FORMER MINISTER OF TOURISM Noel Lynch tonight called on Prime Minister Freundel Stuart to “pass the law” to make public officials declare their assets.
On a Barbados Labour Party (BLP) platform mounted in Haggatt Hall, St Michael, he referred to the much-talked-about proposed integrity legislation now before the House of Assembly and called for all candidates to declare their assets before the next general election, constitutionally due in 2013.
“[Prime Minister] Stuart, pass the legislation,” Lynch, the BLP’s candidate for St Michael South, urged.
Lynch dubbed tonight’s meeting a return to the scene of the biggest crime committed against the people of Barbados.
He said that in 2008, during the election campaign, late Prime Minister David Thompson came to Haggatt Hall and subjected politicians within the rank and file of the BLP to innuendo.
“That was the greatest tragedy in elective politics,” Lynch charged. “We suffered through Thompson and his innuendos when Mia [Mottley] brought a no-confidence [motion] as Opposition Leader in the then Prime Minister [Thompson] in 2009, over the CLICO issue,” he added.
He said the opposition back then was sending a warning to the people of Barbados.
“But the Government laughed…. Stuart [Then Attorney General] … said it should be laughed at,” Lynch told the gathering.
“They should all stand condemned for this whole CLICO issue. They had a chance to deal with this issue when it first started to unfold in Trinidad and Tobago. But they laughed at us…. They should be put out [as the Government],” he suggested.
Lynch told the crowd that the public needed to pressure Government to call elections.
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