I will respond to economic issues when I become a Member of the House, with your wishes and your pleasure, and it is at that time that I will lock horns with the Prime Minister of Barbados. – Economist Clyde Mascoll, maiden speech in the December 1996 St Michael North-West by-election campaign.
IT WAS ALMOST 16 YEARS ago that the bright young economist, then in the Opposition Democratic Labour Party (DLP), added the imagery of “locking horns” with the rampant Prime Minister Owen Arthur to the political lexicon of Barbados.
Here was an opportunity for all Barbados to benefit from the training, knowledge and forensic skills of two of the country’s best known economists served up on the highest stage in the land – the House of Assembly – and we did.
Fast forward to the impending 2012 Budget debate this month and the country is apparently being primed for a clash between Arthur, now Leader of the Opposition, and a brash young Minister of Finance Chris Sinckler, a self-confessed novitiate in the disciplines of economics and public finance, but who says he can read and take advice from the experts.
Sinckler, who is being promoted as the preferred DLP leader to Prime Minister Freundel Stuart, has been taunting Arthur into accepting a challenge to debate the issues facing the economy ever since he assumed responsibility for the finance portfolio.
The question is: will Arthur rise to the bait?
Sinckler’s strategy seems calculated to initiate a showdown with Arthur in the House in which he can speak directly across the floor man-to-man to best the man who held the portfolio of Minister of Finance for 14 years and thereby try to raise his own standing within the DLP and in the wider national constituency.
His latest attempt came this past Tuesday in the House when he threw down an invective-laden gauntlet to Arthur, whom he scathingly described as “yesterday’s man trying to operate in today’s world”, and promised a major debate on key issues such as the extension of the 17.5 per cent value added tax increase, the 50 per cent rise in the excise tax and the possible return of the tax-free allowances for travel and entertainment.
“He and I are going to wrestle in here when the time comes,” the combative Sinckler told the House. “Believe what I tell you. Stay tuned to a channel near you. In fact, it doesn’t matter whether he’s here or not here because I am going to demonstrate to this Parliament that the honourable member for St Peter should not be leading this country and certainly not this Parliament. Time is coming. Don’t panic.”
Sharp-tongued
On the surface, the challenge seems almost too tempting for the sharp-tongued Arthur to resist given the relish with which he had accepted Mascoll’s invitation to “lock horns” as they did in the final televised debate in May 2003 ahead of the general election, and in one memorable debate in the House over suggestions that the former Prime Minister had at one stage supported a devaluation.
However, quite apart from the fact that Arthur is not likely to allow himself to be used by Sinckler as a way to present himself to the electorate as a credible alternative leader to Prime Minister Stuart, the 28-year veteran St Peter MP has apparently set himself upon a trajectory to rise above the fray of bitter partisan exchanges and claim the status of “statesman” in a field with mostly inexperienced players.
But it is going to be difficult for him to do so from the position of Leader of the Opposition and political leader of the Barbados Labour Party (BLP), more particularly with a win-at-all-costs election campaign to fight in the coming weeks.
Political campaigns in Barbados have demonstrated over the years that they are not for the faint of heart, and there are few politicians still standing today who have shown an ability – some say a very strong liking – to get into the trenches with their opponents, as Arthur has done since the infamous first St Peter by-election of 1984.
Still, Arthur seemed to signal his intent and resolve to rise above that level now, first, by asking Mia Mottley to present the Opposition’s reply to the 2012-2013 Estimates and now he’s prepared to do so for the June Budget, which means that Sinckler’s responses must perforce be directed across the floor of the House at someone who is not even among the top leadership of the BLP’s parliamentary group.
Secondly, some observers have seen evidence of Arthur’s incline towards the statesman’s role in his comments from the Big Interview in last week’s SUNDAY SUN, and again during his contribution to last Tuesday’s debate in the House on the resolution to approve Protocol VI of the Social Partnership.
So the onus is going to be on Sinckler to try to breach Arthur’s resolve, and his aggressive approach even in ordinary debates is likely to be ratcheted up during the Budget presentation when he goes after the former Prime Minister.
Very rarely is the type of hostility exhibited by Sinckler towards Arthur seen in the House. It appears to go way beyond the expected partisan politics and borders perilously on the more personal realm, which some have been suggesting is not good for either man, and worse, for the game of politics itself as it is so distinctively played in Barbados.
Nevertheless, it is not beyond the bounds of possibility that Sinckler may use the opportunity to take a leaf out of the same Arthur’s playbook and use the televised wrap-up session of the Budget debate to take his trashing of the former Minister of Finance directly into the homes of thousands of Barbadians just as they are sitting down to dinner in front of their television sets.
Bon appetit, voters!
• Albert Brandford is an independent political correspondent. Email [email protected]
