And no politician either. Phillip, you had/have all these great ideas to fix this country and make it Paradise Regained but you wanted to do it singlehandedly as in the way of the maximum leader who is a lone wolf – not because he could do it alone but because he is fearful of sharing power, of sharing his ideas.
For instance, I had this friend who had this brilliant idea for a cookbook but because he was stingy with his ideas and was reluctant to have anybody use his ideas and make a better stew than he did, he rejected the idea of writing and publishing the book. You know what, he passed away and is already forgotten when via his cookbook he would have become an immortal with his ideas sizzling in kitchens across the world.
Although Karl Hudson Phillips lost the ’81 elections, he left behind a template on what constitutes the perfect party and how to assemble it: the ONR was the textbook organisation vying for power via the persons Karl selected to give it the face and muscle that made it charisma incarnate and embodied in 36 candidates. Karl was sure of himself and so wasn’t parsimonious when it came to embracing the best and brightest in the society. Yet he lost.
The ONR lost only because of Karl himself who was demonised via the slogan, ‘We fraid Karl!’ If only Karl had stepped down when it was realised that the PNM was doing a hatchet job on him and had anointed someone else to lead, the ONR would have entered the corridors of power on a golden chariot.
Phillip is now making reference to high profile personalities like Vernon de Lima whom he claims endorsed him, but that he says that now, isn’t it too little, too late? Trinis have an expression that guides their investment which says, ‘don’t buy cat in bag’. Phillip, why do you think big multi-national corporations hire for millions of dollars the glitterati of any endeavour – Cristiano Ronaldo, Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, Sachin Tendulkar, it’s because the rank and file of the world wants to identify with celebrities who rock a particular product.
So although Phillip, you had a pair of Jordan sneakers, a case of Perry Ellis perfume, and Coke is it in your paraphernalia of ideas, you locked it down and so nobody knew that those who matter thought you were sufficiently attractive to interest them.
And then at the end when you needed to have had candidates all over the country ready and willing to serve, you were only able to come up with a bits and pieces slate of sixty something. “Birds of a feather flock together” and “show me your friends and I’ll tell you who you are” are basic truisms. If you had surrounded yourself with winners, with those who look ministerial and prime ministerial, you would not have ended up today looking like a castaway on an uninhabited island.
L. Siddhartha Orie
