NEWS OF THE NATURE of the Prime Minister’s illness has relieved the curiosity of some and increased the anxiety of all of us.
Pancreatic cancer is normally a terminal illness but the prayerful hope is that it will not be so in this case.
Nevertheless, the continuing stress of the office cannot fail to exacerbate the distress of the afflicted who should seek and obtain such extended leave of absence from ministerial duties as has been granted to others in less urgent circumstances.
This, no doubt would create a crisis in the executive office of Cabinet even if the absence of the member did not affect his status in the House of Assembly.
The crisis would emphasise the importance of the proper relationship which should exist between ministers and the Public Service in the governance of the state.
The crisis appeals for the substitution of cooperation for confrontation in the exercise of representative parliamentary democracy as the basis of the government of the state.
The ideals of democracy suggest a consensus in which minority interests are fully expressed and duly considered.
This process demands action by a minority which does not represent an obdurate opposition but a conciliatory and sincere alternative in positive terms to the expressed will of the majority in search of genuine consensus.
In the prolonged absence of the Prime Minister which is most desirable for his recovery, the spirit of coalition and consensus should prevail in the representative assembly resolved (for the duration until the next regular period of general elections) into “Committee of the Whole” which for all practical purposes is the form of a coalition.
Thus in the widest possible context of circumstances domestic and international at this time, the affliction of the Prime Minister should be seen not as the ill wind that blows nobody any good, but as Providential inspiration at man’s extremity… an opportunity for good.
LEONARD ST. HILL
