Barbados TODAY Editorial
Being Prime Minister is an awesomely important job, carrying with it great responsibility, leverage and influence. In the Caribbean, the holder of this office is really the maximum leader, wielding the power to appoint and disappoint, improve the lives of the masses and destroy those of his or her enemies.
In our region, we have had our fair share of maximum leaders. Not nearly on the scale of a Kim Jong-Un in North Korea or President Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines but we have had a few who allowed the power of the office to consume them with ideas of grandeur that exaggerated their notions of self-importance.
Within the current period of Emergency Power enactments, where many constitutional rights have been temporarily altered on account of the COVID-19 pandemic, one has to keep a very careful eye on all our leaders at this critical juncture.
Those who have maintained their power, influence and wealth during these very trying economic times for the majority of citizens, are going to have their influence magnified because the level of dislocation is so overwhelming.
At the same time, we have witnessed historic levels of cooperation between regional leaders. Take for example the decision by the Cayman Islands’ Premier Alden McLoughlin to share tens of thousands of that country’s COVID-19 test kits with Barbados at a time when many industrialised nations were hoarding important supplies, leaving small countries like Barbados to fend for themselves and undertake a scavenger hunt for testing kits and personal protective equipment in the earlier stages of the pandemic.
The Cayman Islands, to which many Barbadian professionals have migrated over the decades, sold the Barbados government 20, 000 of the more than 165, 000 test kits it managed to secure from South Korea at cost, and flew the shipment to Barbados last April.
Then there was the Caribbean Community Travel Bubble, meant to create a safe zone for travellers of the designated CARICOM states to move seamlessly amid the COVID- 19 chaos that has crippled the hospitality sector, created havoc in air travel and disrupted supply chains.
The bubble quickly burst as it was discovered some people were abusing the system.
Citizens from high-risk nations were involved in what was described as “COVID laundering” where they avoided COVID-19 tests by “washing their status” through countries in the bubble.
The latest development has given us pause to reflect on the political leadership of countries in the region. The most recent outburst by Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda Mr. Gaston Browne has raised eyebrows again.
While we will politely refer to Mr. Browne’s style as maverick or even eccentric, others have described him as a bit of a bully, a politician with a penchant for reminding others, he is the maximum leader in Antigua & Barbuda.
His reputation for shouting across the Caribbean Sea, demanding answers from other Prime Ministers and issuing ultimatums has made him infamous.
He has questioned Barbados’ decision to label his homeland at high risk or medium risk for COVID, threatening to take action. Again, he is seriously floating legal action against Barbados over LIAT.
His decision to place St Vincent and Barbados on the re-emerged LIAT flight calendar while a number of outstanding matters remained on the table was a bold move on his part. We have been told that issues including monies owed to Barbados-based former LIAT employees, landing rights for the new incarnation of LIAT, and outstanding airport fees continue to stand in the way of LIAT’s transition.
But Browne appears highly offended that his Government-rescued carrier has been held up in St Vincent and the Grenadines and Barbados.
“LIAT is a regional institution within the OECS and the broader CARICOM and it should be given national treatment; not to be treated as some stepchild, but to be embraced as a regional carrier, and if anything, should be given preference, not to be discriminated against.
“If they were to seek to sustain this type of behaviour then clearly it will be a restraining of trade and I presume that the Administrator would want to consider maybe taking them to the Caribbean Court of Justice in its original jurisdiction. So it is a position that cannot be sustained,” Browne has insisted.
Questioning the audacity of St Vincent and Barbados to stand in the way of LIAT, he wanted names.
“Which group of individuals has this type of gumption to take this type of policy decision in order to discriminate against LIAT?” he queried.
“I would recommend that they review this position soonest and to allow LIAT to fly into their destinations as it would have done for the last several decades.”
One expects this episode is likely to create even more fractures in an already shaky relationship among some of our political leaders.
