[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 153 (Wednesday, October 10, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2100-E2101]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF SIR JOHN COMPTON TO SOCIETY WILL BE REMEMBERED 
                          LONG AFTER HIS DEATH

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. CHARLES B. RANGEL

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, October 10, 2007

  Mr. RANGEL. Madam Speaker, I rise today to introduce an article and 
an editorial written in the New York CARIB News on September 18, 2007 
entitled, ``A Legend is Gone'' and ``The Last of the Region's 
Charismatic Leaders,'' respectively.
  These reports highlight the accomplishments of Sir John Compton, St. 
Lucia's Prime Minister who died on September 7th, 2007. As a man of 
greatness he will be missed but even more as a key Caribbean leader.
  He started his career, as an independent leader, as Member for Social 
Affairs on the Executive Council, post he acquired after winning the 
2nd election under Adult Suffrage in St. Lucia, in fact, until 1997, he 
carried the distinction of being the youngest member of the country's 
parliament. He quickly advances in government and formed the National 
Labour Movement which eventually became the United Workers Party. Under 
the leadership of the party he was appointed Chief Minister and, when 
St. Lucia gains statehood in Britain, he became Premier. Almost a 
decade later, once independence from Britain is achieved, he was 
appointed Saint Lucia's first Prime Minister, where he continues to 
contribute to the formation of the country working actively in the 
government until he fell ill on April 2007.
  He was a man of great conviction and aspirations; his dedication to 
politics is an example to all leaders. It is a shame he will not be 
here with us to continue to teach us but his legend will prevail for 
generations to come.

                            A Legend Is Gone

       If St. Lucia's twin tower Pitons Mountains could visibly 
     react, they would whisper tears of joy, echoing the 
     speechless humming of the sulphur springs. Deploying time and 
     eternity to celebrate both a son stolen by death, and a man 
     honored in life, these majestic hills would display the sheer 
     relentlessness and untiring work ethic that Sir John 
     personified.
       Placed on high alert, the earth endeared by the greenery 
     carpeting the land, would not hesitate to volunteer the 
     service of rainbow colored thunderclouds. Even these pregnant 
     clouds would be expected to carry signs of groaning 
     patriotism, lavaed by a drive in-volcano of tribute. A 
     tribute, no doubt that Soufriere's Botanical gardens would 
     give Sir John in the form of scented salutes. Salutes equal 
     to the appropriate sacrifices and unconventional risks he 
     pursued, which were at home with the collective interests of 
     his people.
       Although I was born in Antigua and Barbuda, the passing of 
     Sir John particularly touches me, and my sentiments stand 
     revealed for what they are. Besides the fact that my parental 
     lineage is St. Lucian, the many personal interactions I 
     shared with him, and the intense professional relations we 
     had, sponsored insights into the elephantine authenticity of 
     the man.
       Since closure brings disclosure, Sir John's death, has not 
     found us feeling that he has died. Through the tranquil gaze 
     of nourning, we see more clearly, how he spun webs of social 
     values and private life into unforgettable last rites of 
     unmatched public service. This man has left us a stubborn 
     legacy that nurtures the courage to live.


                             social values

       Loved by friends and embraced by opponents, Sir John knew 
     the distinction between those with whom he had a very 
     different vision of country, and those for whom he was called 
     to serve. But in either case, he never compromised the 
     exemplary leadership of caring for all equally. To Mr. 
     Compton, freedom spelt justice for the poor without 
     eliminating an equal place for the privileged; honor was 
     meant to be faithful to one's values; service was defined by 
     how much it lifted the most unfortunate to real life 
     experiences of decency; and peace was only a positive good if 
     every child were given the opportunity to go to school. Sir 
     John rested calmly, when the wealth of the nation's 
     resources, surrendered to every parent's desire to support 
     their children's dreams.


                              Private life

       I do not want to evaporate his humanity. It was filled with 
     the antagonisms of greatness and failures. Yet, Sir John will 
     be remembered as a loving grandfather, a caring father, and a 
     special son who made his parents proud. To Lady Jane, he will 
     forever remain, the lover who rang the bell of romantic love 
     within the steeple of her soul. Those who knew him personally 
     remarked that he had the gift of mixing private life with 
     public service. Sir John turned random acts of unparalleled 
     service into a national hero's legacy without straying from 
     the range of the common touch. It could be said that he did 
     meaningful and `small things with great love' (Mother 
     Teresa),
       The Right Honorable Sir John George Melvin Compton was a 
     statesman of an extraordinary texture; incubator of his 
     people's hopes, light bearer of regional cooperation, a 
     firebrand politician with integrity oozing forth from his 
     breathing. He gave supremely of himself with abundance, to 
     every village, town and corner of St. Lucia, and the 
     Caribbean at large.


