On the evening of April 5, at the National Library, it was "all smiles" as Erica Williams-Connell was presented by Nalis Executive Director Annette Wallace with first-day covers at the launch of the commemorative stamp issue in honour of Dr Eric Williams, as we are about to commemorate the centenary of his birth.Three decades after his death, the Williams spirit looms large. Given the controversial and enigmatic, larger-than-life figure that he was, it's, I suppose, inevitable that this distinguished son of the soil who commands international respect and high international profile, both as scholar and politician, should continue to have both his careers, as well as personality, as good fodder for public scrutiny and review.
Although favourite daughter Erica claims that she eschews the limelight and has no intention of capitalising on her father's name and fame, it has fallen to her to ensure that he is suitably remembered both locally and beyond. I expect that she would be at the vanguard of whatever activities that are associated with the Williams centenary commemorations.Whether the party that he founded and the current administration can rise to the occasion and chip in with their own little-in every sense of the word-bit to commemorate Dr Williams' centenary of his birth is very much in the lap of the gods.
So one shouldn't hold one's breath, especially when one hears nonsensical innuendo to the effect that Williams' achievements "are no big thing," and that recognition of his hundredth birthday can be more appropriately postponed to a later year (the 50th anniversary of independence, for instance) when all other national heroes (and, presumably, heroines) can be conveniently and suitably honoured.In my book, for monumental stupidity and crass ignorance, that not only "takes the cake" but the whole goddamn bakery. But what else does one expect from political neophytes?More seriously, apart from the exploitation of the Dr Williams brand and image for self-serving purposes, he has been posthumously treated with "benign neglect." Why, indeed, should some of us find it so convenient to be making life so difficult for the dead?
Probably, in his wisdom, the Doc may have decided to "chill out," in death, in the surrounding waters of the gulf, where, strategically, he could "spend the rest of his death" as near to Trinidad and as far from Trinidad as he possibly could.Erica Williams does not strike me as being without any interest in the welfare of her country, nor is she indifferent as to how her father's reputation and legacy are being portrayed.No longer "daddy's little girl," as her father's contemporaries are wont to portray her, my impression is that not all the Williams charisma, political savvy and acumen were consigned to the swirling waters of the gulf, together with Dr Williams' ashes.
Erica claims to have tried not to be ensnared by politics, but the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back "and made my blood boil was when I become furious at what was being done to my father's name."My own impression was that she would have found it easier to sell ice to the Eskimos or Playboy magazines to Mother Teresa than interesting the PNM hierarchy in any event and/or activity honouring her father's name and/or legacy. That's, of course, when they do not deem it necessary, for their own convenience, "to have him lay down like a bridge over troubled political waters" to snatch their political chestnuts from the fire.
Erica spoke strongly against women being given token positions or being used simply as "window dressing." She said that she feels close to her dad and seeks his guidance every time she gets up to make a speech. I can believe that. After that absolutely brilliant eulogy that she delivered off the cuff at the rotunda, where her father's body lay in state, my only conclusion was that Eric Williams was speaking to us from the grave.However, I suspect that Erica is evidently a woman who knows her own mind, has her own voice, needs her own space and would not allow herself to be simply used as a drawing card to exploit the magic of the Williams name.
She is not, however, without her local critics, who question her bona fides as "a true true Trini." One critic claimed to have been unimpressed by the acclamation which Erica received for what she (the critic) considered to be Erica's "very ordinary, even opportunistic statements."Such criticisms are hardly likely to cut any ice with Erica or her father's admirers who, in any event, see Dr Williams's daughter as a "chip off the old block," or "vintage wine from the same vine." And in popular, if vulgar, parlance, "goat doh make donkey."
I can well understand the notion of rushing to underestimate Ms Williams because she did not follow her father's footsteps in academia, but genealogy apart, her long association with her accomplished father, her accompanying him in his visits to world leaders, could conceivably have amounted to the equivalent, if not more, of a first class university education. Like her famous father, she's unlikely to be fazed by idle sniping.
Moreover, not all the criticisms directed at Erica or Eric are fair. But who said anything about fairness in politics? Williams himself was not averse to making caustic comment. He dismissed us as "a nation of transients."In a graphic, though not inaccurate, characterisation, he compared our politicians to "crabs in a barrel, clawing at and crawling all over each other." One of his more pungent aphorisms was that "the alternative to his PNM was at best bacchanal, at worst mayhem." One wonders.