Ormond Panton and the Struggle for Political Consciousness

Three Caymanians, Mr. Roy Bodden, Mr. Erren Merren, and Dr. Steve McField wrote tributes as part of the education thrust on Ormond Panton. In this series of articles, I present these tributes as written by these eminent persons who knew Mr. Ormond Panton well.

The tribute written by Mr. Roy Bodden is presented in three parts.

Part Three

Ormond Panton and the Struggle for Political Consciousness

A Pyrrhic Victory:

Ormond Panton and the National Democratic Party (NDP) won a resounding majority in 1962.  Their rivals registered their party as the Christian Democratic Party (CDP) in an attempt to play upon the Caymanian penchant, with the hope of attracting followers who believed the party may have been founded on biblical principles and implying that the National Democratic Party had no such principles.    This ploy did not work because Ormond Panton was far more persuasive than his opponents, the merchant establishment, whom the majority realized did not  really help the poor and disenfranchised.  The attempt to play on Christian principles proved not to be an advantage in the end as the elections were won by the NDP.

Beyond the glossy patina of the NDP victory on November 22, 1962 however, lay a toxic conspiracy which had its genesis in a public meeting held some time earlier.

At that meeting Jack Rose, the island’s Administrator and Dr. Roy McTaggart, Ormond Panton’s colleague in the NDP set the stage for Panton’s political demise. History shows that at this meeting some kind of collusion took place between Dr. Roy and Jack Rose which turned out to be detrimental to Ormond Panton’s efforts to bring political enlightenment  to the voters.

Hannerz (1974) suggests that:

Election night (November 22, 1962) may have been Ormond Panton’s finest hour, as he looked forward to extending his party’s influence over a Legislative Assembly dominated by National Democrats [NDP].  But his hopes were soon dashed.

About a month after the election, on Christmas Eve to be exact, Administrator Rose made public the names of his three nominees (Nominated Members) for the Legislative Assembly. Two of them were George Towners… Annie Huldah Bodden and Berkley Bush.  The third was J.A. Ryan from Cayman Brac… not particularly endeavored to Ormond Panton.  Jack Rose had flaunted convention and made these appointments without consulting Ormond Panton as convention dictated.

Postmortem:

It would have been an improbability for Jack Rose to have chosen without the collusion of forces opposed to Ormond Panton. As was previously mentioned, Panton did not have cordial relations with Jack Rose, and this became even more obvious during the so-called “Black Ball/White Ball” confusion, a meeting held to explain the alternatives Caymanians had in choosing their path after Jamaica went independent in August 1962.  Jack Rose was blatantly racist in suggesting there were on two choices.  The “Black Ball” choice meant aligning with Jamaica, which was about to go into independence, while the “White Ball” choice meant remaining with the colonial power, Britain.

Ormond Panton however, saw things differently and stated that there was a “Grey Ball” (representing a third choice) which for Cayman meant remaining with Britain but with ‘internal self-government’.  It took the intervention of Sir Kenneth Blackburne, the Governor of Jamaica, to confirm that Panton was correct.

By that time however, the proverbial ‘die had been cast’.  Jack Rose made the nominations concrete, Dr. Roy leaving a foul-smelling trail resigned from the NDP.  Ormond Panton was shattered and resorted to what any savvy political leader would have done – proposed that the majority NDP members resign en masse - thus forcing the Administrator to call new elections.

In so doing, Panton committed the fatal political flaw by not ensuring his membership tendered their resignations through him as party leader.  He trusted their ethics, but in the end only his resignation was tendered, for although Dr. Roy also resigned from the Assembly at this time, he had left the NDP some while previously.

To return to the situation with Ormond Panton and the NDP members, it is impossible to detach oneself from the spectre of selfishness, self-preservation and disloyalty surrounding these members.  Similarly too, one’s suspicion must be aroused by Dr. Roy’s resignation from the NDP. 

Did he resign as a result of intra-party differences with Ormond Panton, and if so, what were they? 

Did he resign because Ducan Merren having not been returned as an CDP member meant  there was no need for him (McTaggart) to be in the Assembly since his business rival was no longer in a position of power?

Or did he resign because the possibility of Ormond Panton leading the Cayman Islands into Internal Self- Government had once and for all be removed? And finally, was Dr. Roy McTaggart hero or villain in the conspiracy to thwart Internal Self-government and by inference ruin Ormond Panton’s chances of becoming Chief Minister, or was his role purely to secure his own economic advantage?

Irrespective of the answer one arrives at, certain conclusions are inescapable.  Jack Rose used the age-old tactic of ‘divide and rule’ to maintain the colonial stranglehold over the Cayman Islands and it also calls into question Dr. Roy’s conduct as statesman. The collective struggle which played out between Ormond Panton as a visionary, honest and self-sacrificing political leader and the reactionary forces of the merchant establishment still blazes a trail in Caymanian politics.  Ormond Panton has left the Caymanian political scene, but his legacy of statesmanship, fairness, vision, and morality are the hall marks by which his memory is celebrated… and history has carved him in a respected space on the Caymanian pantheon of great leaders.

Readers are encouraged to explore further in such texts as Ulf Hannerz, Caymanian Politics: Structure and Style in a Changing Island Society, University of Stock Holm, Sweden 1974 and David A Martins, Special Son: The biography of Ormond Panton, Published by Pansons Limited.