The ace calypsonian branded a "jackass" by the late Dr Eric Eustace Williams is still taking to the stage to sing witty calypsoes 29 years after the country's first prime minister passed away. But Hollis Liverpool, known in the calypso world as the Mighty Chalkdust, with eight Calypso Monarch titles under his belt, yesterday, two days before the anniversary of Williams' death, had only gallant words to offer on the politician who condemned him. In fact, he believes it is like chalk and cheese to compare the current crop of PNM politicians headed by Prime Minister Patrick Manning now running T&T, with the governments Williams led from 1956 to the time of his death on March 29, 1981.
"Let the jackass sing," was how Williams responded to complaints from the PNM Women's League about the stinging calypsoes he had been composing and performing, pillorying Williams, Chalkie recalled. He noted in the 1960s and 1970s, when the PNM was in its heyday, and Williams' word was law, the so-called "Fat Arse Brigade" wielded tremendous influence within the party. "They said I was insulting him and insulting his office by virtue of my numerous songs on him and they wanted him to stop me in my tracks," Chalkie said, recalling stalwarts like Phyllis Mitchell (who is still alive), Ruby Felix, Dorothy Bentham and Olga Bland.
Williams was a true Father of the Nation, said Chalkdust, who is now head of the Institute of Arts and Letters at the University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT). "I have great respect for Dr Williams. He was a towering figure. Everything he said or did impacted on the population," declared Chalkie of the former PM, who died just six months short of his 70th birthday which would have been celebrated on September 25. Next year is the centenary of Williams' birth. Chalkie added: "Williams did not have an impact on the economy alone...He touched everything in T&T–education, culture, manners, spiritual and moral values. "If Eric Williams said stop driving fast, people stopped driving fast."
He said Williams was the last of our genuine charismatic political leaders; but Basdeo Panday had his day "for a short while..." He did not think Manning could compare with Williams and, in fact, expressed the hope that the current Government would do more to highlight the lifetime achievements of Williams, a Queen's Royal College old boy who got a BA degree in History at Oxford University in England in 1932, which was followed in 1938 during World War II with a PhD degree. The following year, 1939, when the war ended, Williams graduated with a doctorate in Sociology from Oxford. He was to return to T&T 17 years later to provide the human platform for the founding of the PNM which has ruled this country for 44 years with the NAR (1986-1991) and UNC (1996-2001) each having five-year stints.
According to Chalkdust, to many young citizens Williams is just a name and the Government should institute, for example, annual essay-writing competitions which would prompt diligent research into Williams' life. Just two days ago, he said his UTT academy had sponsored a lecture on the 1937 oilfield riots led by Tubal Uriah "Buzz" Butler at the National Academy for the Performing Arts and he believed the various Government Ministries could follow suit with events carded to highlight the life of Williams. Rich resource material would certainly be available for researchers from the Eric Williams Memorial Collection which is based at UWI, St Augustine, and recently celebrated its 12th year of existence.