Nam tua res agitur, paries cum proximus ardet. It is your own interest that is at stake when your neighbour’s wall is ablaze. – Horace
“Harry, you have to give Jack his jacket. The Minister of Health does not make changes unilaterally. There is a Cabinet and what the minister espouses is the deliberations and decisions of the Cabinet. The minister is to be commended for implementing the measures that Cabinet as a whole has responsibility for.
“Furthermore, it is to the minister’s credit that he is prepared to give time to see the full implication of the new measures.
“The question as to whether or not someone who has come to Barbados and lived for many years without regularizing his status is not a concern of the Ministry of Health. If you jump into the Careenage without being able to swim, you would drown. Prepare yourself to be a legitimate citizen and any benefit for the legitimate citizen will be yours.
“Therefore it is incumbent on people not properly registered to make sufficient noise that the Government would hear to ensure that their documentation is expeditiously handled. Frighten!
“That the Immigration Department might be tardy in processing documentation may be a bureaucratic problem and, if so, we have to ask why. Staff shortage? Fix it. Instructions from Cabinet through the relevant minister so as to slow down the number of people being regularized? Is this a direct instruction from Cabinet?
“Thus you cannot accuse the Minister of Health of neoliberalism. Is he not acting on the instructions of Cabinet who has collective responsibility for policy? Therefore when you are angry with the Minister of Health, your anger should rightfully be directed at the entire Cabinet.
“When the $100 available to the Cabinet has to be divided up and the Minister of Health gets $30 he has to spend that money to the best of his ability. Those who have a grievance should say how much better the $30 should be spent. External forces may be part of the problem, but the $100 has to serve many pots.
“This being the case, Mr Harry,” said the Jamaican female politely, “can you give a reason why the Minister of Health’s efforts have to be sideswiped by the Prime Minister without letting the population know that he, the Prime Minister, and all of his Cabinet must take responsibility for the measures that people are complaining about; and, most importantly, that the new measures are the collective wisdom of a Cabinet over which he presides.
“Furthermore, he should say that he commends the efforts of the Minister of Health for working as best he could with the $30 available to him and not to flinch in the wake of critical remarks coming from the Wild Coot and other armchair nincompoops.”
At this remark, I held my head in shame and was anxious to continue shopping in the hardware store.
“Don’t run, Mr Harry,” said the voice politely. “There is a right way and a wrong way. Do not leave the Minister of Health in no man’s land. Do not give the impression, by omission, that you will correct the mistakes of the minister by reversing or dampening the effects of his decision.
“If you feel that the minister has contravened the dictates of the Cabinet, fire him. But if, as I suspect, he is effecting the guidelines of the Cabinet, shield him and hold an umbrella over his head and protect him from the sun. After all, you still need his vote if perchance the Government happens to be re-elected.
“Unregistered citizens’ beef should be with the Minister Responsible for Immigration. Let him say what is the holdup for people regularizing their status, some of whom have been waiting 15 years. Mr Harry, do not blame the Minister of Health. He was prepared to meet the people in an informal forum. He is a brave man.”
