HOMILY at the memorial service on the 30th anniversary of the death of Dr.

Eric Eustace Williams, Founder of the Peoples National Movement and First Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago. Tuesday 29th March 2011 Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Port-of-Spain. Fr. Clyde M. Harvey, Parish Priest, Holy Rosary/St. Martins de Porres, Port-of-Spain.
Beloved fellow-citizens of Trinidad and Tobago, Imam Ali, Bro. Noble Khan, Shri Ravi Ji and Bishop Duncan. Political Leader, newly-elected Executive and members of the People National Movement. Welcome to this Cathedral Church of the Immaculate Conception. That we should gather here to honour the memory of Dr. Eric Williams is a matter of much significance. The relationship between the Catholic Church and Dr. Williams, the Church and the PNM, has always had its tensions. The Catholic Church can never allow absolute allegiance to any human institution, for some of us not even to itself. Yet any worthwhile spiritual relationship always involves tension, if it is truly spiritual. The relationship between the Party and the Church will continue to evolve with tensions. This memorial service is being held in this Catholic Church. Memory is very important to our tradition. It is the basis of our worship. The Eucharist is the centre of that worship because Jesus said Do this in memory of me. So we remember and give thanks. We remember 30 years ago. It was approximately thirty years after the death of Jesus that his disciples began to formally record what we now know as the Gospels. The essence of Jesus life was to be remembered, if the future was not to be unfaithful to his life and message. The second reading from Romans 14 reminded us that the life and death of each of us has its influence on othersEach of us must stand before the judgement seat of God. It is to God that each of us must give an account of himself. God and God alone is the supreme judge of our lives. Yet we human beings in our remembering, especially after 30 years, can dare to seek to distill essential truth from a life, what we can hope will inspire us forever. As your party seeks to go forward, that must be one of the tasks of the new generation of leadership. What of Williams legacy should last? What can and should be forgotten? What is essential for the ongoing enrichment of the party and the nation? A memorial in a church around religious leaders has its own challenges. For me, as homilist, what can our traditions, my Catholic tradition, say to you at this moment of your existence? Most great religions stand on what can be considered a three-legged
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stool. For Buddhists, a growing religious group in our society, it is the Buddha, the Sangha and the Dharma. For Muslims, it is the Prophet, the Umma and the Koran. For Christians, it is Christ, the Church and the Gospel. Hindus refer to the Tri-Murti, interpreted in different ways. While these religions ascribe differing scales of importance to the three elements, the three-fold schema of religious life and the interplay of these elements give to it impetus and energy. While I do not wish to place the PNM on the level of a religion, it is certainly true that for Dr. Eric Williams the PNM was more than just a party, it was a movement of people meant to respond, not only to the claims for political power, but also to the creation of a new identity beyond the colonial deprivation. This movement itself stood on three legs the Founder, the Party and the Principles, the latter principally as outlined in The Peoples Charter. All of those legs must be important to you as you seek to heal your wounds and renew your energy and purpose. It is in this context that I wish, as a religious leader, to place one principle which you ignore to your own peril and to the peril of the nation. NO DIVINE RIGHT TO RULE TnT. No person or party should claim a divine right to rule. The temptation has always been there in our region and, even in recent times, I have heard echoes of it in Trinidad and Tobago. I would suggest that we must not accept too glibly the oft-repeated mantra, the voice of the people is the voice of God. The people are often fickle and self-serving in their political proclamations. No party is indispensable to Trinidad and Tobago. The PNM is not indispensable to Trinidad and Tobago, no matter how glorious the claims of the past may be. Any and every party must earn what is not a right, but a privilege the privilege to govern and serve Trinidad and Tobago. How do we earn that right, that privilege today? Not simply by showing up the inadequacies of the other, by highlighting their foibles and weaknesses. That would be an insult to the population who know your own inadequacies only too well and may then be saddled, not with the best, but with the less inadequate, if or when you should return to power. Never presume the right to govern, always seek to earn it, to prove yourself once more worthy of the mantle in your own right, not simply by the default of others. You are summoned therefore to become worthy of the task and privilege of governance, by returning to your roots to founder, to party and to principles. Williams as one of the acknowledged founders of party politics in the Caribbean stated in 1955 that the PNM would be a democratic party of men (and women) of honesty and incorruptibility, of all races, colours, classes and creeds, with a coherent and sensible programme of economic, social and political reform aimed at the development of the community as a whole, appealing to the intelligence rather than to the emotions of the electorate whose political education it places in the forefront of its activities.(The Case for Party Politics in Trinidad and Tobago). Note that he saw the party as committed to the development
