In his maiden speech as minister of health in Parliament last week, Renward Wells proved why the prime minister’s recent announcement of his appointment failed to excite or inspire confidence in the belief that leadership in the response to the current pandemic was being strengthened.
One of his own colleagues observed after: “If you did not know better and you were listening, you would have thought you were listening to the House chaplain.”
After receiving his instruments of appointment at Government House last Monday, Wells, a mechanical engineer, pointed out to reporters that the minister of health does not have to be a doctor and some countries with ministers of health who are not doctors have been doing quite well in the pandemic.
Though a case could be made for why a competent physician as minister of health would be beneficial at this time, Wells is certainly right. Every minister of health in The Bahamas since 1997 has been a physician, but non-physicians are not incapable of performing effectively in the role, even in a health crisis.
Loftus Roker, Perry Christie, Livingston Coakley, Ivy Dumont and Theresa Moxey-Ingraham have all served as minister of health.
Sir Milo Butler, Sir Clement Maynard and Sir Charles Carter were among those who also served in the role, and before the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP), the United Bahamian Party had Foster Clark.
None of these individuals were physicians.
Malyasia’s former Minister of Health Dr. Dzulkefly Ahmad, who has a medical science background, put it this way in an article carried in May 2018 by The Straits Times: “We are not here to solve complex medical problems. We are here to [enable] the strategic management and the delivery of the health system.”
So while an individual does not need to be a physician to be health minister, the individual does need to be someone who can deliver improvements in healthcare and provide leadership in the formulation and execution of government policy to accomplish the same.
Disappointing
With a pandemic raging, we believe great numbers of Bahamians also want in their health minister someone they feel they can trust to help steer us safely to the other side of COVID.
Renward Wells does not seem to fit the bill.
Wells’ appointment was certainly the prime minister’s prerogative, but it disappointed many.
The former minister of health, Dr. Duane Sands, who resigned in May amid controversy, inspired confidence during the pandemic and prior. Bahamians felt that the minister of health knew what he was doing and understood the depth of the crisis. They respected his knowledge and ability, and in large numbers they trusted him to lead.
There is nothing about Wells’ performance in public life that would cause large numbers of Bahamians to feel the same way about him.
He previously served as agriculture minister and transport minister. Notwithstanding the controversy that accompanied the decision to relocate the General Post Office to space owned by a sitting Cabinet minister at the time, Wells deserves some credit for executing the critically needed move.
But he has not been a standout minister, although the prime minister in announcing his appointment said that “Renward Wells is a doer, who knows how to get things done”.
Wells is not remembered for much else in his previous roles, which also included minister of local government.
More than a year after he received a report from the advisory committee on the introduction of local government to New Providence, Wells has sat on the report, saying that the plan would give local government officials too much power. He did not use his voice in Parliament or elsewhere to publicly push what the Free National Movement (FNM) had committed to doing.
There remains a political cloud hanging over Wells the politician.
The Bamboo Town MP, who once ago was a leader in the now defunct National Development Party, joined the PLP ahead of its election in 2012, but had a falling out with the party’s leader after he (Wells) signed a controversial letter of intent (LOI) for a waste-to-energy project at the New Providence Landfill in 2014, supposedly without authorization.
FNM Leader Dr. Hubert Minnis, at the time opposition leader, had repeatedly called for Wells’ resignation as parliammentary secretary in the Ministry of Works over the matter, saying that if Wells didn’t resign (as then Prime Minister Perry Christie had requested) then the PM should fire him. He said the opposition “would not rest” until Wells was removed.
But politics often leads to interesting and opportunistic alliances in the bid for survival.
Minnis brought Wells into the FNM in 2015 as Minnis faced daggers from within his parliamentary caucus. The move helped Minnis temporarily stave off a parliamentary coup.
Wells secured an FNM nomination for the 2017 election and Minnis rewarded him handsomely for remaining loyal to him in tough political times. He made him one of his most trusted members of Cabinet, and Wells became leader of government business in the House.
In government circles, he became a “big man”.
This context might be useful in understanding Wells’ recent selection as minister of health in the middle of a pandemic — even if his skill set for the role might be in question.
Fluff
In Parliament, Wells has been light on substance and heavy on bluster.
He likes to quote scripture and he likes to heap praise on his leader.
He often has a confident, if not arrogant, tone and is known for a liberal use of fluffy language.
The minister does not give listeners seeking sound and consistent information on government policy much to hang onto.
Such was the case when the new health minister spoke in the House last week.
We waited to hear the minister provide a report on the status of the COVID-19 response after he had been briefed by officials from the COVID-19 task force and other officials in his ministry.
We waited also to hear him provide details — as both he and the prime minister had promised he would do — on the confusion that erupted after the abrupt decision by the competent authority to quarantine people who arrived from Freeport and Fort Lauderdale last week Tuesday at a government facility.
None of the details ever came.
Instead, we got a lecture from the new health minister on how the novel coronavirus “is much like Satan, roaming to and fro, seeking whom he may devour”.
We also got non-specific statements like, “We must do all that we can to save lives and avert countless infections with an aggressive and proactive offense.”
It was time for back-patting and for taking a swipe at political opponents as Wells suggested those on the other side would prefer to see The Bahamas fail in its COVID fight.
“The pundits may not have wanted us, Mr. Speaker, to get this far,” he said, while speaking to what he views as successes in the country’s pandemic response.
The minister told us nothing we did not already know about the status of COVID-19 in The Bahamas and the response being mounted against it.
He missed the mark on his first opportunity to outline somber measures to address the health crisis.
Instead, he cheapened the moment and looked small at a time when we need a level of sobriety.
As we are in the middle of a pandemic, now is not the time to “flam” and wing it with platitudes and soaring rhetoric. People need clarity and information.
Now is not the time for political theatre and vain political sermons.
Wells deserves time to prove what he can do in the new role, but his track record in multiple ministries and his vacuous maiden speech are not cause for belief that he will deliver on anything impressive.
The post Missing the mark appeared first on The Nassau Guardian.
source https://thenassauguardian.com/2020/07/29/missing-the-mark/
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