AN EMOTIONAL CYNTHIA FORDE yesterday appealed for healing in the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) following the removal of Mia Mottley as Opposition Leader.
“I believe there is time for healing; we all have to come together . . . . We have to make sure that whatever we do it is not about personal aggrandisement, but it is about building our country and leaving a legacy for our youth,” the St Thomas MP said.
Speaking to the Daily Nation shortly after Mottley had addressed the Press in the yard of Parliament, Forde declared: “I believe that [Sir] Grantley Adams, Tom Adams, Sir Harold “Bree” St John and others who are the pioneers and the founding fathers of the Labour Party are rolling over in their graves at what has transpired in the Labour Party – when all it called for was dialogue.
“We cannot treat people with disrespect.”
She explained: “I have continued to lend my support to Miss Mottley because she has been consistent in ensuring that for the last two and a half years the Labour Party remained afloat . . . ensuring that we all took responsibility to help our party of 72 years.
“I have given my support because she is a solid woman; she does not have prejudices in the way that some people do . . . ,” Forde stated.
She added she was “deeply saddened because some of the same individuals who have now gone and done what they have to do, have not been a part of that pillar in the way I expected”.
Forde vowed to help to build back the party despite whoever is the leader “because at the end of the day it is the people of Barbados, our supporters in particular, who are suffering”.
She advised colleagues in the BLP parliamentary group and others to spend their energies rebuilding the party.
“With Mr Arthur and Miss Mottley and a team Barbados Labour Party we were able to reduce unemployment . . . . Why are we not putting our energies there? . . . We are seeing the crime rate spiral . . . that is what we should be focusing on to show we are the alternative and we have the capacity whether it is under Arthur or under Miss Mottley.”
Forde pledged to throw her support behind “my new Leader of the Opposition”.
