BLP legacy: rebuilt Independence Square; built the Lewis-Wickham Boardwalk; converted the Chamberlain (“Swing”) Bridge into a new “lift” bridge thereby reopening the Inner Careenage to recreational and commercial development; and started the massive dredging and redevelopment of the Constitution River.
Not that it was needed, but the Democratic Labour Party’s inaction, incompetence and mismanagement that positioned Barbados for its investment grade to be reduced to that of shameful “junk” has been but the latest painful reconfirmation for Barbadians as to why the vast majority of them are justified in withdrawing support for, and trust in, the ruling party.
And many of us are still shell-shocked from experiencing the traumatic climax of the arrogant and insensitive actions of the Thompson and Stuart Governments which, in less than five years, have humiliated a people who through centuries of prudent, responsible, informed and competent management of their affairs, had earned regional and international acclaim for consistent growth and development of their economy, society and people despite limitations in size and natural resources.
Now, because of the DLP, that once illustrious image of Barbados has been reduced to tatters and ashes. For Barbados has been toppled from the lofty and enviable heights of being hailed as the “#1 developing country in the world”, a “country that punches above its weight” and the “world’s smallest developed country”, to the despairing depths of being the laughing stock of others who had been longing for such a fall.
Now, it is the early 1990s under the DLP all over again. Then, to make matters infuriatingly worse, we have had to suffer the indignity of a Government still obsessively trying to shun its responsibility by Prime Minister Freundel Stuart not speaking directly to the public as reasonably expected in unprecedented dire circumstances, downplaying the importance of the downgrade by Standard & Poor’s only to have Finance Minister Chris Sinckler belatedly concede that it could impact the economy.
But the DLP’s stance became even more sordid. One, by trying to make people believe that this latest downgrade was “no big thing” since Barbados had been downgraded before, while desperately hoping that people would not realize that never, ever before had we been downgraded to junk; the other pathetic ploy was to want to have the public believe that Central Bank Governor Dr Delisle Worrell was “The Bank” and therefore criticism of him would destroy the image of the institution and the staff there. Except that no criticism has been directed at the rest of the professional staff, none of whom became publicly identified with Government policy.
Meanwhile, Owen Arthur and his BLP team are patriotically continuing to provide the quality leadership not forthcoming from the DLP, rooted in our record of putting money in people’s pockets.
We thank the thousands gathered at Black Rock last Sunday for more insights into the better future to be created by mission Rescue, Rebuild And Restore.
• Beresford Leon Padmore is a pseudonym for the Barbados Labour Party.
