Earlier this year in Britain, a sitting Cabinet minister was made to resign after it was alleged he used the words “plebs” to describe a police officer during a confrontation.
In Barbados, parliamentarians can use the most vulgar language, insult each other in the most derogatory way for all and sundry to hear and allegedly brandish firearms in the vicinity of Parliament, and what happens? What exactly is the punishment for our parliamentarians again?
In this case, to hear the Barbados Labour Party’s (BLP) statement that the party was standing behind Dr William Duguid was disappointing.
A reprimand and even party-imposed discipline would have sent a strong message to everyone about the standards the party adheres to. We do not need to hear how good your standards are as much as we need to see them demonstrated.
The same goes for the Democratic Labour Party (DLP). Dr Duguid may be rightly under fire for his reported expletive but responsibility for the general misbehaviour displayed in Parliament should be taken by both sides.
At the same time, the use of vulgar language during a public broadcast is symptomatic of the continuing disdain in which the public is held by politicians. The ongoing and declining levels of accountability for the use of public funds and the refusal to declare assets are other examples of the fact that the ethos of representative democracy exists only as an ideal, with little practical reflection in the politics of the day.
It’s in that vein that I saw the long-awaited report of The Alexandra School Commission Of Inquiry, which was finally laid in the House of Assembly last Tuesday.
The most interesting revelation for me came not from the report, but in the suggestion by deputy BLP leader Dale Marshall that despite the money spent on the commission, the single most important recommendation could not be acted upon because the Public Service Commission would now have to conduct its own investigations and hearings into the matter.
It just keeps getting sillier and sillier.
I maintain that the core recommendations made in the report were self-evident from day one of this saga and were perhaps already hinted at in the inspection report of 2011. To think that after all this, we the public and the interested parties at Alexandra School will be made to endure and pay for another process to resolve this situation – that is, of course, if the revelation made by Mr Marshall proves to be true.
Even the rum drinker at the corner shop, in full stupor, would tell you that what has evolved in this case is like the dog trying to catch its own tail; we are just going round and round in circles.
I just have two questions: what phase are we in now, and who will be punished for this madness?
On another note, I must say a big thank you to Grace McMaskie and Harold Russell for drawing attention to the need for regulation to examine credit card interest rates charged by commercial banks. Moreover, I believe that this regulation should also extend to the slew of seemingly arbitrary bank charges which commercial banks heap on the public.
We are paying to make withdrawals at the automatic machines and teller, paying again if our balances are not maintained and every time we make a point of sale transaction. I have heard of one case where customers are charged if their balances go below a certain amount, but at the same time they are not paid interest on their saving accounts.
The banking sector is holding no risks and ensuring that all of its overheads come directly from customers’ pockets. Imagine a bank with 60 000 customers and each one paying $1.50 every time they make a withdrawal and another $1 every time they make a point of sale transaction, with little or no ongoing cost on each transaction for the bank.
Many of us, I know, do not fully understand the negative implications for our pockets and the positive impact on the coffers of commercial banks. Unfortunately, despite the appearance of competition in the sector, there is little incentive or punishment for banks to do better.
• Shantal Munro Knight is a development specialist and executive coordinator at the Caribbean Policy Development Centre. Email [email protected]
