Jeevan A. Robinson - MNI Media
Sunday, October 15, 2017
I have seen it often repeated that ‘ All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing’
I like the quote to be frank, but I also think it is a contextual quote; one that is not applicable without benchmarks.
My wider view as an appendix to that quote, is that I agree that to highlight and talk about injustice and matters of accountability is fundamental to democratic governance and development. However, talking goes stale, repetitive and boring after a while, if there is no follow up action for those letters of agitation to take effect.
In what I term to be proactive societies, whenever media or community action groups raise issues and repeatedly highlight the wrongs that are taking place, there should normally be some form of resultant follow up action by citizens or groupings that represent the people, that will lead to real change.
In other words, the power of debating the issue should see action and agitation equally taking flight to bring about a desired directional shift or likewise.
However, in the Montserrat ongoing situation surrounding this vexed issue of redevelopment of the island, the island’s main pundits continue to have the very same repeated conversations for years on end with no change. Having stated it prior, I will do so again in stating that there are no new conversations in this Montserrat dilemma.
The Montserrat engagement is one where it would seem that the voters voice their protest at the polls, but during the ensuing 5 years of a government being in office, there is nothing on offer by way of protest except for street side murmurs, or social media cyclical chatter.
Here is where matters of Leadership once again drop sharply into focus. The Leadership however, I am speaking of is not only of government leadership, but also more widely, Parliamentary and Representative Leadership. My contention is that the latter form of Leadership is deeply lacking by way of visibility in the island’s overall Representative structure.
On Montserrat, there is an elected Movement for Change and Prosperity Opposition (MCAP), who I have been observing for some time now seem rather cowardly and weak in Leadership. They come over in many ways as having this obsession with regaining the seats of power on the island, but somehow do not equally come over as being truly compassionate - that in it for and with the people type of party. I have never gotten from MCAP's elected members, beyond the Hon Easton Taylor-Farrell - that they really are about people, more than they are about power.
Let me contextualise further. For all the pains the people of Montserrat have endured over the years; the MCAP elected Opposition have instead preferred to engage in cyclical radio conversations amongst themselves, but have not shown much political boldness and social care beyond that.
Looking at the issues that have faced Montserrat from the stagnant economy, the ferry fiasco, the injection of TCs into the local workforce at inflated salaries, the increase in political interference from the Governor’s office, DFID non-delivery and working to create stagnation on Montserrat, Romeo’s weak leadership, the St Patrick’s alleged malfeasance, the neo-colonial takeover of Montserrat, to a myriad of other issues – this MCAP elected Opposition have not had the political fortitude and presence to do as much as organise a protest march on behalf of the people. Instead they join the politics as usual of Montserrat, by offering more cyclical talk.
This Media House has written many articles over the years on the issue of Leadership. Now that Montserrat seems to be failing with Romeo at the helm, there is this misdirected chorus of wanting to go back to the equally failed Leadership of the past.
The sad reality is that poor leadership from the present Premier Romeo, and misguided advice from his power-hungry caucus have allowed for a small but vocal section of people calling for a leadership of the past that has widely not delivered what the island needed.
In as much as Romeo is responsible for the great stagnation on Montserrat, MCAP is also responsible for being the catalyst that led to this massive Department of International Development (DFID) cut back and over-emphasis on Governance on the island.
Did MCAP not do any good? Of course they did! All governments do some measure of good in their terms in office – as much as they may not deliver enough by way of across the board change. But MCAP have done way too many governance missteps on Montserrat for it to be glossed over.
Reuben T Meade as I keep saying to many people is smart, charismatic and knowledgeable, I agree. But what I find, is that there is this effort to sugar coat RTM’s time in office as being all magnificent. That is way too much economy with the truth, of what really happened at the time in Montserrat's political history. That is misdirection, and an intentional effort to re-write history.
Politically and Leadership wise, I expected much more from RTM in the way he should have taken Montserrat to great heights; and that is my gross disappointment with his tenure of leadership. RTM could have done more if he had not being bugged down by mundane political nuances.
But politics it seems can be a game of selective memory. For as much as people were crying now for pain and hardship, in the same breath leading up to the 2014 elections, they were equally crying for pain and hardship.
MCAP did not lose the 2014 elections because voters were bored, and all this excusable talk that people were fooled by a Dr Isaac Newton. The overriding element why MCAP lost the election was because citizens wanted to see the back of Reuben T Meade; his style of governance; and the fact that only a select few on Montserrat were “eating well” and others were doomed to catch hell.
Dr Sammy Joseph the presumptive MCAP Leader, having successfully gotten rid of Jermaine Wade, Peter Queeley and perhaps soon too Easton Taylor-Farrell – he recently stated that MCAP is now about the future. However, having observed Joseph’s rhetoric and style for some time, it is clear that his mind is firmly planted in the failure of the MCAP’s past. Still, in many ways, he is seeking to use the political savvy of Reuben T Meade to propel the new MCAP.
Joseph needs to decide if he is truly about the future, or if he's about representing MCAP’s failed past. He can’t have it both ways and he won’t.
Equally so, it can’t be that less government dependency is what Joseph preaches, but then out of the same mouth that he speaks, he then is saying the government is not doing enough.
I find Joseph’s message confusing, in many ways struggling to break through. He must decide on his own unique political ideology and footprint, and sell it more aggressively if he wishes to be seen as anything different from the MCAP of old.
This so-called new MCAP or whatever they term themselves cannot represent the future when they are still hero worshiping personalities that have had their moment, and equally failed in wholesale delivery for Montserrat.
As much as PDM under Romeo is devoid of Leadership on Montserrat, MCAP under – well whoever their leader is – equally are an abysmal failure in Leadership.
Montserrat does not require going back to tried and tested policies, but the time now is to consider a grouping of the best minds that will unify, and show real Leadership with a robust meshing of International contacts and development partners to get the island moving.
That grouping may very well be neither PDM nor MCAP going forward.
Jeevan A. Robinson is Managing Director and Editor-in-Chief of Marketing, News & Information Media - MNI Alive Media. He can be reached at jeevan@mnialive.com
