Mr Prime Minister, I accept

BY Din Duggan

Dear Mr Prime Minister:

Congratulations on your ascension to the highest office in the land. Judging from your speech, it is obvious you are well aware of the wretched state of the economy, particularly the job market. I was quite pleased, then, to hear your gracious offer of employment. I hereby accept (pending details of the specific terms and conditions - including my refusal to don tribal colours).

I've closely monitored the responses to your inaugural address. Many publicly laud it as an excellent performance. I've heard the words 'sober', 'practical', and 'thorough' used to describe the address. I would respectfully disagree with these sentiments and use slightly different adjectives: boring; long-winded; uninspiring.

Perhaps my opinion is influenced by transferred wisdom from my 80-something-year-old grandparents from whose home in St Mary I watched your speech. As you droned on, I quietly observed their reactions. They appeared mostly unmoved. I can empathise. In their eight decades in this country, they've seen prime minister after prime minister deliver speech after speech making promise after promise. Yours, apparently, was no different in substance from the fruitless many that came before it.

A proper speech

In my grandparents' 80-plus years, they have heard rousing rhetoric from the great orators at home and abroad: Bustamante, Manley, Seaga, Castro, Roosevelt, Mandela, Kennedy, Reagan, Clinton and Obama. When those leaders spoke, the words erupted from their lips, reverberated across venues, infiltrated eardrums and captured hearts and minds: "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country." "Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall." "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Ms Lewinsky." Perhaps not that last one, but you grasp the point. Your words fell short of the electrifying prose delivered by the political giants of old and new.

An inaugural address, Mr Prime Minister, is an opportunity to rally your nation - to show them who they are and who they might become. It is not a Budget presentation in which tedious, technical details are recited point by point. It is not a re-election campaign speech that trumpets the supposed achievements of the governing party. It is, or should be, a grand undertaking that can, at any point in the future, be disentombed from the vaults of history to arouse the passions of a people.

Surely an inaugural speech should not, and cannot, simply consist of baseless bombast. It must be pregnant with substance and grounded in reality: real plans; real principles; real ideas. But that reality should be delivered in a manner that imaginatively fuses fact and vision, motivating the audience to enlist in the fight for the future.

Inspired to serve

As I drove away from my grandparents' home, I looked out at the hectares of land which now lie dormant but, in my youth, had been packed with the lifeblood of a nation: coconuts and cocoa; cows and chickens; hopes and dreams. I drove the potholed road back to Kingston, passing the reams of rural tradespeople whose skills have been made redundant by the unforgiving hands of technology, globalism and time.

As I looked on at what could be considered hopelessness, I recalled my grandfather's parting words: "I'm leaving for treatment in the US, but I'll be back in two weeks." After 85 years of false promises and unfulfilled dreams, there's still no place on earth he'd rather be than sweet, sweet Jamaica.

As I drove through the countryside, with the natural beauty and energy of our nation, and our people, in full view, the words, as performed at your inauguration, came to life:

"From riverside to mountain, from cane field to the sea; our hearts salute Jamaica, triumphant, proud and free."

At that moment, I decided to take you up on your inaugural address offer to make room in your Government for talented Jamaicans who wish to serve their country.

Mr Prime Minister, your freshness is poised to reinvigorate a nation. However, as your dreary speech demonstrated, the youthfulness of a leader, in and of itself, is meaningless. Without the counsel of vibrant, innovative advisers, that leader is simply a regressive, old politician in a young man's body.

So, feel free to tell whoever penned that antiquated speech (forgive me if it was you) to make way - fresh, new talent has accepted your offer to serve. Many more will surely follow, if they are adequately aroused.

Din Duggan is an attorney working as a consultant with a global legal search firm. Email him at columns@gleanerjm.com or dinduggan@gmail.com, or view his past columns at facebook.com/dinduggan and twitter.com/YoungDuggan.