The prime minister made a most important statement at Belleplaine last week. Speaking at a joint meeting of the St Andrew and St Joseph branches of his party, Mr Freundel Stuart told his eager audience that the “battle is on for the people’s minds”.
That statement has stayed with me because it is true, and because the implications of a full understanding of that pithy statement is necessary if we are to understand the nature of our democracy and what the next general election means.
The battle about which Mr Stuart speaks has already begun, for the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) is making the case that notwithstanding the international recession, a different policy might have resulted in a lesser burden on the Barbados economy and its people.
On the other hand, the Government has been preaching non-stop that the international recession has been wreaking havoc all over the world and that Barbados is better off than some other countries. Greece is frequently mentioned as one of those countries which is worse affected by the recession than Barbados.
The problem is that in any battle for the mind, truth is very often the first casualty and he who is better at the techniques of persuasion is usually the victor in any debate. It is for this reason that political advertising is often undertaken at great cost by political parties. The message which is frequently and persuasively put often attracts the attention of the hearer who is not listening; for listening and understanding is an exercise far removed from hearing simpliciter.
Here is one example from Mr Stuart’s speech. The Prime Minister said that the level of foreign reserves are at 18 weeks, which is above the recommended 12 weeks, and he argues that his party has been managing the country’s foreign reserves well.
But given that economic management is nowadays a live issue in elections, some diehard supporters of the Opposition Barbados Labour Party (BLP) will surely be reminding us that in January 2008, the foreign reserves stood at 36 weeks of imports and that the foreign reserves increased by $4 million only during the first quarter of this year.
Fierce
The battle for the minds of the people will be most fierce indeed!
The international business sector also presents another battleground for the attention of the people. The Owen Arthur administration has been a fierce defender of the international business sector, fighting off the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and others of that ilk in 2001. However, recent developments in the sector suggest that some of the larger companies have made plans to leave or have left our domicile. Is the blame for their departure to be laid at the feet of the Democratic Labour Party (DLP)? Was the Government too slow? Some people will recall an expression by a DLP insider that the Government was caught napping on the sector.
Another issue will be the Government’s insistence on negotiating double taxation agreements (DTAs) when almost all of our competitors were negotiating the much simpler tax information exchange agreements (TIEAs). We have lately changed the policy and have begun also to negotiate TIEAs in addition to DTAs.
So was the initial hardline policy insistence on this a mistake, and has this policy been a factor in the decision of the companies to leave? The economic importance of the sector will mean that fierce arguments will be posed and counterposed against a clear need for pre-emptive action if we are going to make a success of the development of this important foreign exchange-earning sector.
There will be more and much more that will be said during the campaign, but it is obvious that Stuart fully recognizes there will be a pitched battle for the minds of the voters one day coming soon. The key question is: will the people hear only, or will they also listen?
• Ezra Alleyne is an attorney at law and former Deputy Speaker of the House of Assembly. Email [email protected]
