Vincie Sex Scandal & Caribbean Progress

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Power, politics and sex have always been bacchanal territory. Factor justice into the mix and there is intrigue; perhaps passionate volatility. Typically I refrain from intra nation state issues because I view local intelligentsia more adept in explicating contextual pertinence.  However, the matter at hand has tremendous import for regional evolution with particular reference to leadership development, social infrastructure; and more importantly, the CCJ.

Across the Caribbean, the struggle powerful men have with their zip region finds no comfort as things unfurl around St. Vincent’s Prime Minister- who is clearly in a present dilemma, if not quagmire. The paradox of quagmire is that robust effort to extricate one’s self is exactly what aids faster sinking. In an aptly entitled novel, Things Fall Apart Achebe utilizes an indigenous village bird to dispense life related wisdom. The creature confesses “since men have learnt to shoot straighter, I have been forced to take fewer rest stops.” With notable exceptions, the quality of shooting related to this unfolding episode leaves much to be desired.  Perhaps more careful distillation will enhance flight patterns as we seek sustainable systems on our journey to regional maturity.

Possible Scenarios- Wider Implications

Although essentials for arriving at truth are absent, many have chosen to subtly or openly cast direct aspersions and innuendoes. Though challenging, I think it’s not too late to have objective outlook and healthy debate for greater good.  So what do we have before us in Vincie land? Allegation of rape against a sitting prime minister is never easy to imagine or digest. The burning million dollar question: is this claim of valid or frivolous origin? When the dust settles I suppose we will come to learn truth. From what is already known, similar high profile allegations usually fall into any of four possibilities:

1. Political mischief: wickedness in high places is not foreign to Caribbean politics. A woman suddenly appeared from Miami claiming paternal alimony from T&T’s PM for his long neglected ‘outside’ child. The moralizing PM who cherishes aspirations of being a pastor upon leaving politics was clearly stunned by the headlined allegation. Wisely he maintained his calm, suggesting it would be interesting to learn entities behind the accusation. Once the media began due diligence investigating, the lady disappeared as magically as she arrived. Although bananas are grown in the region, our islands are not banana republics. We do not change governments or prime ministers by bullets or bacchanal- maliciously designed. Newspapers and media houses must not only report sensational headlines; but equally must follow through with rigorous investigating to discover incriminating or exculpatory evidence.
2. Professional Desperation: Public servants who lose faith in oversight and regulatory bodies are known to draw on preemptively concocted spurious allegations in order to offset unjustified impending censure or transfer etc. This tactic is also sometimes employed to deliberately forestall justified sanctions.  If public servants will forgo this type of creative aggression as means of desperate defense, regulatory and oversight bodies/persons need to engender high levels of confidence in their capacity and agency to redress injustices and fears without prejudice and favor towards power.
3. Personal Indiscretion Fallout: Unreserved triumphalism and exuberance by counsel aligned with the state does nothing to deny plaintiff and her advisers still hold all the marbles in this game- and may yet unleash them as a ton of bricks on the PM.  This disquiet I am sure yet remains a frightful consideration in the power halls of Kingstown. 
4. Pathological Tendencies: While a few high ranking powerful persons are known to possess deviant sexual tendencies; it is also true that some accusers of public figures also possess tendencies for pathological prevaricating. One thing the allegation will eventually reveal is that either accused possesses tendencies for pathological sexual deviance or accuser possesses tendencies for pathological asservations. Beyond commentary on personal condition, public attention would be forced on the institution he/she represents as well as the organizations to which he/she belongs; and out of which he/she has come.
   

Adjusting Caribbean Flight Patterns

As hinted in my opening, this episode holds extrapolates implications for regional progress in three essential areas: leadership development, social infrastructure and the CCJ.

Leadership: Of necessity our lopsided conversation must shift from descriptions of how our leaders lead and behave to include conditions under which we manage them. In an earlier piece (Spare a Thought for Politicians) I tried to highlight the greater role publics need to play in developing the leaders we want- instead of simply accepting/rejecting those we get. In this regard- 

1. There is urgency to clear up the double speak we give our leaders. To what extent are leaders clearly aware, as part of their development, that while we expect them to be normal individuals there are similarities to us we will not accept in them- In other words we must clarify for them the similarities and dissimilarities to which we will hold them accountable? This is an essential area in which the Caribbean can lead the world in showcasing mature partnered responsibility for leadership development. In other words, leaders must get that leadership hypocrisy is not only unacceptable; but that there are also public hypocrisies that we do not expect them to practice. This is something leaders must learn, understand and accept. 
2. Organizations need to place greater premium on realizing if someone comes through their ranks and later reveals pathological deviance this transgression is not simply in the domain of individual dysfunction; but rather is commentary on system failure. Organizations, political parties and society must appreciate the role of effectively grooming and regulating leadership power. If power is allowed to increasingly go on the rampart unchecked, sowing the wind eventually yields the whirlwind of metastasized fallout- and responsibility for this outcome must rest squarely on the shoulders of organization and societal systems that facilitated and abetted this escalating dysfunction.  In other words leaders don’t simply wake up one day and act in monster like fashions. They actions more accurately reflect escalating emboldeness based on public blindness, complicity and latitudes. 
   

Social Infrastructure: Giving facts on a matter is not the same as speaking the truth about the situation. Last year standard dictionaries added a new word - truthiness. Interestingly, this word was first coined by a comedian who sought to illustrate the difference between factual accounts versus truly honest disclosures. Democracy is better served by truthiness; bureaucracy and power agendas are better served by so called factual accounts. If democracy will flourish greater strides toward truthiness must be pursued. The agendas of power driven selfish agendas are best concealed by factual accounts; it is the role of media houses, interest groups and grassroots organizations to move beyond factual accounts and authorized versions to hold feet to the fire under the searing lights of truthiness.  While bureaucratic obfuscation may relish mere facts; democracy blossoms when electorates are educated and empowered by way of practiced truthiness.

Dr. Raymond S. Edwards
President/CEO, MOHDC
http://www.mohdc.com

Raymond Edwards, Ph.D. Organizational Psychologist & Minister of Religion: is an international development consultant and executive Leadership behavior specialist.