BARBADOS needs to take fresh guard, says Mia Mottley, Member of Parliament for St Michael North East.
And she is saying that the game ahead should not be influenced by any partisan strategy but one that has the national interest at heart.
Mottley, in an impassioned plea said that she felt “almost pained” that her colleagues came into the House of Assembly to do and say the same thing every year.
She was speaking during the 2011- 2012 Estimates in the House of Assembly yesterday.
She said Barbados could no longer rely on significant import duties because they would be declining as time went by.
“I almost feel pained that we come back and do the same thing over and over.
“If it takes 11 years between the choice of site of St David’s Primary school when I was Minister of Education in 2000 and now for that school to be built, something is wrong.”
She said there were many people who were full of ideas who could not get into the system and “also too much defence of the status quo almost if we are embalmers of government”.
She challenged her colleagues to ask themselves “when will we accept responsibility for ensuring the legacy that we would leave to future generations in the same way that those who led before us guaranteed us that right of opportunity to be here today?”.
She again appealed to the Government “to establish a framework for a national dialogue” .
Mottley said politicians were the ones afraid to put out there anything that would lead to the dislocation of any particular group.
“But the bold reality is that if we don’t adjust and restructure we are all going to go down the slippery slopes. I don’t know when, but I know for sure we will go. And I believe the Prime Minister has a unique opportunity, one cast on his shoulders by history but one which he has the courage to confront fully,” said Mottley. (JS)
