THE AMERICANS HAVE developed a tradition I rather admire regarding the treatment of people who attain the highest office in their country, that of president.
That individual can remain for only two consecutive terms and thereafter must retire, but gets to hold onto his title “Mr President” which costs the American taxpayer nothing but accords that individual a level of dignity and respect for the remainder of his/her life.
Substantively, the individual also continues to be paid at the rate applicable to the president and will also get to keep his security detail which comes in handy when one considers the nature of the job.
Our experience in the Caribbean is a very different one where former prime ministers are accorded very little regard and is it is fascinating how quickly the trappings and protections of office are removed.
The most recent case in point would be that of Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar who arrived at her Penal counting station on election night with an impressive security detail of no fewer than five vehicles, while the Trinidad Express reported that “Persad-Bissessar accepted a ride home with a supporter driving a sub-compact”, after PM 1 conveniently did not start and had to be towed away (after the count revealed she’d lost).
Persad-Bissessar was fortunate to have held her seat, so she continues to enjoy the privilege of being a Member of Parliament and Leader of the Opposition; however, George Chambers was not so fortunate and would have been ejected from the prime minister’s office, house and car without even the basic courtesies.
Former prime ministers in the Caribbean who are not fortunate enough to be knighted are stripped of any distinguishing title and could earn a pension that falls well below that of the office to which they had been elected.
In the case of Barbados, a Prime Minister once elected would earn a special pension associated with that office; however, in Antigua, the prime ministerial pension is earned only after the individual is elected three times which means that two former prime ministers are currently denied the privilege of a pension to which they should be entitled.
Such cases are not rare in the Caribbean and could force former prime ministers to suffer the indignity of seeking work to escape the ravages of poverty.
Across the seas in Grenada, the change of government in 2008 ushered in an era of hostility where one newspaper reported that one former prime minister was relieved of his diplomatic passport to the delight of party supporters.
Ironically, the convention in Barbados allows a minister to hang on to theirs for life but this is not the tradition across this region.
Having spoken to a few former prime ministers and observing others, the greater problem they face is the dramatic change in their relevance which occurs one day to the next.
As prime minister of a small country you are relevant to that space in way that the president of the United States is not to his. Your words are gospel, you dominate the news cycle virtually every day (largely because you have your own media organisation) and your phone will not stop ringing which must be a giant boost to the ego of any person, far less one who is narcissistic.
A day or two after the Prime Minister loses office, all this is gone and the former office holder can be left to feel irrelevant, lonely and lost, feelings which were clearly reflected in the biography on Sir Winston Churchill’s life Wilderness Years.
Sir Winston turned to bricklaying in those years while Errol Barrow went on his notorious sabbatical, before returning to turn a few loads of cement in building the DLP’s headquarters.
If, however, an ex-leader has no such distraction he could easily be driven to make a nuisance of himself, which is unfortunate, especially where his intellect and talents could potentially be quite useful.
Peter W. Wickham is a political consultant and a director of Caribbean Development Research Services (CADRES). Email: peter.w.wickham@gmail.com
