Let us crusade to rescue Barbados from the Democratic Labour Party Government, says Opposition Leader Owen Arthur.
That was his message to former Opposition Leader Mia Mottley last night at a Barbados Labour Party (BLP) St Philip North branch meeting at Hilda Skeene Primary School, as he stressed he was not sitting down at home panting for leadership.
Just last Sunday Mottley had indicated that she would be leading a crusade for change within the BLP; a system of “one-man, one-vote” to elect party officers; and a revised constitution.
But Arthur noted that rather than divisiveness, the BLP’s crusade should be to mobilise and concentrate on winning the next general election from a Government whose leadership he described as “leaping about in the dark”.
He said Mottley had been elected to the leadership of the party through the same process by which he was elected.
He noted the officers of the party were selected by a delegate process that was used by democracies such as the United States of America. Arthur said the system called for by Mottley had not been employed by the founding fathers of the party and National Heroes Sir Grantley and Sir Hugh.
Arthur revealed that the same issue within the BLP’s constitution was discussed in 1990 when Sir Henry Forde was party leader and a determination was made that the party’s selection of a political leader had to be consistent with the Constitution of Barbados.
He said within the context of “one-man, one-vote”, issues such as the status of members who joined had to be looked at.
He said there were those who joined because they believed in a party and then there were those who were coerced to join to support a particular individual.
