BLP legacy: Worked with Barbados Light & Power to establish a ten-megawatt wind-energy farm to be built in St Lucy and created a $10 million Energy Efficient Audit And Retrofit Fund for the tourism sector.
THE MASSIVE CROWD who thronged the Prior Park Roundabout in St James last Sunday night audibly gasped on hearing Barbados Labour Party (BLP) speakers provide horrifying details of the putrid mess into which the governance of Barbados has been transformed as a result of the latest scandals in nearly five years of coarse political scheming by this Democratic Labour Party (DLP) Government.
For in that time Barbadians would have witnessed the DLP’s systematic staining and demolition of our reputation for generations of the high-quality governance that once drove St Vincent and the Grenadines’ Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves to memorably describe Barbados as the “best governed Black country in the world”.
The public was shocked and disturbed over the specifics of what they heard about the shameful metal dump at Hoyte’s Village deal and the brutal assault on the integrity of the Royal Barbados Police Force, both at the hands of the DLP.
They also quickly recalled earlier highly questionable DLP actions indicating its shameless addiction to contempt for the rule of law, including the illegal appointment of an executive chairman at the Barbados Water Authority, the law breaking sale of diesel at the Transport Board, misuse of NIS funds, special changing of the law to accommodate a specific appointment and ministerial chairmanship of meetings of a statutory board.
But never could we have imagined that a Government would have flouted, ignored and broken long-standing conventions, regulations and laws to allow one business to activate a static metal dump, while ignoring the feelings and health of thousands nearby.
No wonder Senator Kerrie Symmonds so passionately opposes the DLP’s refusal to consult residents and its incredible agreement to swap 19.2 acres of Government land at Bagatelle for nine acres at River Bay, again at the law’s expense.
Equally alarming was former Attorney General Dale Marshall’s clinical uncovering of the DLP’s political misdeeds over the leadership of the Force and promotions, and the very real danger such machinations posed to the highly respected institution’s unity and the maintenance of social stability, and the urgent need for a return to well established legal ways and standards.
With many years of being in charge of town planning and defence and security matters, and as Prime Minister for 14 years, Opposition Leader Owen Arthur convincingly proved that the DLP’s consistent lack of both worthwhile intellectual leadership and respect for the rule of law had created dysfunctional and broken Government, an unsatisfactory state Barbadians are not prepared to maintain since they see hope and a brighter future in the BLP’s crusade to Rescue, Rebuild And Restore our native land.
• Beresford Leon Padmore is a pseudonym for the Barbados Labour Party.
