Submitted by Charles Atlas
What is really wrong with Barbadians? There must be some kind of curse hanging over our heads. How else can we explain the proliferation of such mediocre leadership in so many areas of national life? Why does Ronald Jones think that he should impose himself on Barbados football for another four years? The sport has fallen into chaos – with falling rankings, a reputation for violence and hooliganism, low standards, and accusations of bribery under his watch. Even in his other conflicting national role he has shown his total inability to lead – best exemplified with the Alexandra affair.
In any other civilized country Jones would claim ‘personal reasons, medical reasons or just plain tiredness’ – and step aside to allow someone else to make an effort to turn things around. It is not as though there are no alternatives…. Randy Harris has shown himself to be more than capable of doing a better job in this position. One can only assume that Jones is hooked on the personal perks of the position and cares nothing about the success of football.
It is even worse with Steve Stoute. What exactly is he thinking? The man has been hanging around for forty years in sport and has no significant achievement to his name – except that he has served for a very long time. His stooge, Secretary General Erskine Simmons is even more of a liability to sport and clearly incapable of meaningful leadership. Barbados sport has fallen behind other Caribbean countries to the extent that at the London Olympics one got the impression that no serious sport was played in Barbados.
Has anyone ever heard Stoute articulate any meaningful policy or vision for sport? The man is just a pretender who has been living-it-up at the expense of local sport. After hosting one of the most successful Olympics ever, the president of the British Olympic Association immediately stepped down to make way for a new era in British sport. Here, after a lifetime of lame leadership and consistent failure, Stoute is seeking to ‘hang on’ for another four years. This again is a case where a clearly superior alternative candidate is willing to step up to the plate and bring new ideas and leadership to Sport.
Lt. Colonel Trevor Browne has been outlining long overdue policies and strategies for implementation – while Stoute appears bent on extending his failed tenure by another four long years. Why would he not just demit gracefully or at least outline how he plans to change his approach? One can only assume that he too is unable to give up the perks and benefits of the position, and that this overrides any concern about the success of national sport.
Now Prime Minister Stuart is a different kettle of fish in that he did not seek to become Prime Minister but was catapulted into the position. Nor can the actual results of his short and chaotic tenure be compared to those of Jones and Stoute. After all when all is said and done, for a small island with few resources, Barbados has actually done remarkably well so far in very difficult circumstances.
Where Mr. Stuart has disappointed has been in his failure to step up to the plate and inspire confidence. Leaders need to have a clear vision of the future; to communicate (or employ skilled communicators to do this on their behalf); they need to inspire; and they need to set and demand high standards.
One would like to think that if Prime Minister Stuart is unable to meet these leadership requirements, he too will elect to withdraw from the responsibility of national leadership whenever that election is called, and give way to someone who can do so and who also possesses his good attributes of fairness, honesty, thoughtfulness, and professionalism.
Let us see if Barbadians will turn over a new leaf and seek and demand the best possible leadership in national life in these upcoming elections, or if indeed we are condemned to mediocre leadership.
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