MARINA SALANDY BROWN Thursday, February 9 2012

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TAKE MY ADVICE: Brigadier General Carl Alfonso (left) speaks to Deputy Police Commissioner Jack Ewatski yesterday at the Police Mounted Branch Graduat...

This country’s former prime minister has been afforded arguably the best medical attention the state can offer. He is also being generously provided with access to a greater level of care than is available in TT. All of that is in order for someone who has given so much of his life to serving the citizens of this country.

As a people we are extremely distrustful of politicians and suspicious of their motives but I believe many of them, if not all, are driven by a genuine desire to make a difference. We should sometimes feel sympathy for them for as sure as night follows day they come to realise that a life of service is a life of compromise and that being a politician can also be a thankless task. Some may achieve high degrees of power but given the nature of politics many must suffer a lot of personal disappointment that makes the job a challenge.

Being a political leader is even worse. The character profile in the job description should include: the capacity to deal with scorn, ridicule and willful misrepresentation; to have the right response always; as a woman to be everybody’s idea of what that means; being so squeaky clean that it hurts; to be an unerring judge of character and able to hear and be deaf simultaneously; to be ruthless with a killer instinct; to keep your head when others cannot; to know the value of everything; to serve those who hate and disapprove of you. One must also know that few leaders are ever loved by the masses, even after their deaths.

Being a monarch must be worse still, especially when that enthroned person is meant to have no power at all. To live a contradictory life as the King or Queen of the realm and yet supposedly have no say demands a very special temperament and intelligence. On Monday, HRM Queen Elizabeth of England, aged 85, celebrated 60 years of silent eloquence that has made her supreme popularity the envy of the average politician. Even those who reject the monarchy admit readily that she is singular in her work. She has outstayed, according to one report, 12 British prime ministers, 12 US presidents and six popes, hosted more than 100 state banquets for foreign heads of state, including the appalling Robert Mugabe and Nicolae Ceausescu, dealt with around 150 Commonwealth prime ministers, received 3.5m pieces of correspondence and attended to daily work boxes “containing matters of state, cabinet minutes, appointments and legislation.”

She had the throne thrust upon her when her father, who was not meant to be King, died while she was still only 25. In the intervening years “she has travelled farther and met more foreign leaders than all her predecessors put together”, and “personally met” nearly four million people, made over 300 state visits abroad and 25,000 visits around Britain. That does not sound like a whole load of fun but the Queen takes the job of being one of the most powerful British marketing exports very seriously. Notwithstanding, in the British media there is regular discussion about whether her household costs the taxpayer too much, and she and her family are under continuous scrutiny and being called upon to justify their existence. Aware of the fine line between getting it right and threatening the popularity of the monarchy, she is constantly assessing what financial state burdens she can reduce.

The uncomfortable fact is that in many parliamentary democracies the monarchy is only as popular as the person holding the job. To that extent one might wonder why a monarch does not pass on the mantle at the height of his/her own popularity, thereby allowing the newcomer to benefit from all the goodwill? There is no law stating that one should die on the throne. Prince Charles may face a difficult time when his mother passes on as he does not seem to enjoy the same popularity. While waiting in the wings he has had a challenging time finding a useful role for himself and has ruffled a few feathers while doing so.

The monarchy may not be political but it requires political astuteness. Take the abundantly shrewd and charismatic King of Spain, Juan Carlos, who was fortunate enough, having ascended the throne on the death of dictator Gen Franco, to get the chance to save his country’s fledgling democracy by using his authority as the head of the armed forces to arrest an attempted coup. I am certain he knows he is extraordinarily popular as a result, but his son, the Prince, obviously does not enjoy the same mass appeal. Queen Elizabeth has ruled out abdication. I wonder what King Juan Carlos will do? In any event, I pay tribute on the Queen’s 60 years in office and to those who give their lives to the service of their people.

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