A Bahamian Obama?

by Simon

•Simon is a young Bahamian with things on his mind who wishes to remain anonymous. His column 'Front Porch' is published every Tuesday in the Nassau Guardian. He can be reached at frontporchguardian@gmail.com.

Whatever one’s opinion on the strengths and weaknesses or successes and failures of Hubert Ingraham and Perry Christie as Prime Minister, there is a fact upon which all can agree: both leaders are nearing the end of their political journeys.

At ages 61 and 63 respectively, they are currently the longest serving members of the House and have been on the national stage for about half of their lives and most of our post-independence history.  Both entered the House in 1977 with Mr. Christie having been appointed to the Senate in 1974. 

While most of those who served in Lynden Pindling’s cabinet have retired from frontline politics, Messrs. Christie and Ingraham cut their teeth and learned some of their more enduring political lessons after service in their mentor’s cabinet.

When these then young Turks entered the lower chamber scores of current voters were yet to be born, including many whose memory of Sir Lynden is more from history books than personal experience. 

These younger and increasingly less partisan voters view the prime ministership through the prism of the leadership styles of these former law partners who became fellow dissidents and then political adversaries.

Assuming that both leaders carry their respective parties into a 2012 general election contest with a mandate expiring in 2017, these men will have occupied the Office of the Prime Minister for a quarter century.

THE FUTURE

Yet even as we recall the contributions of these public servants after the inauguration of Barack Obama, a new political brand who interrupted the Bush/Clinton office swapping, our thoughts turn to the future.

Obama, who was in his teens when these men entered elected office, represents a transformational moment not only for his country but also for a new generation of leaders worldwide.

As Perry Christie and Hubert Ingraham continue to build their legacies, there is one critical test that will feature prominently in that legacy-building and more importantly our shared future:  the quality of leaders they are helping to develop to succeed them, including as Prime Minister. 

There are those partisans who will take offence at the idea of planning for the post- Ingraham/Christie era.  That is the old politics.  The new politics, which has been percolating for some time at home and abroad, has found renewed energy in Obama’s election. 

But while President Obama has helped to energize this new progressive moment, he too is riding a historical wave larger than his ambitions.  It is more important for Bahamian politicians to catch and help bend that wave than simply mimick the newest occupant of the Oval Office.

It is remarkable and disturbing how rapidly a cliché can be carved into the stone of conventional wisdom.  One nominee for the Bahamian Cliché Awards is: We need a Barack Obama.

IMAGINATION

Imitation can be the sincerest form of flattery -- or a sign of a stunning lack of authenticity or imagination.  The country does not need and will not find a Barack Obama clone at home.  Even in America he is one of a kind.

His meteoric rise to the presidency demonstrates how chance favoured the truly prepared candidate and an extraordinarily gifted human being.  His former Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe, who also taught some of America’s best and brightest, remembers Obama as one of his most impressive students.

The uncannily self-assured Obama realized early that he was usually the brightest person in the room.  He famously told his seasoned Senate aides that he probably knew more about politics, policy and speechwriting than most of them.

He appreciates that political careers with a surplus of brains and a deficit of discipline and vice versa often go off track.  For quick reference regarding the former see Clinton, Bill, and for the latter see Bush, G. W.

Obama manifests a preternatural calm and deep emotional security.  Despite his complicated family background, he has few chips on his shoulder or smouldering grievances.  But that is Barack Obama’s journey and he is America’s son. 

Our native sons and daughters who seek to draw genuine inspiration from Obama should begin by leveraging their gifts and working through their personal and political weaknesses even as they respond to “the fierce urgency of now” as represented by our specific national challenges.

Those prime ministers-in-waiting who attempt to imitate Obama will quickly have their forgeries discovered.  Advocating a change agenda while relentlessly practising the same old politics is a losing strategy.

DIFFERENT

Moreover, we should be careful what we attempt to borrow from America because presidential politics in a federal republic is substantially different from prime ministerial politics in a parliamentary democracy. 

Those who seek to simplistically graft the American system onto our own often misunderstand both.  More on this at another time, but this for now.  Rather than the extraordinary focus on a single individual, the nature of our cabinet system is designed to support, guide and restrain a prime minister.

