he
UWI Regional Headquarters, Jamaica. Wednesday, July 29, 2020. The
following statement is issued by Sir
George Alleyne, Chancellor Emeritus of The University of the West
Indies (The UWI), in
tribute to the late Rt. Honourable Owen Arthur.

 
I
cannot claim to have known the late Rt. Honourable Owen Arthur very
well, but I certainly knew enough of his seminal contributions in the
several spheres in which I moved to admire him and be proud that he
was my Prime Minister. I admired him for his forthrightness and lack
of can’t; for being an illustrious Pelican whose brilliant flight
bore testimony to the value of The UWI in creating the human capital
needed to guide the scattered peoples of the Caribbean to better
lives and greater unity in our dividing sea. He was an indefatigable
champion of The UWI, for which legions of past and future students
will be eternally grateful.

Amidst
the natural and welcome outpouring of grief for the passing of a
national statesman of iconic stature, I know that there are hosts of
Barbadians throughout the world who will recall with pride not only
what he did at home but also his standing in global and regional
affairs. He argued persistently that the common vulnerability and
volatility of small states such as Barbados merited particular
attention. I warmed to his impeccable logic as he evoked Aristotle’s
proportionality and argued for special treatment of such states in
the face of the “pervasive influence worldwide of the legitimizing
ideology of liberalization”.

When
the international community speaks of the vulnerability of small
states and the index by which it should be measured, the name of Owen
Arthur will always be recalled with gratitude. I admired him for his
ability to be at once a fiercely proud Barbadian and simultaneously
be a constant and dogmatic champion of the regional ideal which had
no doubt been if not forged, certainly fortified in the Mona Valley.
I admired him for the persistence with which he abjured jingoistic
nationalism and put his shoulder against the Sisyphean rock of
integration. I applauded his frequent, brilliant exposition of the
value and virtue of functional cooperation as the glue to bind the
Caribbean people more closely together and be a platform for the more
difficult areas of cooperation. He was the architect of the Needham’s
Point declaration of the CARICOM Heads of Government in 2007- “A
community for all, a declaration on functional cooperation”. He
believed that functional cooperation should indeed permeate the work
of every council and institution of the community.

I
know very intimately of his firm and unshakable commitment to such
cooperation in health. It was Prime Minister Arthur who convened the
first meeting of Caribbean leaders in Barbados in 2001 to address the
scourge of HIV in the region and he was one of the original
signatories to the Pan Caribbean Partnership against HIV/AIDS which
has been recognised as an international best practice. Its success
over the years and the progress the region has made in combatting
this disease collectively is another one of the tributes to his
memory.

Owen
Arthur as Chair of CARICOM presided over the historic meeting of
CARICOM heads of government in Port of Spain in 2007, which
recognised and emphasised that the Caribbean should address
vigorously, the scourge of the chronic non-communicable diseases such
as heart disease, diabetes and chronic respiratory illness. He was
acutely aware that these diseases could possibly unravel the
development gains made in other areas. The Declaration of that
meeting stands as a milestone in the international cooperation to
prevent and control these diseases.

It
is particularly ironic one of these diseases connects two of our
greatest Prime Ministers. The last time I saw the late Errol Barrow
was in 1979 in Barbados when we spoke of many things including how
diabetes could debilitate and diminish a man. He was prescient. The
last time I saw the late Owen Arthur was last year at an alumni
function when we spoke of many things, but he also be referred to the
problem of diabetes and its complications. He too was prescient.

When
the tears have dried and the laudable pomp and ceremony to mark his
passing have receded into history, there will be many important
accomplishments of his public life that will be etched into the
annals of Barbadian history. It would be inappropriate for me to
suggest the ways in which this great man’s many achievements should
be memorialised. But I will venture to propose that he also be
remembered fittingly by a firm and unshakable Caribbean commitment to
ensuring that the functional cooperation that is needed to reduce the
toll of these diseases and make our health span equal to our
lifespan, never flags or fails.

I offer my condolences especially to his wife and daughters and trust that the knowledge of how much he was loved and appreciated as evidenced by the many tributes to him, go some small way towards dulling the pain and assuaging the grief that is yours.

End-

About
Sir George Alleyne

Sir
George Alleyne served as Chancellor of The UWI from 2003 to 2010 and
then 2010 to 2017. His years of distinguished service in the office
have left an indelible mark in the history of The UWI. In addition to
his service as Chancellor, he spent a total of 23 years working at
the regional University. He was given the honorary title of Professor
Emeritus after leaving The UWI in 1981 to assume the position of
Chief of the Unit of Research, Promotion and Coordination in the
Division of Human Resources and Research at PAHO/WHO and ascended to
the position of Director of PAHO in 1995. Also a son of UWI soil, he
is a proud alumnus, having graduated in 1957 as the gold medallist
with the degree of Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery (MBBS), from the
then University College of the West Indies.