ON Monday, 53 States Members will choose the person whose privilege it will be to serve as Jersey’s political leader until the end of 2011.

The new Chief Minister – who we now know will be either Senator Terry Le Sueur or Senator Alan Breckon – will face an agenda which is very different from that which confronted the first holder of the office just three years ago and it will demand a different kind of leadership to help bring harmony and calm in times of change and challenge.

The new Chief will need to perform a series of balancing acts that will test his wisdom, statesmanship and personal qualities as Jersey sets out to rebuild a united society in an age of almost unprecedented economic turmoil.

He will also be called upon to avoid extravagance in public spending, while nevertheless improving Jersey’s neglected infrastructure and helping to stimulate the economy, and to orchestrate a sustainable degree of economic growth without threatening the Island’s environment or quality of life.

He must also act in ways that will restore public confidence in sympathetic and open government at home and, around the world, he will present Jersey as a mature, responsible small nation whose actions merit its constitutional privileges.

Perhaps above all, he must provide the kind of inspiring leadership which will harness together the wide range of opinions, ideas and talents in a States Assembly potentially enriched in all those things by the recent elections. The next Council of Ministers must be a much broader church than the one now leaving office and its chief must use it to promote a united States Assembly, setting a new tone leading to the creation of a more united Island society.

And he must do this while also reining in the bureaucratic and financial extravagances of the public sector, for this is not a time for grandiose schemes, empire-building or rafts of new laws needing more staff to administer them.

Senator Frank Walker’s successor at the head of the Council of Ministers must be someone who commands respect inside the House as well as among Islanders at large. In these most difficult of economic times, he also needs to be someone possessed of prudence, intellectual acumen and experience.

In terms of experience, Treasury Minister Terry Le Sueur certainly has the necessary qualifications and, even if nothing else were to give him an edge in these difficult times, the fuller economic insight. These factors must make him the front runner

Senator-elect Breckon’s different political philosophy certainly attracts support, but his lack of ministerial or other senior managerial experience is a hurdle his colleagues will need to be certain he can overcome.
Moreover, the degree of respect Senator Le Sueur commands in the States and the community would also make him a widely acceptable choice even though, after introducing unwelcome new taxes, he can no longer claim the degree of popularity that would provide the icing on the cake.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, given his previous record in business, the years in which Senator Walker held the reins, first as president of Policy and Resources and then as Chief Minister, were characterised by growth – of the economy, of the population and of the size and expense of government.

His successor will, however, have to guide policy in a vastly changed economic landscape while also responding to legitimate expectations of better environmental stewardship and greater economic diversity. Monday’s winner will be the politician – probably Senator Le Sueur – who is able to persuade his fellow Members that he can achieve those aims and also run the Council of Ministers more consensually, openly and responsively.

Two slogans used by candidates in the recent Senatorial election neatly characterised the change which the Jersey public wants to see in its government’s priorities and conduct. One came from Senator Le Sueur’s rival for the top job, Alan Breckon, who rightly declared that Islanders want ‘to be represented, not managed’. The other was coined by Ian Le Marquand, who asserted: ‘The finance industry is what we do, not what we are.’
It is absolutely no coincidence that the top two places in the poll went to the candidates who expressed those truths so tellingly. It is now up to the States, on behalf of the electorate, to choose a leader willing and able to convert them into effective action.