The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

I was quite pleased recently to see an older, experienced politician like George Smith give a much-needed lecture to the inexperienced newcomer Andre Rollins.

Dr Rollins is one of those whom PLP Leader Perry Christie rolled out in 2012 in a massive piece of pandering to youth, one of many excesses in which the PLP Leader indulged in that election.

History might have informed Mr Christie that being the brightest and best from academia, industry or the professions does not necessarily endow one with good political judgment.

A youthful President John F Kennedy had some very bright and relatively young people among his principal advisers, including his brother Robert Kennedy (Attorney General) and Robert McNamara (Secretary of Defence). “Whiz-kids,” they were called.

That did not prevent Mr Kennedy from making an early and disastrous mistake with the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba. After this debacle, he sensibly sought the advice of his older and wiser predecessor, Dwight D Eisenhower. Fortunately Mr Kennedy learned his lesson and showed great maturity in his handling of the Cuban missile crisis.

But, unfortunately, Mr Kennedy’s brilliant young Secretary of Defence became the architect of the plan to escalate America’s catastrophic involvement in Vietnam. Years later, Mr McNamara repeatedly expressed his profound regrets about this. “We were wrong, terribly wrong,” he lamented. But hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese were dead or maimed and 50,000 plus thousand young Americans were also lost.

McNamara’s folly in Vietnam demonstrated other lessons a more experienced and wiser head might have known. One lesson is that intelligence and character are not the same. Some of the smartest people in the world in terms of IQ have made poor ethical choices in the conduct of public affairs.

Another lesson is that being a good technocrat is not the same as being a wise political leader. McNamara was brilliant, but he pursued a disastrous course in Vietnam. Many less smart, but wiser heads, knew that he and the US were heading for a disaster. McNamara allowed technocratic judgment to reign supreme at the expense of the experience and the lessons of history.

Again, intelligence in one field does not necessarily translate into political acumen and ability.

In the process of his pandering to young people in the last election, Mr Christie offered as candidates a number of untried and for the most part little known persons, among them some undoubtedly bright young people, but people with little or no experience in the political arena. Then upon election he proceeded to place some of them in positions they were not ready for.

One egregious error was the election to the high office of Speaker of a relatively young person who had no parliamentary experience and had never even sat in the House of Assembly before.

This effectively diminished the office of Speaker – one of the highest in the land – following a history illuminated by some outstanding Speakers from Harcourt Malcolm to Robert Symonette to Alvin Braynen to Arlington Butler. It was unfair to the country, to parliament and to the good gentleman himself.

In the case of Dr Rollins, a loud bell should have gone off in Mr Christie’s head when his name was put forward as a candidate. This was the same gentleman who in a previous election went to nominate with his nomination fee in 25 cent coins, arrogantly abusing and making a mockery of the system.

It is a good thing for political parties, like other institutions, to take young people into its ranks at all levels, but it must, as we used to say, go with sense. A healthy balance must be maintained between the experienced and the inexperienced. Furthermore, the selectors of candidates should look for at least a trace of humility and a willingness to learn about the history, rules, conventions and niceties of the system in which they hope to function.

DIOGENES

Nassau,

February 22, 2014.