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Posted: Thursday 23 April, 2015 at 7:15 PM

CHARISMA AND ABILITY, CHARACTER AND COMMITMENT

G.A. Dwyer Astaphan

    A dear friend who often shares the Daily Word with me sent me this one yesterday: 

     

    “Charisma and ability can take you to the top, but it takes character and commitment to keep you there”.
     
    I entreat the members of the new Team Unity Government to take this to heart.
     
    They are, without question, a very charismatic group of persons. That was in clear and palpable evidence during the recent election campaign. And their ability is abundantly manifested through by respective professional and personal accomplishments.
     
    Now they have to demonstrate character and commitment as our nation’s leaders.
     
    What is character? It’s quality, temperament, disposition and moral fibre.
     
    Commitment is obligation, devotion and dedication.
     
    It’s also loyalty to the people’s cause, as has been articulated by Team Unity in their pledge to include and embrace; to empower and develop from the bottom up; to be efficient and professional; to provide good, humble, respectful, confident, noble and transparent governance; and to introduce a new, robust, vibrant democracy to our Federation.
     
    And it isn’t by their charisma and their ability that they’ll be ultimately judged, but, instead, by their character and commitment.
     
    If they exhibit character and commitment, our nation will be better off, and the people, and history, will be kind to them. If not, they won’t be tolerated for too long.
     
    The people have been stung before, most recently during the twenty-year reign of ‘Dr. Ten Man in One’. Never again!
     
    Yes, unquestioning political partisanship still features in our lives, and we’ll see it for some time to come, but its influence on voting patterns will be reduced as we continue to evolve as a society; and people will vote more for issues and for candidates of character and commitment, than on the basis of political partisanship.
     
    On February 16, 2015, our nation made a turn in this new, better direction, and while, to some of us, progress might appear to be slow, and to others, even non-existent, the process has begun.
     
    Yes, not all of us are happy with everything that our new Government has done, or has not done. But let’s face it, if everybody is happy with everything, then it means that we all died and went to Heaven.
     
    Meanwhile, we’ve been able to see signs of character and commitment in the delivering of campaign promises to assist former sugar workers, and to remove VAT from food, medicines and funerals.

    We’re also seeing a more serious approach to appointments on boards, in an obvious effort to improve efficiency.
     
    The National Bank Board is a case on point. I was one who called for the Government, as majority shareholder, to allow the minority shareholders to have a voice on this Board.
     
    As it turns out, at the Bank’s General Meeting on April 21, while all nine of the Government’s nominees were elected (and there was some healthy debate on the floor during this process), three of those persons had also been nominated by the minority shareholders.
     
    So while from my perspective, we did not see the step taken fully, whereby the majority shareholder would’ve agreed to take seven seats on the Board and allow the minority shareholders to get three, the fact that there were actually three persons nominated by both the majority and the minority shareholders brings me some comfort that a process is taking place and that we’re heading in the right direction.
     
    Next year, I expect to see more progress.
     
    Meanwhile, and again, there’ll be disagreements in some selections, but there’s no doubt that this new National Bank Board has ability. Its character and its commitment (not just to its majority shareholder but to all of its shareholders, to its customers and employees, to its trading partners, to the country, and indeed to the OECS) will, no doubt, be tested going forward.
     
    And as the new Government goes forward, we expect to see continuing demonstrations of character and commitment in all aspects of governance.
     
    For example, we look forward to the early passing of regulations for the Integrity in Public Life Act, or a scrapping of that Act and the passing of a new, better Act.
     
    We also look forward to early measures being taken to introduce into law term limits for prime ministers.
     
    And, of course, we look forward to electoral reform.
     
    Meanwhile, and inter alia, we also look forward to:
    i. Reports on the SIDF and the Economic Citizenship Program;
    ii. The incorporation of the SIDF into the Government’s operations;
    iii. Reports on all statutory corporations and companies wholly owned by the Government such as ZIZ, SKELEC and UDC;
    iv. Freedom of Information legislation;
    v. The National Health Plan;
    vi. A comprehensive national Security plan;
    vii. A reversal of the Land-for-Debt Swap; and
    viii. Health and Education Reform.
     
    In the matter of education reform, let me end by teasing your brain with these facts:
    i. For the first six years of their primary education, Japanese children are taught ethics and civics, and their country’s culture and history;
    ii. Children are encouraged to be respectful but also to think for themselves, to question, and to discuss and debate;
    iii. There’s no examination from the first to the third year of primary school because the goal of education in Japan is to instil concepts and character building;
    iv. Children in Japanese schools brush their teeth after each meal and they’re taught proper health practices; and
    v. They take half hour to finish their meals to ensure proper digestion because these students are the future of Japan.
     A
    Is Japan a perfect country? Of course, not. But if our new Government is to establish a new and better dispensation, it must take bold and wise steps to steer the ship of state in the right direction, as Japan did right after its destruction in World War 2.
     
    Our leaders must not be afraid to shed the old, and seek out new, or different, ways of doing things. And in many, if not in most, cases, they don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Successful and applicable models in most areas of governance already exist.
     
    Here’s the test of character and commitment.
     
     
     
     
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