Most politicians connect with their electorate, but few have the capacity or charisma to be able to encapsulate complex ideas in a manner that makes disinterested and disaffected individuals, irrespective of political persuasion, stop and think about what might be possible.
It is not to make a partisan or political point to say that at the recently ended Heads of Government meeting in Jamaica, Barbados’ Prime Minister, Mia Mottley, came close to this, being able to demonstrate in her opening remarks, in interviews and at the closing press conference, the ways in which one might imagine the regional integration process being able to improve peoples’ lives.
In Montego Bay she exhibited an ability to go to the heart of the matter, speaking convincingly about issues from free movement to the problems of regional aviation, and what the reinvigoration of the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME) could mean for ordinary Caribbean citizens.