Is Criticizing the Office of Prime Minister committing the Unpardonable Sin?

By Max Sterling


This week I could not miss the opportunity to showcase an article steeped in scholarship by Dr. Isaac Newton, under the above caption.

 Dr. Newton is an International Leadership and Change Management Consultant and Political Adviser. He specializes in Government and Business Relations, and Sustainable Development Projects.

Dr. Newton works extensively, in West Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America and is a graduate of Harvard, Princeton and Columbia. He has published several books on personal development.

"Freelancing under the prestige of national pride a new wave of official fiction and political propaganda has encircled the Office of the Prime in the Caribbean. It operates on the misguided belief in the flawlessness of the head of state.

When Opposition parties, informed journalists, and objective political commentators launch principle-based objections against evidence of wrongdoing, bad policies, incompetent practices, and blatant lies emerging from the Office of the Prime Minister, their critiques are usually portrayed as vicious, power-hungry acts.

Is there legitimate room to disagree vehemently with the Prime Minister and publicly voice it, without committing the unpardonable sin?

There is a tendency for many Caribbeaners to shy away from controversial issues, for fear of offending the Prime Minister, and to avoid the economic backlash and personal ridicule that follow. In small island societies people choose their battles carefully. Some subjugate independent thinking for the safety of silence, preferring to escape pain, than confront wrong.

Others privilege custom over conscience, to them; to oppose the head of state is the same as deposing him or her. Still, there are others who nest in political favours without considering what's best for the entire country.

While many are afraid of muted hostilities coiled in lopsided media labels, I admire the brave few, who master the intricacies of confronting the powerful on behalf of the powerless, and who are willing to tap into the yearnings of the people to believe in a better day.

Serving as incubators of democratic values, these brave few are generally met with little generosity and much animosity. They are often at odds with political operatives, who manipulate the high status attached to the Prime Minister's Office, by dismissing critics for disrespecting the office and attacking national pride. This is a political farce disguising intents of hording power at all cost.

Also, it is a richly flawed position. At best, it implies that the practice of democracy is exclusively a private matter, and at worst, it suggests that there are no responsible options available to citizens for lodging right thinking opposition, against the head of state.

Further, beaters of the unpardonable sin drums make no distinctions between legitimate reprimand and political point scoring. They artificially divide the people into two discrete categories: Supporters and friends vs. Opponents and enemies. This crafty approach makes it easier to mastermind anti-democratic tactics.

Helpful criticisms are labeled as harmful conspiracies, critical questions are seen as crass attempts to embarrass the leader, and the quest for greater clarity about policy matters is portrayed as sour grapes chatter.

In sum, to challenge the Prime Minister is to destabilise the government. Critics are guilty of either politicising important issues or cunningly staging political grandstanding. Although this kind of dualistic (black and white) thinking appeals to national primordial instincts, and yields immediate soaring impact, it holds fatal promise for long-term, political backlash. People soon discover hidden cavalier ambitions consolidating the reigns of power.

Since the Prime Minister's Office is the peak point of political power, in the event that those who occupy that office reflect the hopes and aspirations of their people, the Office must be honorably respected.
Some Prime Ministers carry the responsibilities of the office with honor but I have seen others cryptically engaged in the politics of war. They threaten to fire Cabinet colleagues who rightfully oppose them. They cannibalise their young for self-serving power interests. They use investors as cover to consolidate power. And they punish political opponents through contrive legal mechanisms, while all the while; they seek off-limits protection behind the safety of their positions.

To accord the Office of Prime Minister high-ranking respect, has a double parking effect: it affirms good programs but resist bad policies. Otherwise, conscientious citizens, gradually confine themselves to the status of being vanguard of democratic hypocrisies.

Lloyd Best, a giant of a conceptualizer, whose recent passing is surpassed by his unblinking attention for life enhancing indigenous political, economic and social solutions, was against misconduct, perpetuated by some of the region's elites.

On many occasions, he attacked them for choosing myopic political practices over national and regional advancements. Prime Ministers, who have little confidence in their people's freedom to publicly protest bad policies, are selfish leaders, dead set on multiplying inherited plantation philosophies. They manipulate the people's need to be proud of their country and use it as a protective shield to prevent legitimate criticisms.

Prime Ministers are elected to serve the interests of the state. This includes protecting voters' rights to oppose them, and taking corrective measures to guarantee those rights, with no regard for political loyalties.

However, when governing according to the people's mandate to rule, defenders of the Office of the Prime Minister must fight off peddlers of the politics of drag down, in the exercise of democracy.

Generally, the Caribbean is a world where people are passionate about politics, where justice is not always blind; where there are open political debates with rare incidences of police harassments and politically motivated killings.

If the earthquake of criticizing the Office of the Prime Minister, results in tsunamic sacrifice of oneself for the cause of the oppressed, I suspect God would prefer to forgive this unpardonable sin, before public frustrations turn into deadly outrage."

How applicable to our situation in Greanda. Anyone who holds the office of Prime Minister and fits most if not all of the foregoing, must have a very poor legacy awaiting them when our history if finally chronicled.

That is why I will always feel the vibrations of the jail door banging for those whose hunger for continued power in whose interest it is to remain out of jail and perpetually in power.