The following editorial was published by the Jamaica Gleaner on Tuesday, October 26, 2010.
The untimely, if not entirely, unexpected death last weekend of Prime Minister David Thompson of Barbados robbed him of time to leave a distinctive and indelible mark on his country. Nor did the wider CARICOM family ever know what contribution he might have made to the region.
For, notwithstanding his seeming lack of deep engagement in regional issues in his two active years as prime minister, it is improbable that someone of Mr Thompson’s promise, intellect, and appreciation of the logic of integration would not have eventually played a substantial and substantive role in advancing the Caribbean Community.
It would be an error, however, to suggest that Mr Thompson’s contribution to Barbados could be judged merely by the 34 months of his premiership, for nearly a third of which he was sidelined by the cancer that eventually took his life.
What is often overlooked is Mr Thompson’s role in fashioning the vaunted social consensus and in taking the tough decisions that helped, eventually, to place Barbados on the threshold of developed country status, which Jamaican commentators like to highlight.
David Thompson was marked early as a future leader of Barbados. He was a protégé of the late Errol Barrow and led the youth wing of Barrow’s Democratic Labour Party (DLP).
Mr Thompson entered the Barbadian parliament in 1987 at the age of 25, and joined the Cabinet four years later as the minister of community development and culture. By this time, in 1991, Mr Barrow was dead, Mr Erskine Sandiford was prime minister, and Barbados was in deep economic trouble. There was talk of devaluation of the Barbadian dollar, whose longstanding, fixed rate was an important psychological symbol of the country’s well-being.
It is now part of popular Caribbean lore how Mr Sandiford took the hard fiscal decisions, including freezing public-sector salaries, cutting expenditure elsewhere, and losing the next general election.
Indeed, Mr Sandiford deserves the credit for agreeing to, and standing by, the difficult actions that eventually pulled Barbados back from an economic precipice.
What is not usually remarked on is that between 1992 and 1993, Mr Thompson, then just past 30, was the Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance and had responsibility for administering some of the bitter medicine that Barbadians had to imbibe.
Between 1993 and 1994 – when the DLP was thrown out of office – David Thompson had full responsibility for the finance portfolio. He didn’t relax the purse strings, helping to create the platform upon which the new government built.
That, we think, is a substantial legacy.
CARIBBEAN LEADERS WHO HAVE DIED IN OFFICE
YEAR NAME AGE COUNTRY
1967 Sir Donald Sangster 55 Jamaica
1978 Robert Bradshaw 62 St Kitts-Nevis
1979 Paul Southwell 66 St Kitts-Nevis
1981 Dr Eric Williams 70 T&T
1983 Maurice Bishop 39 Grenada
1985 “Tom” Adams 53 Barbados
1985 Forbes Burnham 62 Guyana
1987 Errol Barrow 67 Barbados
1989 Herbert Blaize 71 Grenada
1997 Cheddi Jagan 79 Guyana
2000 Rosie Douglas 58 Dominica
2004 Pierre Charles 49 Dominica
2007 Sir John Compton 81 St Lucia
2010 David Thompson 48 Barbados
Caribbean leaders who left office as a result of illness, became ill while in office, or became ill shortly after leaving office:
● 1964—Sir Alexander Bustamante, Jamaica’s first Prime Minister, stepped down because of illness.
● 1987—Desmond Hoyte, former President of Guyana, underwent heart surgery within a year of his party’s defeat at the polls after 28 years in power.
● 1988—Herbert Blaize, Prime Minister of Grenada, collapsed at his home and was rushed to the United States for treatment. Officials said he was suffering from “an abdominal disorder”. It was the most dramatic sign of his growing ill health after he was elected in 1984. In the four years leading to this incident, Blaize’s health worsened progressively, forcing him to use a walking stick and, sometimes, a wheelchair.
● 1992—Michael Manley, Jamaican Prime Minister, resigned as head of government and leader of the People’s National Party on health grounds.
● 1993—Erskine Sandiford, Prime Minister of Barbados, suffered an angina attack.
● 1995—Basdeo Panday, Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, was hospitalised six weeks after being elected. He underwent surgery to remove cholesterol that was blocking a blood vessel in his heart. In 1992, while opposition leader, he had triple-bypass surgery.
● 1996—Sir Lynden Pindling, Prime Minister of the Bahamas between 1967 and 1992 and the man who led that country into independence from Britain in 1973, underwent surgery for prostate cancer and tumours in his abdomen.
● 1998—Patrick Manning, Leader of the Opposition and Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago from 1991 to 1995, underwent surgery to repair leaking heart valves, a condition he developed following an attack of rheumatic fever.
● 1998—Arthur Robinson, Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago between 1981 and 1986, and thereafter president, had open-heart surgery. While prime minister he had challenges with circulation.
● 1999—Janet Jagan, former Guyanese President, resigned following doctors’ advice about her heart condition.
● 1999—Sir James Mitchell, former Prime Minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines, was treated for a stress-related condition which led to an unspecified surgical procedure.
● 2004—Patrick Manning, Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, had a pacemaker implanted and laser surgery done to correct his near-sightedness.
● 2007—Sir John Compton, Prime Minister of St Lucia, suffered a number of mild strokes.
