BLP legacy: banned the use of harmful chemicals on golf courses and the use of leaded gasoline to protect the environment; initiated a waste separation project at Rockley, Bath, Silver Sands, Bay Street and Browne’s Beach; and sponsored the first National Consultation on the Environment to encourage citizens to protect the environment.
It is now widely accepted that the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) can do nothing to prevent the serious divisions within its leadership and ranks from continuing to break out in public with the increasing regularity the public has been witnessing.
Instances of such disunity and instability have become more frequent as the despondent DLP better understands the true extent of its rejection by an electorate constantly being impoverished by its calamitous policies and angered by the Dems’ casual serial abandonment of lavish promises it made in the 2008 election.
But such chronic infighting has intensified the prolonged lack of confidence and absence of hope among both Barbadians and would-be foreign investors in the future of the economy, in particular, and the economy, in general, under the embarrassingly poor David Thompson-Freundel Stuart led Government.
Far more serious
The latest and so far most serious bout of verbal slugging has pitted the self-perceived wily Stuart himself at direct cross purposes with the would-be hard-hitting Donville Inniss in their reactions to the much condemned public “Egyptian Jew” description by trade unionist Sir Roy Trotman, of a businessman with whom the Barbados Workers’ Union (BWU) had an industrial relations dispute.
Just over a week ago in the House of Assembly, Health Minister Inniss had in his most bare-knuckled manner called for enlightened labour movement leadership that would reject “guerilla warfare tactics that were more in keeping with the bahaviour of a raging bull in a china shop”.
Now, we have had the spectacle of Stuart publicly disagreeing with Inniss by declaring: “The comments complained of, I am still trying to find out where to locate the offence”, and Inniss in a complete turnaround saying: “All of us have said some things and used strong language which has not pleased people, so I am not going to get into that discussion.”
Inniss’ constituents are now wondering what could have happened to make their MP virtually eat his parliamentary words. Was it a case of PM Stuart jumping at the chance to flex his muscles with Inniss, one of the Eager Eleven, in much the same way he had slapped down another dissident, Ronald Jones, by no longer having him serve as Acting Prime Minister?
Meanwhile, we wait to see if another harsh Sir Roy critic, Richard Sealy, upgraded to act as Prime Minister and not among the Eager Eleven, will also soften his stance. Voluntarily or not.
But while some might find frequent internal DLP disagreements amusing, the reality is that they further distract and weaken an administration which in nearly five years has never shown itself convincingly in charge of the totality of the country’s affairs, thereby earning the dubious award of The Worst Government Ever.
Thankfully, the proven record of Owen Arthur and the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) gives confidence it can do far better.
•Beresford Leon Padmore is a pseudonym for the Democratic Labour Party.
