AT THE END OF THE YEAR JUST SPENT, a few things stand out as crucially urgent to be addressed in 2012. Most prominent of them are Prime Minister Freundel Stuart’s handle on the concerns of members of his own Cabinet in an election year, and proper and lasting appeasement of those traumatized and/or inconvenienced by the tragic Arch Cot cave collapse.
The political scientists among us, seemingly preoccupied with Mr Stuart’s lack of or tardiness in “action” against or “change” among the Eager Eleven, measure the Prime Minister’s leadership effectiveness on it, as though absolute control of his Cabinet is the do-or-die option for the continued good governance we have become accustomed to.
While it may be satisfying to some of the Democratic Labour Party faithful to have some of the heads of the Eager Eleven rolling around on the ground, there cannot be such deep self-consumption in revenge that the party loyal forget their leader is faced with a balancing act in which there are more compelling competing priorities.
Mr Stuart and whichsoever colleagues he keeps with him in Cabinet must get down to the task of continuing to empower families and communities in these unchanged international tough economic times; offering more meaningfulness to young unemployed people and to pensioners; quieting the anxieties of the CLICO and British American Insurance Co. (BAICO) victims; and granting incentives to businesses that jobs might be preserved, while still tackling the national budget deficit that has been like an albatross around the neck of the Barbados economy.
Not too long ago, Minister of Finance Chris Sinckler promised an early announcement of good news for the sufferers of CLICOnitis. It obviously has not been forthcoming. Mrs June Fowler, chairperson of the Barbados Policyholders And Investors Alliance, is not amused and wants an investigation into the auditing of the operations of CLICO itself and BAICO.
It would be premature to say closure has at last come to the Arch Cot tragedy; but at least we have got a Coroner’s official verdict: a tragic accident by the hand of man.
Coroner Faith Marshall-Harris’ observations of “human intervention by way of poor land use” and poor record-keeping of caves and land use in Barbados, and recommendation that “geotechnical investigation [be] mandatory in places where there is some history of fragility” of property ought to be taken seriously by all Government departments they relate to and acted upon with dispatch. Lawsuits are said to be coming in the wake of the Coroner’s ruling. Litigation could be long and tedious, a fresh burden of anguish possibly in the making.
Barbadians will be looking to Mr Stuart and his Government for words of solace and continued inspiration of confidence; to step up and deliver in all that has been transpiring. They will not embrace lethargy.