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of the community as a whole. It should appeal to the intelligence rather than the emotions of the electorate. Genuine political education would be in the forefront of its activities. We may have come a long way from such lofty ideals, straying on the path of political expediency and delusions of infallibility. Unless we return to them, this nation will implode on our own ignorance, hubris and political impotence. Our democracy may seem healthy, very healthy in its expression. The past few days have provided some evidence to consider. Nonetheless, I want to suggest that we are not at all healthy in our democratic foundations, i.e. political education and genuine participation. Once elections are over, the disempowerment of the people, even in Opposition, can begin again and even flourish under the guise of party discipline and political necessity. Many would agree that, of all the parties on the political landscape, only the PNM has the foundations and the history to take up such ideals for the sake of a purpose beyond itself. In that sense, Opposition is a blessing, not a curse; not only a bewildering crisis but a glorious opportunity. The Genesis story which you heard tonight(Gen.32-25-30) is part of the saga of the Jewish Patriarchs, the struggle of Jacob at Jabbok river. Jacob is part of the line of patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Like all of the line, he is deeply human. Yet his call to leadership is sealed in an epic struggle with the Divine at the river side. The story is highly symbolic. I want to suggest that there is no genuine leadership without struggle. Truly great leadership must always struggle with the best. Both in collective leadership and individual leadership one must be open to and even seek the struggle with the best. To encourage the best and to learn from the struggle. To be able to boast that one is who one is because of the wounds of that struggle. Jacob is able to boast of his hip injury, the sign that he has struggled and survived. After that, he was not alone. His leadership knew a deeper wisdom because of the experience of the struggle with the best adversary he could find. If authentic and truly great leadership is to arise, our task is not to belittle our adversary. That says more of our own smallness than of the true quality of our adversary. Dr, Williams in one of his more interesting statements makes a distinction between the political and theoretical leadership of the party. He draws comparison with George Washington and Thomas Jefferson in the founding of the United States. While both types of leadership were combined in his own person, he clearly states that they need not necessarily be one and the same person(Perspectives for our Party 1958). One might object that he did not live that in practice. Yet in truly great persons, the power of their insight may be realized long after they are gone. Williams certainly saw in the early days that he was not the only primary source of the political education of PNM members. Another such source was for him the speeches of PNM parliamentarians in and out of the House. In those days the quality was certainly there. Can you hope for
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such creative quality and inspiring communication today and in the next generation? Can this be part of the earning of the privilege of governance and service once again? In a few moments, the Lydian singers will render a truly local version of Michael Jacksons Heal the World. Events on the world and local scene have brought Trinidad and Tobago to a point of great stress. You do yourselves and the nation a great disservice if you simply blame the other for this stress without admitting and understanding your own contribution to that stress and seeking to understand it in its comprehensive global context. Heal the world! Begin by truly healing the PNM, not covering over its wounds with deceptive plasters. Consider deeply how TnT might be healed, not only by yourselves, but by a genuinely new dispensation which summons the whole nation to healing, reconciliation and wholeness. Seek to draw all back to that persistent dream and enduring mission whereby what we do here in TnT may indeed help to heal the world. If you do that, then you will have truly earned once more the privilege to guide this nation and the region and to take again a place on the world stage. God bless you all. God bless Trinidad and Tobago. Thanks again for the privilege of Tuesday evening! Some of the questions which may be seen as flowing from the homily --and give the party leadership reason for raising them for discussion.... 1. What of Williams' legacy should last if we are to be true to his vision? 2. What of the legacy is essential for the ongoing enrichment of party and nation? 3. What would you consider to be the pillars on which the PNM stands? 4. Do you believe that the PNM has a divine "right" to rule? 5. What are the responsibilities that go with the privilege of ruling/serving the nation? 6. Given the events of the last year, what must the party do to earn the privilege of leadership? 7. What is the alternative to maximum leadership if we are to remain an effective and efficient party? 8. How can the PNM ensure that the best ideas are both available to and used by the party in our rejuvenation and resurrection? Best wishes always! Clyde M. Harvey(Fr.) Parish Priest