To witness Dean Barrow confess in the House of Representatives, as he stood to nationalize Telemedia, that Lord Michael Ashcroft was his client and his friend was like sitting next to the dentist’s chair. The words left his mouth with as much ease as a bad tooth is extracted. In the case of his latest spat with the national trade union congress (NTUCB), the PM was far less reticent about putting the upstart workers in their proper place. There was no hesitation in his rebuke. It seems that while Mr. Barrow and the union representatives were in the same room, they spoke different languages, a scenario not at all surprising given Barrow’s growing penchant for inventing reality.

It was the NTUCB that first issued a release on Tuesday stating that the Barrow administration had agreed to rethink its sudden amendment to the essential services act, which sought to penalize workers for the industrial action that was taken at the KHMH in the wake of corruption allegations. So confident were the unionists that the Tuesday Amandala headline declared a “truce” between GOB and the trade unions. On TV5, the union President was quoted as saying that the PM had also agreed to reconsider the union’s exclusion from the oversight committees distributing the Venezuelan housing funds, that the PM would re-open the DFC Commission of Inquiry, that a timeline had been agreed upon for implementing outstanding International Labor Organization (ILO) protocols and finally, that the disputes relating to BTL and BEL workers would be settled promptly.

Well, it seems that the Prime Minister’s body was in the meeting room but his mind was missing. Speaking to TV7 on the very same day, the PM disavowed any change of direction on the essential services amendment, dismissed the prospect of re-opening of the DFC Inquiry, reiterated Cabinet’s decision that there was no place for the union reps on the housing oversight committees and he remained non-committal on the new ILO protocols and the BEL/BTL labor disputes.

The unions are from Mars while the Prime Minister is from Venus, it would seem.

This breathtaking misunderstanding with the unions is similar to the misunderstanding that occurred when the PM hastily intervened in the KHMH standoff earlier this year. While the PM had convinced himself that he had resolved the conflict, and said as much to the nation on TV, the dispute raged on for weeks after his appearance at the hospital.

There is the case of the Capt. and Mrs. Charles Good. Again, the PM reluctantly met with the victimized couple and then promptly boasted that he had satisfied their request for jobs. And again, this has proven false as the Goods are now suing the government, unwilling to be humiliated into picking up garbage on the street.

Of course, the most far reaching “misunderstanding” by the PM is the one that occurred between him and his erstwhile donor and friend, Lord Ashcroft. No one in their right mind believes that the donor had not been given certain assurances. So, once more, the PM wants us to believe that two parties met in the same room, multiple times, speaking the same language yet he, Barrow is the party who disputes what actually went down.

A fundamental value in effective leadership is clear communication. A Prime Minister communicates constantly with multiple constituencies, publicly and privately. He speaks to his citizens, to his Cabinet, to the business community, to the social partners, to lenders and creditors, to investors, and so on. His words draw upon a virtual account of credibility and goodwill. In this dynamic context, there will always be differences and misinterpretations, withdrawals and deposits to this active account. But an ominous pattern is emerging where this Prime Minister seems unable to understand what is being communicated to him and unable to communicate with vital constituencies. The PM’s deposits of credibility are being drawn down rapidly.

When he appeared on the WUB Morning Show on Wednesday, as another example, the PM seemed blind to the irrefutable evidence of nepotism involving his brother, his son and his ex-wife. Whenever he is caught in the company of double-speak or double standards, the PM instantly morphs into a prophet of honey, believing that all he has to do is to sprinkle some sweet sounding lyrics from his honey jar and anything can be explained away. This Barrow Complex is rooted in two conditions: first, that the PM resides in a world of words, not work; and second, that he consistently stands on the shoulders of a bogeyman.

A Prime Minister has to roll up his sleeves and get his hands dirty. He has to understand issues and more importantly, empathize with people. Conflict resolutions are not ready made. They require long attention spans and patience. Governance is increasingly complex, quite the antithesis to the nine to five, solitary routine that an attorney on retainer like Mr. Barrow has been accustomed to for most of his adult life. As the economic downturn bites deeper and the level of dissatisfaction rises across the society, the Barrow Complex will become more evident and more unhelpful. When the PM exhausts the blood from the corpse of the Ashcroft bogeyman, who will be the next victim of his sound and fury?

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