POLITICS-ST. LUCIA: The Resurrection of John Compton

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Patrick Smikle

CASTRIES, May 4 1998 (IPS) - In late 1995 when it was first rumoured that John Compton planned to step down as leader of the United Workers Party (UWP) he had co-founded in 1964 and as Prime Minister of St. Lucia, the response of political observers in the Eastern Caribbean sub-region ranged from scepticism to disbelief.

That was also their response when word first surfaced that his replacement would be Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) Director General, Dr. Vaughn Lewis, an academic, diplomat and bureaucrat with no political experience.

The observers were off the mark. Both rumours turned out to be accurate.

Last week, when the reports leaked of a manoeuvre to have Compton come out of retirement and take over the leadership of the party, the observers were again sceptical. Even if it were true that UWP delegates from 16 of St. Lucia’s 17 constituencies had voted to have Compton contest the leadership of the UWP at the party’s June convention, they argued, he would decline the invitation.

Wrong again.

All indications, including statements from the former UWP leader and Prime Minister, are that he is interested in the position.

The observers can probably be forgiven for their scepticism this time around. After all Compton is 72 (or 73…there appears to be some confusion about that) years old. He retained an unbroken tenure in the St. Lucia legislature from 1954 to 1996, first as an independent member, then as a representative of the St. Lucia Labour Party (SLP) and later as a member of his own UWP.

And except for 30 tempestuous months of SLP governance between July 1979 and May 1982, he was St. Lucia’s head of government from July 1964 to April 1996.

He had gone from Chief Minister (under full colonial rule) to first Premier (under internal self-government) to first Prime Minister of (independent) St.Lucia.

He was widely credited with leading St. Lucia’s political and economic development into one of the more stable and prosperous countries in the Commonwealth Caribbean.

He had also successfully orchestrated his own retirement and succession, convincing a reluctant UWP to accept Lewis as its leader and manoeuvring his long-time friend and UWP co-founder George Mallet into the Governor Generalship. Mallet and Lewis were later to recommend to Buckingham Palace that Compton be knighted.

Why then would Compton want to return to the political hustings? Why would he make a move which would almost certainly damage, if not destroy the political career of his handpicked successor, especially after the ringing endorsements he had given Lewis just two years ago?

“Our party has chosen a man in whom I have full confidence,” Compton had told UWP rank and file members. And he told journalists… “I think that I could not have made a better choice. Most people tell me it was a stroke of genius and perhaps I’m getting to believe it.”

The answer appears to lay in the massive general election defeat the UWP suffered on May 23, last year, under Lewis’ leadership, winning only one of the 17 seats contested.

Compton told an interviewer last week… “The party has suffered a substantial defeat and I think it’s my duty to help them to re- organise. I’ve been approached. I’m a party man. I’m not saying I would do it necessarily in a leadership role but I will assist the party in re-organising so that it will be a credible force in the next general elections.”

And his clear inclination to accept the invitation of the UWP delegates to resume leadership of the party is apparently not unconnected with the Commission of Enquiry which the new SLP government has set up to investigate alleged misdeeds by both the Compton and Lewis-led UWP administrations.

“Perhaps if the government had just behaved as a government that had just won the elections and not as some government that’s behaving like Pol Pot, trying to erase history, then I’d just have kept out of all party politics,” he said.

But he has also laid down certain conditions for his return, the main one being that he must be the only candidate for the leadership when the UWP holds its convention in June.

“Let me be clear. I am not contesting the leadership. If anyone else comes up and wants to contest that’s fine. I’m not prepared to contest the leadership.”

Without acknowledging that the delegates had also nominated Lewis, Compton declared that there must be no dissenting voices in the call for him to resume the leadership. “The voice has got to be unanimous. It has got to be loud. It has got to be clear. It has got to be unambiguous.”

And where does that leave Lewis?

“The feeling is that he will opt out of the race,” a pro-government political observer told IPS. “I think it will be a humiliating prospect for him either way. If he contests he will be soundly trounced and if he opts out he will have removed himself from St. Lucian politics. The whole thing is a vote of no confidence in Vaughn Lewis.”

Independent commentator, Dr.James Fletcher agreed with that analysis and raised another issue. He said it was also a vote of no confidence in Louis George, the UWP’s sole representative in parliament. “I can’t understand why Louis George would not be considered for the leadership of the United Workers Party,” he told IPS. “He has done a creditable job as leader of the opposition.”

George agrees. He has publicly expressed his disappointment at not being considered. “In any organisation members must aspire to top positions,” he said. “Currently I am the Deputy Political Leader and I assumed that with the normal progression of things my next best step would be the leadership of the Party.”

But the delegates and members present at the conference thought otherwise.” At the same time George has made it clear that he remains loyal to the UWP and will go along with whatever decision is democratically made by the members.

“What took place was a manifestation of the will of the people. The mood in the country among the supporters of the United Workers Party, even disaffected supporters of the Labour Party, is that with the present situation in the country, somebody with the experience of Sir John Compton could be the architect of the rebuilding process,” said George.

SLP sources IPS has interviewed have denounced the “resurrection of John Compton” as a “retrograde step.”

James Fletcher is less harsh in his judgment. But he does say that it sends the wrong signals to an electorate which is mainly young, is not aware of the legacy of Compton and which has been largely won over by the style of SLP leader and Prime Minister, Dr. Kenny Anthony.

Fletcher says the UWP would have done well to have followed the example of the ruling party and looked for new, fresh leadership.

Compton himself does not see a contradiction between his return and the need for fresh new faces. “There is fresh blood coming into the UWP,” he says. “I’m not the only person who is coming into the UWP. Not because you’re bringing in fresh blood you should throw away what you have. I think we should use the experience we have available to us.”

In response one IPS source noted that the only other move the party has made publicly has been to recall veteran politician and defeated general election candidate, Peter Josie, to serve in the senate. “Hardly fresh blood,” said the source.