FORMER OPPOSITION LEADER MIA MOTTLEY says she is going on a crusade to have a new Barbados Labour Party (BLP) constitution and to change the way business is done in the party.
And last night she told wildly cheering supporters in a packed Lawrence T. Gay Primary School hall that come October she would be seeking the chairmanship of the party, currently held by St Andrew Member of Parliament George Payne.
She said that not only was there a need for transformation in the country, but change had to come from within the BLP.
Stressing her commitment to the BLP, Mottley said she was concerned that as Barbados sought to celebrate the 60th anniversary of attaining the right to vote under “Father of Democracy” Grantley Adams, there were some in the BLP who would want to resist giving ordinary members of the party the right to vote within the institution.
“I have the trust in you, the ordinary members of the BLP, to be able to make decisions in the interest of this party . . . ,” she said.
Mottley revealed that in 2006, when she was general secretary, she brought a draft constitution in an attempt to “modernize” the party and it was rejected. She added that she brought it back last year in a resolution at the BLP’s annual conference but that ended in confusion on the issue.
Mottley said she was not in politics looking for friendships.
“She stressed that what excited her about politics was the ability to do better for Barbados and to bring positive change to the lives of people.
“Half of the time that we were on the front page last year related to things that should never have happened had we had that new constitution in 2006.
Mottley called on BLP members to help her “stabilize” the party if they believed they had a moral duty to rescue the country from the despair into which she said it had been thrown by the Democratic Labour Party Government.
She said Barbados was crying out for leadership.