                               last rites

       Sir John could have stayed in retirement from active 
     politics, but he chose to return as `Papa' to help the hand 
     that needed assistance. And what a dangerously powerful 
     campaign he showcased--a public good that should be valued 
     for what is really was--a leader's last rites of passage 
     between the cradle and the coffin. Mr. Compton brought his 
     party from the wilderness to the pride of his 
     people's confidence. Some said that he should have known 
     the limits of his health and age, but given his 
     personality and character, there were no limits and 
     certainly no human boundaries that would have kept Sir 
     John away from the love of his life--serving his people 
     selflessly.


                            Stubborn legacy

       The range and scope of his life should not be reduced to `a 
     do it alone phenomenon.' Sir John's team of leaders, led by 
     Honorable Acting Prime Minister Stephenson King and Honorable 
     Deputy Political Leader Lenard Spider Montoute is just as 
     passionate about good governance as he was. Despite an uneven 
     beginning, the team embodies his vision for the betterment of 
     all St. Lucians in much the same way as Sir John did. The UWP 
     government must competently demonstrate to the world, that 
     Sir John shaped the party leaders, as the party leaders 
     sharpened their deceased leader. It is this mutually 
     intermixing of leadership intelligence that St. Lucians is 
     heir to.
       For many of us, Sir John's death will jolt us into deeper 
     civic consciousness blazing in the glory of a wider communal 
     responsibility. His words should continue to challenge us, as 
     his deeds inspire us, not so much to itemize what he did do 
     well or could have done better, but to follow the direction 
     he pointed out, and the path he dared us to journey with him.
       St. Lucia is better off for having granted Sir John the 
     honor of several seasons of prosperous leadership, and the 
     Caribbean region would have been worst off, without his 
     strength of character and humble service. His trail of 
     stunting accomplishments and gallant deeds is to be 
     memorialized for countless generations to come. If Rosa Parks 
     were to have been with us, and had the privilege of knowing 
     Sir John, she might have said of him, `there goes a man who 
     lived his life as a model for others.'


                            Courage to live

       Healing moments of sadness often leaves room for wisdom 
     seen through the prism of serene acceptance. May Sir John's 
     ancestral spirit haunt us until we measure up to the ideals 
     he courageously wanted to attain in his lifetime. When we 
     mirror Sir John in our daily lives, we automatically inherit 
     the courage to live in the wisdom he practiced.
       Sir John meant one thing to me, a symbol of unity 
     communicating a sterling message: the affairs of a nation, a 
     people and a region, must be given priority at all times, and 
     in

[[Page E2101]]

     every possible way conceivable. Should the government and the 
     people of St. Lucia, take one slice of memory from Sir John's 
     closet of great achievements, they would make St. Lucia a 
     model Caribbean nation, where intergenerational prosperity 
     and quality of life development, orders the day. Aung San Suu 
     Kyi is right, ``the spirit of a man can transcend the flaws 
     of his own nature.''
       Dr. Isaac Newton-International Leadership and Change 
     Management Consultant and Political Adviser. He specializes 
     in Government and Business Relations, and Sustainable 
     Development Projects. Dr. Newton works extensively, in West 
     Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America and is a graduate of 
     Harvard, Princeton and Columbia. He has published several 
     books on personal development.
                                  ____


