[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 19] [Extensions of Remarks] [Pages 27047-27048] [From the U.S. 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 [[Page 27048]] 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 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. ____________________