It seems clear that Prime Minister Freundel Stuart has decided that in his absence abroad, Minister of Tourism Richard Sealy is now his preferred choice to act as Prime Minister.
Since Mr Stuart’s ascent to the office of Prime Minister, his absences from the island have been marked by the choice of Minister of Education Ronald Jones to act as Prime Minister in accordance with the usual practice that “another minister” is appointed to act in the office whenever the Prime Minister is unable to perform his functions by reason of being abroad.
In the normal stream of events, this shift in the acting appointment does not attract other than peripheral attention. In neighbouring Trinidad and Tobago, Prime Minister Kamla Persaud-Bissessar has advised on the appointment of several other ministers from time to time, to so act, while she has been abroad.
In our case, Minister Jones was until recently always the preferred choice, as long as he was not abroad at the same time as the Prime Minister was!
Dr George Belle, a political scientist at Cave Hill, opines that the episode of the Eager Eleven which broke last year is part of the reason why Mr Jones no longer gets the nod when the Prime Minister is out of the island. According to Dr Belle, Mr Sealy is being rewarded for his loyalty, his maturity, and as someone who came across to the public as one of the more “level-headed” members of the Cabinet.
He also thinks the problem at The Alexandra School, for which Mr Jones is the “line minister”, may have had an impact, since as Dr Belle sees it “the Prime Minister may have had concerns with how the Alexandra crisis was managed”.
While we have the greatest respect for Dr Belle’s views, given his expertise, he is, like most of us, not privy to the Prime Minister’s reasons for recommending Mr Sealy to act as Prime Minister.
Pollster and fellow political scientist Peter Wickham focuses on the nature of the choice of Mr Sealy, and thinks that the Prime Minister should have made his choice with an eye to the next election, and he uncharitably describes Mr Sealy as a political lightweight.
Yet, if the Eager Eleven episode and The Alexandra School issues may have been part and parcel of the factual matrix in Stuart’s decision then, despite those “influencing” events, Mr Stuart’s decision must be respected as one of the responsibilities of the high office he now holds, for a Prime Minister has to call it as he sees it, given that the buck stops at his desk!
We venture to say, though, that while the political parties will deal with their internal politics, the primary public objective must be the improvement of the national economic landscape in the face of continuing difficulties. We dare not, and cannot, lose sight of that truth, whether or not “one minister or other” acts as Prime Minister. The larger picture is indeed larger!
