I had planned in this final column before Thursday’s elections to review the parties’ manifestoes but up to the time of drafting at midday Thursday, neither was available.
I will therefore write a mixed bag, including some of the relevant issues against the background of three principal areas identified in an earlier column:
1) The 33 per cent rise in the cost of living since 2008 when it was identified as three times the point of major government emphasis.
2) The “Eager 11’s” concern about “drift” and “inertia” in the leadership of Prime Minister Freundel Stuart.
3) Failure to satisfy the concerns of the 35 000 CLICO and British American Insurance Insurance Company policyholders.
As far as No. 3 is concerned, far from offering the long-suffering words and actions of comfort and hope, Minister of Finance Chris Sinckler launched a vicious and denigrating attack on the lady leading the policyholders’ fight. I am surprised at the poor taste of the abominable language used, proving hell hath no fury like Sinckler’s articulated wrath.
I made the point that even discounting 25 per cent of the policyholders voting, 75 per cent or 24 500 voting against the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) would threaten defeat. Mr Sinckler’s insulting language will guarantee a heavy turnout at the polls.
There is a story making the rounds of a long-time DLP supporter saying she is through with that party and begging a friend for a red shirt. The negative spin-off among women voters will increase when they rationalize that the abused lady was only acting courageously on behalf of citizens feeling the pain where it hurts most.
I need add nothing to the increased cost of living after the unfulfilled promises of 2008. The pain is a daily way of life. As for the concerns of the “Eager 11”, the felt need to present a united front going to the polls will be seen by the electorate for what it is.
I was surprised by the lamentations of Mr Carl “Alf” Padmore that he was advised not to emcee the big DLP presentation of candidates in Passage Road last week. Why was he, a middle ranking employee of a statutory board, prevented from taking part in the event when every night the CEOs of the Barbados Investment and Development Corporation (BIDC) and Urban Development Commission speak on platforms?
Different strokes for different folks? Both are former defeated DLP candidates. Amazingly, the transition of Dr Leroy McClean from Toronto Consul General to the BIDC was made without any media notification. Nowhere in the media has any announcement been made of his replacement, permanent or temporary.
It is amazing that silence surrounds so much in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. For example, since former Central Bank Governor Dr Marion Williams was appointed Ambassador in Geneva in July 2010, I cannot recall hearing or seeing in the media anything that she has said or done in that post.
The same is true of the Ambassador in Brussels, Mr Sam Chandler. Not a word since his appointment in January 2010. Indeed, the work of most of our principal representatives across the world is wrapped in silence. This is a departure from the norm and can hardly be considered to be in the public interest.
Surely we, the people, should be informed through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of what is achieved abroad by our various foreign emissaries. Not to inform us when there is a personnel change is bad enough, but to cloak our diplomats’ work in silence is unpardonable. The public should know what we are getting for our money.
So too the failure to bring the principals abroad home from time to time to update them first-hand on recent developments and meet major figures of interest. Why has there not been a meeting of heads of missions and posts since the 2008 change of Government?
Since the elections are one week away when this column is being written and four days away when being read, a number of persons have solicited my opinion on the outcome. I have told my friends my predictions based on my interactions and reading of the last poll, but they are not for public consumption here.
I saw a daily caller to the call-in programmes on CBC-TV last week predicting a 25-5 landslide for the DLP. He must have arrived in Barbados from another planet. He reminded me so much of the Fox News political commentator Dick Morris, a dyed-in-the-wool Republican who before the elections predicted a Romney landslide.
Morris’ repeated prediction was sweet music to the ears of Sean Hannity and those at that media house who eagerly wanted a one-term President Obama. When the electorate turned Morris on his head, he was summoned to the station and sent packing.
Meanwhile, I await the people’s vote.
• Peter Simmons, a social scientist, is a former diplomat.
