Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the author(s) do not represent the official position of Barbados TODAY.
by Dr. Derek Alleyne
Some time ago, the Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines described Barbados as an idea. It now seems clear that he was saying that Barbados is not a real place.
As elsewhere, 2021 has been a difficult year for Barbadians. Many were looking to the New Year with hope. However, with elections in the air, it was anticipated that some public person would have done a biographic analysis of the leadership of Prime Minister Mottley.
She depends heavily on such propaganda to create her profile. Lo and behold, noted attorney-at-law, Garth Patterson, took the responsibility and painted a story of amazement of Mottley.
If Barbadians were not living through this administration and seeing the bizarre governance for themselves, they would have been fooled.
I am sure that Patterson would contend that his presentation was not meant to be a biography but stories like his can form the basis of future biographical work.
As such, opinions must be placed within some context and in a research frame.
The context I believe was Christmas and gift-giving and the frame was certainly strong endorsement.
While there are several characteristics and definitions of what leadership is about, Marji Gordon, consultant in leadership and management, explains that it is about mobilising people to tackle the toughest problems and to do their best work.
Gordon suggests that leadership is embedded in every one of us, but the key is to unlock our personal passion which will give us the courage to do things that appear difficult, uncertain or even unpopular.
Most of all, Gordon emphasizes that a good leader is authentic and that means aligning who you are with what you do. It means making sure that your actions live out
your words: if you say something is important, this is reflected in how you spend your time.
When we see authentic leaders, we see congruence – people who are consistent in their beliefs and who behave in a way that demonstrates those beliefs in action.
One challenge for biographers is the presentation
of honest analysis from authentic data. Kaja Kazmierska in “analysing biographic data” suggests that accurate descriptions, explanations and interpretations, based
on references to the source material, require long, elaborated text analysis.
Anything short of that rigor reflects subjective descriptive opinions that carry no weight. It is in this context that one must weigh Patterson’s writing.
Patterson affirms that Mottley “was destined for leadership”. Is he talking about her bloodlines? Patterson may be reaching back to the predestination doctrine of Calvinism in which individuals believe that the elects have been predestined by God for salvation.
Where this is the key concept to identify behavioural propensities fostered by Protestantism (Kabas, 2019), it can therefore be interpreted that Patterson asserts that Mottley is chosen by God to lead.
To be fair to Patterson, Mottley does behave that way, but selecting an international image gained at the expense of the public purse and treating acts of poor leadership as missteps invalidates Patterson’s biography.
The management of the pandemic is a good example and has been a lesson in what not to do. Mottley has been talking and has been accused of not taking the advice of the professionals.
Patterson believes Mottley is “one of the most gifted political people to grace the political arena”.
He offers that her intellect is exceptional and the breadth and depth of her knowledge makes most of us who have a little book-learning, or consider ourselves as intellectuals seem almost pedestrian”.
Wow, wow, wow! I make no claim to being an intellectual and the only thing I am predestined to do is die, but my book-learning, including my reading of history, life experience in Barbados, my trust in the intellectual capacity and observations of Owen Arthur, my common sense, my eyes and my ears, all force me to disagree violently with Patterson’s view of Mottley.
What I am sure of is that Mottley has the gift of the gab, has a good memory and finds the right cliché to meet the subject of the moment.
I am not aware of any source of criticism of Patterson, but he has made it clear that his pronouncements have nothing to do with political ambitions; nor bias; nor enmity. He asserts that there are plenty enough sycophants and he does not want to join the club.
There is a growing incidence of people finding reason to apologise to Mottley after criticising anything she does. In fact to offer critical analysis is to be ungrateful or unpatriotic. Patterson can please forgive me, it is not personal, but you have simply joined that list.
Dr. Derek Alleyne is a trade unionist, social commentator and member of the Democratic Labour Party.
