In honour of Sonny Ramphal, most memorable of West Indians I reproduce a column I wrote about him some time ago. I cannot measure how much I am saddened by his death and I send the condolences of my wife and myself to his family.
In the last three decades of the 20th century Sonny Ramphal was at or near the centre of world affairs. He was the chief architect of the Lomé Convention, that imaginative partnership between rich countries, the European Union, and poor countries, the ACP group, which promised so much for a fairer world until it fell foul of the free market fanatics of a more selfish time. As Secretary-General of the Commonwealth he participated in countless international crises and debates and in particular powerfully assisted in the birth of a democratic, apartheid-free South Africa. He was the indispensable common denominator – no one else belonged to them all – in the work of the five great international Commissions which formulated a comprehensive vision of a better world: the Brandt Commission on Development; the Palme Commission on Disarmament and Security; the World Commission on Environment and Development; the Independent Commission on International Humanitarian Issues; and the South Commission on the major problems facing Third World countries. He was the dynamo in them all. It was an almost unbelievably unique summons to duty. Imagine the time, the researched knowledge, the daily stint of hard work and thought, the fervour devoted to these five great blueprints for humanity.
These will continue to have relevance as long as men aspire to shape a real community of nations. Who can doubt that for this indefatigably undertaken body of work alone he should have received a Nobel Peace Prize. He would certainly have been Secretary-General of the United Nations except that he was too brilliantly gifted and had too much of a mind of his own for the liking of the big powers. In the Caribbean region he has been (and continues to be) prolific in his contributions to the ideal of West Indian nationhood. In his work as Chairman of the West Indian Commission in 1991/92 he produced a road map, Time For Action, for the coming together of all West Indians, and a strengthening of their external influence, which stands to this day beckoning for fulfillment.
Our paths crossed often in these past few decades. In particular I worked within touching distance of Sonny when he played a key role in negotiating the Sugar Protocol as an integral part of the Lomé Convention. And in 1991/92 I worked as editorial assistant for the West Indian Commission and in the compilation of its report Time For Action. Those were exhilarating times. The gifts I observed at first hand – and which gave rise to his multitude of achievements as a regional and world statesman – amounted, I am sure, to genius: his extraordinary ability as a negotiator, the splendid elegance of his writing reflected in the eloquence of his oratory, the capacity to take endless pains and tenaciously hold on until the job was done, the persuasiveness of vision which made doubters into believers and believers into fervent apostles. And something I have found without fail in all the exceptional people I have been lucky enough to know – being with them made life and the world more exciting, simply more fun if the truth be told.
