HAVE THE PRESENT EFFORTS to mend the ills of manufacturing, control importation, highlight agriculture and fix the shortcomings of the international financial services come too late?
Does it now smack of panic, especially in light of the findings of the last poll which, according to the Government, aught to be ignored? Even if we want to curse Phidippides, the messenger, the message is still there and the messenger perhaps has run a marathon from Sparta to Athens to warn the Bajan people. Sad!
One gets the impression that although the powers that be are not listening or reading newspapers or reports on important issues, the recent poll has galvanized our representatives into action. Or is it that the economic outlook is becoming worse? Just check Standard & Poor’s!
By the time elections are constitutionally due, the average citizen may be so badly off and the average business so deeply in the red, the average hotel and restaurant may have laid off staff, the Central Bank may have printed so much money, and Trinidad will be so deeply entrenched in the Barbados economy as to warrant a seat in Parliament and bring us closer to federation, that losing an election may be inevitable.
The best chance the Government has of retaining a majority in Parliament is to call an early election. But suppose supporters were to opt for five years of the same punishment, the saying that a people deserve the government they elect would be a self-fulfilling punishment.
There is no doubt that mistakes were made from inception in 2008. Even if the Government campaigned leading up to the last election for jobs and more jobs, the world crisis should have given notice of hard times to come. Even if the difficulties had not been foreseen, a continuous foray into excesses at the Central Bank and National Insurance Scheme, mainly for wage support, and into the pockets of the very ones who had appointed them was, and is, folly.
I learnt at school that “a breach of common sense is a breach of school rules”. But then, Harrison College is not regarded as a scion of excellence but the playground of the privileged.
The handling of the problems that have confronted this Government leave much to be desired; they have been highlighted in this column ad nauseam: the CLICO issue, the invasion of the resources of those who need medication from the Drug Service, the IOUs scattered among overseas universities, doctors with medical degrees who find it difficult to practise for lack of internship, the heartless handling of CARICOM citizens, the inept efforts to resolve the Alexandra school issue, the bad example set by ignoring the Barrack debt, and Government’s covert efforts not to share vital information affecting the average Barbadian, to name just a few.
How can the powers that be chalk up the kind of deficit we are confronted with, agree with the redefining of this deficit by the Central Bank, yet surreptitiously pursue an IMF-type programme, then face a public who has been universally proclaimed as keenly discerning and intelligent? The old saying “duppy know who to frighten” comes to mind.
Maybe we will be frightened into going to the polls when the poll has said that further delay will warrant a loss at the polls. The funny thing is that in 2007 the poll was right and the prognosis was a change in Government. Now the poll is wrong and must be ignored. Can you imagine such convoluted thinking?
But, Wild Coot, what is the alternative? We just had reasons to change the Government. Would we be swapping black dog for monkey? Is the alternative slate the same slate that we had? Oh, for an NDP!
• Harry Russell is a banker. Email quijote70@gmail.com.