Jimmy Fletcher Came To Talk But Not TALK Talk!

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he dictionary definition of education: The process of receiving or giving systematic instruction, especially at a school or university; an enlightening experience. I certainly had an enlightening experience when I had as my guest on last week’s TALK James Fletcher, PhD plant physiology. If he cannot legitimately be described as an advertiser for himself (to his credit, he encourages regular folk to address him simply as “Jimmy”) that does not mean he is not generally regarded as one of this country’s “best brains,” a category of Saint Lucian first identified by Kenny Anthony, whose own curriculum vitae suggests he is among the brightest sons of our region.

Also considered among the select group: the late George Odlum, Didacus Jules, Vaughan Lewis, retired governor general Pearlette Louisy . . . I hesitate to mention Derek Walcott and Arthur Lewis, both universally lauded prophets whose names in the land that gave them birth are less synonymous with unique talents and education than with aloofness, arrogance, Tomism and other traits as unflattering as they are unmerited. It’s just the way the Looshan cookie crumbles—de kolcha!

Jimmy, whose latest publication is a 110-page booklet on Governing in a Small Caribbean Island State, agreed to appear with me on TV having earlier stated his desire to concentrate on conversation likely to eliminate “the toxic mess that’s dominating the national conversation, and cause people to see our challenges and development in a different solution-oriented light.” I couldn’t help wondering who or what, in Jimmy’s view, had created the toxic mess he had discerned, and why it had been permitted to grow, like weeds in a long untended flower garden, to the point that it now dominated national discourse.

I noted that in his opening pages Jimmy had been careful to assure his readers he was not just another legend in his own mind; that he had actually spent most of his working life closely aiding and abetting Saint Lucia’s decision makers; that he knew his onions from up-close encounters — a behind the scenes influencer of government policy. It was also well known that Jimmy had personally represented governments at several international conferences and doubtless profited the opportunity to get into the heads of big guns of United States and European administrations. I arrived at the DBS studios already convinced his unique experiences had rendered Jimmy different from the average bear, supremely qualified to write a book about Governing in a Small Caribbean Island State — conceivably a useful tool by which to educate his less fortunate brothers and sisters.

By the way, the author uses quite a lot in his book the words fortunate, fortunately and unfortunately — which surprised me. The purpose of handbooks (and he did admit on TV that the book under discussion is indeed a handbook for the politically ambitious!) is to give information such as facts on a particular subject or instructions for operating a machine. The machine this author had in mind when he conceived Governing in a Small Caribbean Island State is obviously the machine of government. Not the machine of de partee! This is how our political mechanic introduces himself: “I have been fortunate to see government operate from several different angles.” After four years as a permanent secretary he had been “given an opportunity as cabinet secretary to witness in operation the levers of decision-making in government” and had learned after a time that running a government wasn’t as difficult as widely presumed.

“With focused, smart leadership, efficiently run systems and committed ministers, sensible decision-making, and good communication it could be done,” he had concluded. Indeed, I am tempted to argue there never was a successful undertaking that had not benefitted from smart and focused leadership, efficiently run systems, committed workers, and good communication. But since the overwhelming evidence suggests our country has long been in “a toxic mess” —remember when William Peter Boulevard erupted on the night of July 17, 1979 without a single arrest or even an inquiry? —should we not all be anxious to discover the reasons why before contemplating possible remedies?

The author reassures his readers that his book is “a personal reflection, informed by the education and experiences” he had garnered along the way. It is written, he reveals, in the best interests of “the new prime minister and political leader of the ruling party, because this is where the locus of power resides in our mode of government and this is the person who determines the tone and direction of the administration.”

Who would disagree? The conundrum arises when the author calculatedly refuses to focus on the performances of the individuals who, over the years, had been “the locus of power” of different administrations. They and their publicized close advisors!

In personality psychology, locus of control is the degree to which people believe they have control over the outcome of events in their lives, as opposed to external forces beyond their control. As for the locus of power in government, Jimmy points his finger directly at the prime minister. And yet, when it comes to taking responsibility for the power vested in his office, especially when it seems that prime ministerial power has been over and over abused, Jimmy says: “I am not interested in getting stuck in a discussion about who did what” or how he did it. Jimmy is minded only “to put measures in place to prevent governments from making deals in the dark that hurt citizens and the country’s reputation.”

Imagine a doctor not being interested in why a visitor to his clinic suddenly keeled over and died. Imagine our justice system not being concerned about who did what following the fatal shooting of five citizens on a picnic. In all events we do have measures in place to discourage the making of “deals in the dark that hurt citizens and the country’s reputation.” We have a Constitution that provides for commissions of inquiry, courts, a police department, judicial reviews, an integrity commission and so on.

