The Barbadian people were thrown into a state of mourning when it was reported that former Prime Minister Owen Arthur died on Monday morning.
Former Barbadian Prime Minister Owen Arthur
The Barbados Government Information Services related that the 70-year-old died at 12:26h while a patient at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Bridgetown.
He was the island nation’s fifth Prime Minister and the longest serving. Arthur was hospitalised mid-July after suffering a heart attack and was said to be recovering prior to his death.
Arthur led Barbados during what was described as one of its most turbulent times from 1994 to 2008 after Sir Lloyd Erskine Sandiford fell via a no-confidence motion. He rallied the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) faithful and took the reins of power.
He went on to also win the General Elections of 1999 and 2003. His tenure remains the longest among Barbadian Prime Ministers and he was the fifth to hold that office, handling the portfolio of Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs.
Arthur was born on October 17, 1949. He was educated at All Saints Boys’ School, Coleridge and Parry School and Harrison College. He later pursued studies at the University of the West Indies (UWI) and holds a Master of Science degree in Economics.
He spent several years in Jamaica as a Research Assistant, five years at the National Planning Agency of Jamaica and served as Director of Economics at the Jamaica Bauxite Institute between 1979 and 1981.
He returned to Barbados in 1981 and worked in the Finance and Planning Ministry before returning to UWI. Arthur served in the Senate from 1983, but his defining moment came the following year in the now famous St Peter by-election when he defeated the Democratic Labour Party’s Sybil Leacock. He was Opposition Leader from 1993 to 1994 and again from 2010 to 2013.
However, his years in the BLP were not without controversy.
After suffering defeat in the 2008 General Election, Arthur stepped down as party leader in favour of current Prime Minister Mia Mottley. But by October 2010, Party Chairman George Payne and other Members of Parliament Dale Marshall, Ronald Toppin, Gline Clarke, and Arthur himself, voted in favour of the former Prime Minister to replace Mottley.
“This is a very difficult time for the country. It is a very difficult time for the Party. It is a very difficult time for me. I think the world about Mia Mottley. There is nobody in public life in Barbados who I would have facilitated and enabled them to become as much as they could be. I really do wish that Mia Mottley would have led the party to cause the people of Barbados to forget about me,” Arthur said at the time.
He was replaced as Party Leader after the BLP lost the 2013 General Election, announcing that would be his last. Arthur was at times highly critical of Mottley and on July 25, 2014, announced his resignation from the Party after 43 years.
In his later years, he played an active role as a Professor of Practice: Economics of Development at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus and continued to write various papers on economics, trade, and policy.
Earlier this year, he was appointed Chairman of LIAT which is facing liquidation and Mottley also announced during one of her COVID-19 press conferences that she would be drawing on his expertise to help lead Barbados through these turbulent times.
Patriot
Prime Minister Mottley hailed Arthur as a true patriot and leader for all. She said that Barbados was now poorer with his passing since his intellect was larger than life.
“The last to title bestowed upon him was the most fitting as Professor of Practice as Owen was first and foremost a teacher. Taking the most complex economic issues and stripping them down to be understood by the average man and the average woman…he discharged his duties as Prime Minister of Barbados and as a Caribbean leader with distinction,” Mottley said.
The current PM noted that Arthur’s strong patriotism was anchored by a burning passion for regional integration for the Caribbean civilisation.
“This passion fortunately coincided with his responsibility as the lead Prime Minister in Caricom for the Single Market and Single Economy. I was with Owen in Jamaica when he signed, in 2006, with tremendous pride, the instrument that brought the Caricom Single Market into existence. He was brimming with pride,” she remembered.
Mottley noted that her former Party Leader was one of the rare politicians who set out to and did master the art of politics without ever compromising his economic training and commitment to sound policy.
“Looking back at the closing years of the last century and the early years of this century, there is no doubt that Owen Seymour Arthur was the man for the times. Owen never lost the thirst for public policy not even after he left Government…I thank him for meeting me here in the last 18 months when I asked him to serve in a number of key areas, including in the jobs and investment advisory council. This came after his work in the last year as he helped this Government in the forging of a new industry policy and the review of the international trade options for Small Islands Developing States,” the Prime Minister noted.
The nation of Barbados now goes into three days of mourning, and all flags would be flown at half-mast until Arthur is laid to rest. (Information extracted from Barbados Nation) (G2)
