THIS DAY, the first of January in this year of our Lord 2014, takes all Barbadians into a new 12-month cycle which foreshadows not only the accustomed uncertainty of a different calendric arrangement, but ironically also the certainty of a distressing period of unpleasant national adjustment.
The dawn of a new year signifies a beginning, the origin of an unfamiliar future; a period of eventualities, both bearable and unbearable.
Thus this newspaper is of the view that this New Year, more than any in recent memory, imposes upon Barbadians a cauldron of subtle ambiguity.
This morning therefore let us not be deceived into the falsehood of anticipating a kindling glow of illusory success or any magical igniting of flares of prosperity in the New Year by the fireworks in the skies of faraway Sydney, Australia, nor indeed of their imitation on the beach off nearby Hilton Hotel. These pyrotechnics merely mask for a fleeting moment, the burning fear of an anxious population. The reality of a melancholy unease over the prospect of unspeakable sacrifice will be our people’s contemplation of the 2014 horizon.
We have now closed the chapter on a tumultuous 2013 that began with the great expectation which general elections portend, and we have moved into a sullen mood as thousands of public servants are in limbo over their fate as large numbers face the prospect of a jobless New Year.
This newspaper is of the view we need more than New Year sentimentality, holiday piety and unbridled patriotism at this crucial hour. The issues are too great to be obscured by eloquence of language or the nostalgic recall of times and people past.
We cannot prevent or even postpone our indisputable duty to confront what 2014 forebodes. The time has arrived for us to frankly face up to our serious national condition, born out of a reluctance many years ago to reform our economy, but now thwarted by a prolonged lack of effective leadership, so short of a sense of priorities as to put at risk the unthinkable – compromising the value of our treasured Barbados dollar.
In recent days our seemingly recalcitrant political leadership has allowed an eager but tinkering trade union lobby to believe there is some painless escape from our dreadful abyss. There is now no stroke of mathematical genius that will wipe away a fiscal deficit of $511 million; or end foreign exchange leakage that demands desperate and expensive international borrowing; or reverse a revenue decline that hovers around ten per cent, or arrest runaway expenditure that stubbornly defies prudence.
While we all hope for full national concurrence on matters of this sort, we need to appreciate our crisis in its true light – the pending of a potentially severe and most extensive calamity. Tokenism of voluntary pay cuts; adjustment of bus fares for children and providing incentives for the collection of outstanding VAT will simply not cut it at this stage. The time for such measures had their last hope in the August Budget.
When on the fateful Friday, December 13, our burdened Minister of Finance delivered a statement to Parliament, it was the final working day for the team of International Monetary Fund experts visiting Barbados for an Article 1V Consultation. The timing of his speech was no accident and the measures contained therein were no band-aid solutions. Yet they are being seen by some as “one option”. They are not. And at this point we attempt to negotiate them at our economic peril.
Minister of Finance Christopher Sinckler was correct: “This route is now unavoidable.” Indeed, he went on to say: “Should this situation be allowed to continue unchecked, it will undermine the macro fundamentals that support our firm and unshakeable policy of maintaining a fixed exchange peg with the US dollar.”
Any rushed latter-hour effort to modify these cuts or to cover them with candy wrapping will leave our country with no alternative as we will slip deeper towards a bended knee posture before international financial institutions, with their authority to determine what sacrifices will be inflicted upon our citizens when we need their money.
Our late trade union leader and National Hero Sir Frank Walcott had an “unparliamentary” word for the mollycoddling that passes for “other options” now being bandied about at media conferences and in the Press in recent days. He called it “pussyfooting”.
THE NATION urges the alternative: strong, courageous, decisive leadership from the front.
THE NATION invites Mr Freundel Stuart as Prime Minister of Barbados and first among equals, to assert control of our destiny in the resolute manner expected of those who wear the mantle of leadership. We remind him that the greatest single asset in the character of a successful leader should be a desire that is so strong that it does not admit of anything that will obfuscate or distract. Such is the requirement on the shoulder of Prime Minister Stuart as we enter 2014 this morning.
THE NATION invites the acknowleged political head of our country to be forthright and frank with our people, recognising that as firm craftsmen of our fate, as well strict guardians of our heritage, this generation of Barbadians is prepared to write its name on history’s page through necessary sacrifice. But we must be led and inspired to act in a timely manner.
Let this first day, this first month, this start of 2014, be the commencement of something special for this country of ours. And let it start at the top.