A letter to my prime minister – What will your legacy be?

Dear Kamla,

When you were elected PM, unlike many woman in this country I didn’t feel a sense of achievement for womankind or empowerment in any way. I chose to adopt a wait and see attitude. Since, I believe, that “actions speak louder than words”.

I had expectations of you. I hoped you would erase the memories I had of when you languished under the leadership of Basdeo Panday. What I expected of you, our recently minted SC Prime Minister, was a leader who exuded a strength that allowed you to keep your femininity intact yet remain forceful.

I expected you to be the embodiment of all that is empowerment not only for our women and young girls but also for our men and young boys. I expected you to show us all, that yes you are a woman, and you are capable of successfully running this country in a way that has never been seen before. I expected you to be a role model and to inspire young women here in Trinidad & Tobago and even those regionally, to strive for more, to want to achieve their highest good.

In the almost three years since assuming this hallowed mantle of leader of this sweet twin-island Republic, I call home I continue to wait for your shining moment. I am afraid that the hope so many women saw in the election of this country’s first woman prime minister may be in vain. What many thought would be “an iron fist in a velvet glove” now seems to be a manicured wave in well-coiffed photo-Ops.

My dear, PM when you are not firing errant ministers, you are brushing off as “political mischief” any criticisms directed at your government. Always with the fall back, “I was advised…” you seem incapable of accepting responsibility for anything. I thought the Section 34 Fiasco was the behemoth of all missteps this year. But I was wrong. The worst issue of 2012 for me, has to be the way you handled Dr Wayne Kublalsingh’s hunger strike.

You have been portrayed by many as “mother of the nation” in fact much of your candidacy hinged on your maternal instincts. What kind of example were you setting as a “mother” when you refused to meet with a man demonstrating his right to express his view? What kind of example were you setting when you stood by and endorsed the despicable behaviour of your government ministers as they belittled and attacked Dr Kublalsingh and his family? Or is this perhaps one of those “do as I say, but not as I do” lessons? Seems pretty Orwellian to me.

How is the arrogance you displayed when you ignored Dr Kublalsingh’s call for accountability and transparency by your government any different from the much maligned arrogance of Patrick Manning – our former prime minister? Is it perhaps because you are a woman, so it is not seen as arrogance?

Growe and Montgomery (2000) defined leaders as people “who provide vision and meaning for an institution and embody the ideals toward which the organization strives” (p.1).

You are guilty of the same things you promised to cast out of our political history as you rode your wave to power, instead of vision and good governance, we get miss-speak, misunderstandings and mischief.

Kamla, leaders do not command excellence, they build it. They should be willing to admit mistakes and learn from them…an expectation of leaders both male and female. It may be too late for you to sway me, but it is not too late for you to redeem yourself in the eyes of the public. This is my hope for 2013. You have at least two years left to change the course of your legacy. I wonder…are you up to that task?

All eyes are on you.