion of tertiary educational provision. Tom Adams’ political career did not go the full trajectory. However, his legacy endures in the Freehold Tenantry legislation, a significant act of wealth distribution, legislation to expand the rights of women and the pragmatic widening of economic activity.

Invariably there is a moral aspect to the legacy the leader bequeaths, in the sense that he or she must have made some substantive and visible contribution to the public good.

The capacity to build a legacy is often constrained by circumstances. Difficult challenges might inhibit the fulfilment of a grand design. Conversely, the overcoming of challenges offers the political protagonist an opportunity to rise above very adverse circumstances. This was true of Winston Churchill facing the Nazi threat during World War II or Franklin D. Roosevelt’s (FDR) response to the impact of the great Depression by way of the New Deal. FDR and Abraham Lincoln are consistently ranked among America’s three best Presidents. Oftentimes the legacy may be mixed, no political record is totally pure.

In Barbados today the challenges are legion, economic recession tied to a global pandemic threatens life and livelihood in unprecedented ways. In spite of all the often vacuous chatter about ‘Transformation’, there is not a lot of room for the fashioning of a grand vision. We may be struggling just to survive physically, economically and spiritually. Formalism, symbolism and public relations do not a legacy make.

Lord Nelson’s statue did not belong in a Barbadian Heroes’ Square, but to cut it done and simply juck it in the basement of a museum does little to significantly advance the cause of anything. To declare Republican status may be tangentially important, but what is truly important is to indicate the kind of Republic we will become, Presidential or Banana. Barrow’s greatness was the fact that in spite of the naysayers he not only secured Barbados sovereignty but maintained our status as a viable liberal democratic state.

It is the moral quality and consistency of Barbadian leadership that explains the endurance of our democratic principles which too many take for granted. Everybody thought that Jeffersonian democracy, with its checks and balances, was a sure thing. That was until Trump and a set of Republican demagogues threatened and continues to threaten its very foundations.

On Brass Tacks of August 2, David Ellis stated that although he had no firm views of the Republic issue, he felt “insulted” by the way in which the present government has gone about it. Carlos Forte calling from Canada asked the pertinent question as to exactly how republican status would move the country forward. Barbadians must be wary of enshrining authoritarian tendencies in the political culture. It could happen more easily than we think.

A female caller on the same edition of Brass Tacks cautioned that we cannot leave it up to the politicians. Ellis with the insight for which he has become known made two points on constraining the political elites.

The first was that the Church, presumably as an agent of moral suasion, no longer had the “pre-eminence” it once had. The second was that the business sector was distrusted as “self-seeking”.  I would add two more difficulties the vassals may have in restraining their political overlords.

The first is that by and large the middle class intelligentsia, the beneficiaries of Errol Barrow’ free education, will keep its collective mouth shut in protection of its materialist class interests. The last is that Barbadian education may have fallen into qualitative decline to the extent that the people by and large may be more concerned with missed Crop Over partying  than with slipping democracy.       

Ralph Jemmott is a respected retired educator.