The?Barbados Labour Party (BLP) has not taken a position on the privatization of the Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), but Editor Emeritus of THE NATION Harold Hoyte thinks the Bees are skirting the issue.
During the NATION?Talkback town hall meeting at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre Wednesday night, former Leader of the Opposition Mia Mottley said she and party leader Owen Arthur had gone on record as indicating that Barbados “was asset rich and cash poor”.
“What we have to look at and what we have to decide are which are those that are best to be able to not just divest but create an entrepreneurial and economic platform that will allow people to be enfranchised,” she said.
“Every Government will come on a platform and say that they are against divestment, privatization, but yet, every single Government since Independence has been involved in some level of divestment in this country.”
Mottley said it would be unwise for her to give an answer on CBC when the party had not committed itself on a policy position.
“The Barbados Labour Party has not sat down yet and said: CBC, ABC, DBC, GBC, so I am not going to commit a party to something outside of the party discipline.
“If you want to make policy without looking at the data, then you make dangerous policy. We give the country the commitment that we will review the data, but we recognize that we are an asset rich country that is cash poor.”
Hoyte, however, told the audience he understood Mottley’s broader point, but felt that both the BLP and the Democratic Labour Party (DLP), have been “playing” with CBC over the years.
He said it suited both major parties to use the state-owned CBC for their own purpose when they were in power.
“They (both parties) have a position in Government that is completely opposite to the position that they have out of Government, and I have lived long enough to see both of them promise that when they get elected, they will privatise CBC and when they get elected, they conveniently walk away from it because they are able to use it for their own good.”
Hoyte said he was disappointed that Mottley could not have been more definitive on the position of privatisation of CBC.
“I therefore believe that the Barbados Labour Party has enough information to be able to make a decision and I am disappointed that Mia has been so cagey in her response,” Hoyte said.
“It tells me very, very clearly, that the BLP is prepared for business as usual as far as CBC?is concerned.” (MK)
