Amidst the more open scrutiny which has attended the United States’ travails with its ongoing government shutdown, it is easily missed that the present challenges of the island of Barbados bear all the hallmarks of a government shutdown of its own.
While the United States’ shutdown has been occasioned by Congress’ inability to agree on a budget for financial year beginning October 1, due to opposition to the provisions of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), Barbados’ shutdown in contrast has been caused by the Government’s success in legislating significant reductions in social spending as part of a desperate response to a current account deficit.
Since the passage of the Budget therefore, almost daily, the major newspapers have been carrying news of crisis from one essential service to another, due to the blanket cuts which have been made across the Government service.
First, Government appeared unable to settle a nearly $200 million debt to the University of the West Indies (UWI), and has discontinued a long-standing policy of tax-funded university education. Then came news of challenges at the Transport Board in keeping its fleet in service. Most troubling has been the decision by pharmaceutical providers to withhold essential drugs from the Queen Elizabeth Hospital due to significant unpaid debts. Unpaid debt to UWI, Al Barrack, and others provide clear signs of shutdown.
Further indications of shutdown are seen in the freeze on public service hiring; the gradual elimination of temporary workers; the evidence of physical deterioration, with the inundation of “bush” and potholes; the spread of mosquito-borne diseases like dengue; and the new desperation among criminal elements, with news of open gunplay between rival gangs.
Interestingly, among neo-liberal ideologues, these developments are treated not as instances of government failure, but as indications that past social programmes cannot continue. Thus, as a solution to the failures emerging from government shutdown, they recommend even further state withdrawal.
Ironically, in the middle of huge unpaid debts to the university, one minister has declared that the “university is a business”. Had it been a business, the university’s response would have been similar to that of the pharmaceutical suppliers: a denial of service pending payment.
It is clear, therefore, that while Barbados faces significant economic challenges, the “hands in the air response” of Government’s non-clinical, butcher-like cuts in expenditure in critical areas of development is not the solution. What is required is a rational assessment of non-productive areas requiring cuts, accompanied by increased doses of state support where necessary.
Instead, the neo-colonial instinct of satisfying external agencies won the day, resulting in the pains of Government shutdown.
Sadly, far from giving the appearance of vigour, hard work and urgency, the law-making function has also been “shut down” due to an extended parliamentary recess expected to end today.
Given the absence of a growth orientation, continued shutdown is likely.
• Tennyson Joseph is a political scientist at the University of the West Indies Cave Hill Campus, specializing in regional affairs. Email tjoe2008@live.com.