FREUNDEL STUART IS the Deputy Prime Minister, Attorney General and Minister of Home Affairs of Barbados. In recent days he has made his first major insensitive blunder, which has given Barbadians the opportunity to see the impact, which the stress of high office seems to be having on him.
Note that poor Freundel is only Acting Prime Minister, but already seems to be buckling under the pressure, both from within and without.
Could it be the fear of being asked to conceptualise a Budget (mission impossible for him) that might be giving him gripe?
Could it be that he is consumed with now having to look over his shoulder?
But exactly what rumour is it that the Barbados Labour Party is said to be spreading about the Dems? Is it that the DLP is not bringing down the cost of living, or that the DLP has not caused over 5 000 to lose their jobs since 2008? Or that it was not the DLP’s tax grab of some $108 million and its inflationary Budget that has caused Barbados to be on a free fall from prosperity to crisis?
Is Freundel Stuart at all concerned that under his watch crime is increasing to the extent that almost every day and night now someone is shot or stabbed? Or that a big rock is thrown through the window of a bus or minibus?
Isn’t this what should be on the Acting Prime Minister’s mind?
Is he aware or concerned that under his watch some mothers still cannot get child support? Where is the system he promised to put in place so that even when fathers do not pay up on time, mothers can still get support for their children?
He is now Acting Prime Minister and can therefore put such a system in place easily. Is this yet another in a DLP never-ending series of broken promises?
What is Freundel Stuart doing about the former residents of Arch Cot – his constituents, who are complaining that they cannot see him, to say nothing of the relief they are seeking and deserve?
Isn’t he concerned when his constituents say that they have been “hearing too much verbiage and seeing too little action”, and that they have only been able to hold one meeting with him, “and it was a task just to get that one”, and that “now we can’t get him at all”?
Does Freundel Stuart still feel that there is nothing that can shake his faith in CLICO? Does Freundel Stuart still feel that the no confidence motion, which the Leader of the Opposition brought against the Minister of Finance for his handling of the CLICO affair, is “frivolous and vexatious” and that it “should be punished with laughter”?
Where is the duty-free car and better pay for the police? Why is it that under your watch there remain so many vacancies within the ranks of the force?
Mr Stuart, are you not worried that there are also so many vacancies within the judiciary? Shouldn’t you be concerned about reports of a sick-out at the brand new state-of-the-art prisons at Dodds? What are you doing for prison wardens, Mr Stuart?
Does it not bother you that the only original piece of legislation you have brought to Parliament is that to establish Constituency Councils, and an amendment to the Charities and Income Tax Act so that people can give money to DLP Constituency Councils and then claim an income tax write-off from the state?
How do you have so much time to speculate about rumours and gossip when your portfolio is in crisis, sir?