              The Last of the Region's Charismatic Leaders

       It was a time most people in the Caribbean abhor.
       The British Empire stretched from India, Ceylon, Fiji, 
     Malaya to Singapore, Southern Rhodesia, the Gold Coast, 
     Nigeria and Kenya to Trinidad and Tobago, Antigua, the 
     Bahamas, Jamaica, British Guiana, Barbados, St. Lucia and the 
     islands in between. England ruled over almost every aspect of 
     life, from the cradle to the grave, usually with a heavy 
     hand.
       Poverty was everywhere and the white minority population 
     ran the affairs of the islands with little regard for the 
     role of the Black majority. Although lynching wasn't a part 
     of the Caribbean picture, Blacks faced an unresponsive social 
     and economic system that stifled creativity. The trade union 
     movement was in its infancy; schools were few and far 
     between; and health care was so inadequate that the 
     Caribbean's life expectancy rate was less than 50 years, at 
     least years shorter than it is today.
       That was the world, more specifically the Caribbean into 
     which John George Melvin Compton was born in 1926 in Canouan, 
     a sparsely populated place in the Eastern Caribbean country 
     that is now known at the United Nations and around the world 
     as St. Vincent & the Grenadines in 1926. But by the time the 
     man who rose to become one of the longest serving Prime 
     Ministers in the English-speaking Caribbean died last weekend 
     after a lengthy illness, the area in general and St. Lucia in 
     particular had emerged as a viable sub-region in the Western 
     Hemisphere with an enviable record of human development.
       This archipelago of mostly sovereign states within the 
     Commonwealth of Nations, at the UN and its network of 
     specialized agencies, the World Trade Organization and the 
     Organization of American States had demonstrated that they 
     may be small in geography and population and economic size 
     but they were large in intellect and accomplishment, 
     countries to be reckoned with.
       Sir John Compton, 81, on his death in his ``beloved'' St. 
     Lucia contributed immensely to Caribbean development and was 
     in the pilot's seat when St. Lucia took off and became the 
     place that the United Nations ranked as 76th out of 177 
     states on its Index of human development.
       Interestingly, St. Lucia was 12th out of 103 developing 
     countries when it came to measuring human and income poverty, 
     quite an accomplishment.
       Sir John, often called the ``father of St. Lucia'' for his 
     pioneering work in leading the fight against the oppressive 
     nature of British colonialism, the racism that had an impact 
     on almost every aspect of life in his adopted country and 
     against the roadblocks erected to block self-determination 
     was the man with the vision that led to the island's 
     independence from Britain.
       This staunch and unrepentant anti-colonialist was at the 
     forefront of the struggle for respect for the masses of Black 
     St. Lucians, dating back to the 1950's. He used his skill and 
     training as a lawyer and as an economist to chart a course 
     that culminated in his island's record of success as the 
     center of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States, OECS.
       Sir John who had moved to St. Lucia as a child, and had 
     entered the legislature in Castries in 1954 at the young age 
     of 24 as an elected independent member served as a cabinet 
     minister for several years after the introduction of the 
     ministerial system of government in the 1950's. And when his 
     United Workers Party won a landmark victory at the polls in 
     1964, he became the head of government or Chief Minister as 
     it was called.
       This visionary kept his eyes on the prize for both St. 
     Lucia and the rest of the Caribbean. After Barbados and its 
     eastern Caribbean neighbors couldn't agree on the formation 
     of the ``Little Eight Federation'' that was being fashioned 
     to replace the defunct West Indies Federation and Barbados 
     moved onto independence, Sir John and many of his 
     counterparts in the Windward and Leeward chain of islands 
     articulated the need for advanced constitutional status 
     labeled Associated States or States in Association with 
     Britain. It was a step towards the sovereignty, which 
     eventually came in 1979 when the island was granted 
     independence from Britain with Sir John as its first Prime 
     Minister.
       It wasn't long before the electorate decided to change 
     governments, turning out his United Workers Party in favor of 
     the St. Lucia Labor Party. But when the Labor government 
     imploded after a prolonged period of public squabbling over 
     who should be Prime Minister, in 1982 St. Lucians turned to 
     the man with whom they had developed a bond based on trust.
       He returned to the Prime Minister's office and remained at 
     the helm until 1996 when he stepped down and left politics.
       The people turned to him once again last year when they 
     became disillusioned with the Labor Party government of Dr. 
     Kenny Anthony in 2006, seeing Sir John as the person who 
     could rescue them from high unemployment, rising crime and 
     uncertainty about where the country was heading.
       This stalwart came out of political retirement to take the 
     SLP into the election and in the process shocked the region 
     with a victory but even at age 80. St. Lucians felt he was 
     the person most capable of taking charge.
       He tried to put the issue of his age and fitness for high 
     public office in proper perspective when he told the 
     electorate after his stunning victory ``age is not a factor 
     here. I am not here running for the Olympics. Age is really a 
     state of mind. I am giving my experience and my intelligence 
     that God gave to me'' to the nation.
       Unfortunately, his health didn't allow him to fulfill his 
     promise of serving out his term as Prime Minister. Of the 
     many stars in his political constellation one of the 
     brightest was his championing of the regional cause. He was 
     among such towering regional political leaders as Vere Bird, 
     Prime Minister of Antigua, Forbes Burnham, President of 
     Guyana, Michael Manley, Prime Minister of Jamaica and Errol 
     Barrow of Barbados, who saw regional integration as the way 
     forward for the small islands.
       When he was admitted to the Order of the Caribbean 
     Community in 2002, Caricom's highest honor, Sir John was 
     acclaimed as ``the liberator of his nation.''
       The OCC citation also paid tribute to his success in 
     modernizing St. Lucia's utilities, reforming the social 
     landscape and dramatically improving conditions in the urban 
     and rural communities of his country.
       That's how the Caribbean and this newspaper will remember 
     him.
       ``He gave us all and up to his death was giving to St. 
     Lucia and to the Caribbean,'' said Sonia Leonce-Carryl, a 
     former top St. Lucian diplomat at the United Nations for more 
     than a decade.
       That's a fitting epitaph, which can be inscribed in our 
     consciousness as we mourn his passing and the Caribbean's 
     great loss.

                          ____________________