By Peter Polack

Peter Polack

For decades, or even more, the concept of leadership succession planning has been the platform for sound bites, press releases and cocktail parties far from the discerning gaze of journalists and those ruled by the inevitable dinosaurs.

How did we reach this low.

From the musical chairs of Haiti to the calm of leadership transition in Barbados where leaders rise by merit and keeping their closet clean. Not so the rest of the Caribbean where at least one leader has been besmirched by the shadow of integrity failure and the voters turn a blind eye. 

It is tempting to judge the Jamaican Just4short as just deserves.

No such shortfall can be found in the private sector with the exception of the plethora of family owned companies who listen to the sound of a different drummer. The great star in this firmament is of course the mighty giant, Grace Kennedy, who provide a perfect example as to how it should be done.

There is no need to puzzle as to why this has not been extended to the entrenched political class which is clouded by a lack of accountability, a lack of attendance at parliament and eventually, a lack of participation at the ballot box.

That curious paradigm is held up by a foundation of not the young and the bold politicians but the naive and cowardly wandering about like members of a personality cult, fearful of throwing out the old to embrace a bright new future.

Note to them, it is called a palace revolt.

Countries, populations,voters, families, children, nurses,teachers and the security forces have been subjugated by this weakness, a humiliation to our post independence leaders.

Eric Williams would turn over in his grave if he were to hear the bowing and scraping going on at Red House by a country once proud enough to reject a coup by extremists, now eager to join the American Emperor.

Turning the clock back or driving in reverse.

Peter Polack is a former criminal lawyer in the Cayman Islands for several decade. His books are The Last Hot Battle of the Cold War: South Africa vs. Cuba in the Angolan Civil War (2013), Jamaica, The Land of Film (2017) and Guerrilla Warfare: Kings of Revolution (2019). He was a contributor to Encyclopedia of Warfare (2013). His latest book is a compendium of Russian espionage activities with almost five hundred Soviet spies expelled from nearly 100 countries worldwide 1940-88. 

His views are his own.