Barbara Gloudon

EVEN AS WE MOURN the passing of Elder Statesman Hugh Shearer, the regrets stand alongside a strange sense that it has occurred at a time when the society needed some sort of anodyne, some catalyst for reflection and even a restoration of a sense of proportion in our political life.

The events of the past week or so, dominated by Mr Seaga giving notice of retirement as party leader and the consequent fallout and Bruce kass-kass have been wearying and tedious, even if it has provided the media with the most "grist for the mill" in a long while, to the point where it seems to be in danger of losing its sense of proportion. Last Sunday was evidence enough that when we go overboard, we go OVERboard. It was as if nothing else was occurring in the nation. I even heard someone wondering aloud: "If the coverage is so heavy now, what will they do when the retirement actually happens?"

In the rush, we were more fascinated by the minutiae of suss than genuine contemplation of how long the nation can continue to be battered by "carry go bring come" and repetition of the same old-same old. We've heard it all before and apparently must be prepared to hear it again. and again. Little if any reflection is being given or views sought on the fact that a new generation of prospective voters are "turning off and tuning out" of politics, and if the trend continues, what is the augury for the future?

The last set of elections served notice that growing indifference to the ballot box could be a real threat to how we practise democracy. Go out in the street and ask people, who will be eligible to vote for the first time why they are "turning off and tuning out" of politics. Who goes or who stays is of little interest to many of them. They really are not impressed with the grandstanding, be it JLP or PNP, reformists or traditionalists. That is why some said that last weekend, the media - print especially - went overboard. It was just too much.

Into that environment came the news of the passing of Mr Shearer. At the age of 81, he was unknown to the "yutes dem". I spoke to a media colleague in New York at mid-week, seeking the reaction there to the news of Mr Shearer's demise. My colleague has a popular interactive radio programme beamed to the Tri-state area. He said younger voices offered no comment because they did not know of Mr Shearer. Older people reacted, although not as many as might have been expected. Here today, gone tomorrow.

If young people do not know and older ones have forgotten the Shearer legacy, it is telling us that as a nation, we have done little or not enough to position our leaders in the consciousness of all our people. Think of the fuss made over Ronald Reagan's death. All the controversy over his political career, even the events which had a direct bearing on the Caribbean, of which we are a part, were forgotten, glossed over, and he was elevated to sainthood on a level which we have never done, not for Bustamante, not for Manley the elder, or any other.

You've got to give it to the Americans. They know how to make heroes of their leaders, no matter what. In so doing, a whole mystique of leadership and supremacy is created. Every American child knows about Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson, never mind the question marks which hang over some aspects of their lives. By contrast, we here sing: "We don't need another hero," never mind the odd wreath-laying ceremony.

SO BACK TO THE TIMING of Mr Shearer's passing. If you want to be fanciful, whimsical even, it is easy to believe that he took his departure at a time when we needed to be diverted from the awful, tackiness of the day. In his lifetime, Hugh Lawson Shearer was never one for such behaviour.
Indeed, it was widely held that he was "too soft", in the political arena. By contrast, in the field of labour negotiations, he was tough as nails, often "playing fool fe ketch wise".
Those who mistook his humour and joviality for weakness soon found that they were sadly mistaken. It was in the kass-kass of party politics that he seemed unwilling to play dirty.

His tenure as prime minister lasted only five years (1967-72) and it is no secret that the culture of "Ah plot dem a plot 'gainst I and I" overtook him.

Interestingly, Montego Bay, which has played such a prominent part in the recent events leading up to Mr Seaga's retirement announcement and the after-shock, was also the locus in quo for the machinations which led to Mr Shearer being sidelined in his time.

The records show that he took it like the man that he was and moved on to other things. There is no evidence of him making a public spectacle of what must have been a private pain. That's what endeared him to those who knew him and why today, some people - more than we might believe - remember him with genuine respect and affection.

EVEN THE LESS THAN ILLUSTRIOUS MOMENTS of his career have been softened by time. There are still people who remember the book-banning episodes, when you couldn't read the writings of Malcolm X and street talk was about alleged outlawing of "Black Beauty" by someone who didn't know that it was a children's book about a horse. Supporters of Walter Rodney, the Guyanese lecturer and social activist whose banning by Mr Shearer's government led to student riots, may not be so benign in their assessment of his legacy, but even they have been disarmed by the passing years.

Hugh Lawson Shearer will be laid to rest and history will move on, as it inevitably does. Then, it is back to the daily round and, by the way, will Pearnel beat Bruce in a "November to Remember"? Soap opera or political reality? By the way, what sort of odds you're putting on the outcome? Serious ting!

THE CONDOLENCES of everyone go to Denise Eldermire-Shearer who mourns not once, but twice. She buries her mother in Montego Bay tomorrow. She lays her husband to rest in another week. Sadly - sometimes life is like that. Sympathy goes most of all from the aged community to whom she and her husband devoted much love and attention.

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