Within this context, another Bahamian Cliché Awards nominee is the repetition of the U.S. media’s mostly shallow reporting on the idea of “a team of rivals”.

In our system, which practically invented the team of rivals, the prime minister’s cabinet peers are built-in potential rivals in a manner foreign to the American federal system where the president has no peers or equals, and where even his or her most egregious actions are very difficult to curtail.

In a parliamentary democracy, George W. Bush would long ago have either  stepped down or been removed by his own party or by a vote of no confidence for his abysmal failures from a misguided Iraq war, Katrina, an extraordinary financial meltdown and the general abuse of his office which will require a mini-series to chronicle.

The Bahamian prime minister, as the primus inter pares or first among equals, leads a cabinet system of collective responsibility in a parliamentary democracy.

RIVALS

Perry Christie brought his then leadership rival B. J. Nottage into the cabinet and Mr. Ingraham brought in then rivals Tommy Turnquest and Dion Foulkes and made them respectively Leaders of the House and the Senate. 

So there are a few things The Bahamas can teach America when it comes to democracy.   But there are also some things Obama can inspire in our politicians, and for which Bahamians are increasingly hungry in our politics.

This includes a temperament that transcends the narcissism of small differences and a quality of mind open to good ideas regardless of authorship.  Obama has combined fierce ambition and political savvy with a magnanimity that co-opts and charms his opponents while draining the swamp of pettiness and payback. 

Those Obama wannabes who are even now styling themselves as the Bahamian Obama might want to resist this easy temptation.  Like President Obama, their strengths must be personal authenticity and a compelling message, which losing candidates Hillary Clinton and John McCain failed to demonstrate.

In a future column we will consider how the 44th American president will influence the personal and political journey of the man or woman who will eventually become the fourth Bahamian prime minister since independence?

Comments

[Nicolette]

Well observed, Simon.

When people call for an "Obama" here, I think it's an indication of the electorate growing ready to break from the UBP/PLP mould that our society has set in over the past forty years.

[Ryan]

Nicolette - I think its just that the Bahamian people want a new forward thinking direction, talk of optomism, a clear way forward.

[C.Lowe]

Perhaps Bahamians are realizing the reality of the national mess we are in, although to expect one person to clean it up is not realistic.
A very tall order.

[Ryan]

One person doesn't clean it up - but one person can chart a new direction, fresh ideas, a way to build our economic stability.

[Youri_Kemp]

Hi all,

I don't think there is a need for a Bahamian Obama. We just need another leader for the time where we are at--I do think, however, that there is virtue in a two term limit to PM's. It puts a greater pressure to perform right away, rather than have someone waffling away in the parliament up until the last minute, thinking he or she will get another four years at some point and time down the road.

But, to add some context to the issue; George Bush, served for the time he was there, to the issues he met and which landed on his lap.

Pres. Clinton, also, served his time and ushered in a new wave of government building, unseen in any government over the time of history-- in addition to, presiding over a good economy with a government surplus (which was more a cyclical dynamic than anything).

Same too with Reagan. One thing we never give enough credit to with Reagan, was that he showed us the virtues of supply side economics (which made America more of a global commercial leader in light of an emerging EU).

All former Us president's have virtues that are astounding and served them and the country, well during the time they were in office.

Pres. Obama, did not create dynamism. In fact, he is slightly floundering with this stimulus bill. A stimulus bill, which is a horrible piece of legislature and one in which his congressional compatriots got him into.

So, while folks are a little mezmerized with the likes of Obama, be informed that he is only dynamic in the sense that 1. he is the first non-white/bi-racial president and 2. (as a consequence) that helped to galvanize a country, dying for a "feel-good" moment.

His legacy will be shaped by how he reacts to what happens to him in office. Up until now, he has not reacted with proper authority.

So, unless anyone, anywhere, would only prefer a different race/ethnic leader and also, at the same time, one who can give you a moment's "thrill", then, by all means, have that dream!!!

I will say, however, that there is a real world out there and we need people, who know what side the bread is buttered on, to lead i--no matter what color you are, or, if you are the smartest or the most "dynamic" in any particular way.

Best,

Youri
http://globalviewtoday.blogspot.com/