Among Prime Minister Kenny Anthony’s first undertakings was the 1998 inquiry into alleged cases of corruption involving his immediate predecessors. The commissioner was Sir Louis Blom-Cooper. Earlier, there had been the matter of the UN Scandal that pointed accusatory fingers at public servants at the highest levels. There was also the inquiry into the management of Saint Lucia-owned real estate in New York. Most recently there was the Rochamel-related Frenwell commission, headed by Sir Fenton Ramsahoye.

“Oh, but what came out of these inquiries? They’re all a waste of taxpayers’ money!” said Dr. Fletcher, in response to a caller to last week’s TALK. Of course, Jimmy was surprisingly incorrect when he implied, on the basis that no one had been convicted, that the inquiries were pointless. The truth is that the cited inquiries had uncovered information previously unknown to regular citizens of this country. In the case of the UN Scandal, it turned out monies irregularly sourced from the UNDP for particular projects may have been used for purposes other than intended. Also that the day’s prime minister had been, by his own account, “duped” into handing over a million dollars from the Consolidated Fund by one his most trusted heads of department.

In the matter of Frenwell, a company formed at the behest of another prime minister, it turned out that parliament was misled and the people made responsible for secret transactions involving a Trinidad bank and Trinidad lawyers — but not public servants attached to the local finance ministry. Without the inquiries, without the appropriate measures, details of suspect governance now common knowledge would’ve been known only to certain elected officials and their co-conspirators. It occurs to me that the more developed countries have in place every conceivable discouragement to engage in abuses of office. Still there is official corruption, both in the United States and throughout Europe. Thank goodness that has not been enough to deter the authorities from pursuing official crooks all the way to prison.

We might’ve by now been much closer to having the caliber of people both Jimmy and I consider fit candidates for office had some of our noblest sons and daughters put their feet down and demanded that the reports from our commissions of inquiry be placed before the DPP, as recommended by the commissioners. That no DPP in Saint Lucia has ever been required to follow-up on inquiries does not mean the appropriate measures are not in place. They are. Our monarchs of all they survey, with complicit officials, have for too long been allowed, one way or another, to sabotage the justice system. We can at least talk about that, can’t we? But Jimmy considers such talk further proof of “the toxicity that’s dominating the national conversation” and nothing to do with “how to improve governance and give this country and the young people in particular a viable future.”

The truth is, our people generally — not just the young — a long time ago dismissed the majority of our politicians as a bunch of conniving liars who cannot be trusted to see commissions of inquiry are followed up by appropriate action. “The toxicity that’s dominating the national conversation” represents indisputable evidence that there is need for straight talk about public matters and Saint Lucians everywhere are acting out their resentment at being taken for granted, administration after administration. They know something stinks — and not only in the state of Denmark. The discerning ear can tell the population is fed up with the official mollycoddling of obvious betrayers of the public trust. The toxicity to which Jimmy refers has dominated the national conversation for years. Alas, too many who know better have dismissed the people’s demands for justice as poisonous noise pollution.

If I may be permitted to repeat myself: while the author of Governing in a Small Caribbean Island State had for most of his working life been close to the “locus of power,” he writes precious little indicative of the experience. He mentions no particular project, or the reasons for its failure or success; no important conversations that only those closest to the salt would have heard. His book concentrates on how to run a successful campaign — the mother of all ironies, considering what had happened to Jimmy’s boss, the former prime minister and party leader, on June 6, 2016. Did I mention that Jimmy was never famous as a campaigner or party leader? But that’s what it turns out his handbook is mostly about: electioneering.

He offers quite unnecessarily, to my mind, an A-Z of what ritually follows a successful campaign: the need to choose a good governor general, an attorney general with a fine reputation in our courts of law, the process of picking personnel to staff statutory bodies, and so on. Jimmy even dances with the “first hundred days in office” fantasy.

Writes the plant physiologist for the benefit of new prime ministers presumably without vision: “Your ministers do not need to be subject-matter specialists in the areas for which they have been given responsibilities. In fact, in some instances the subject-matter specialist minister may cause more harm than good by not being able to resist the temptation to insert himself or herself in the day-to-day operations and management of the ministry. I have seen this happen and the results are invariably bad.”

Oh, if only he’d provided a case or two supportive of his premise. Readers are expected to take the writer at his word, regardless of our own reasonable concerns about ministers without a clue about the function of their ministries. My complaints, notwithstanding, I nevertheless encourage everyone to purchase Governing in a Small Island State. It’s a good read and provides subjects worthy of discussion, whether at the nation’s countless watering holes or by our more erudite

TV panelists. I also recommend my own Lapses & Infelicities —as well as Derek Walcott’s What the Twilight Says.

Speaking for myself, I found nothing in Governing in a Small Caribbean Island State likely to dilute the toxicity in what currently passes for political discourse. I read nothing that might be a comfort to an admittedly angry general public that each day grows less tolerant of elected sicko politicos and their unelectable today ticks!